There are critical bedrocks to optimising the sales process and systems and a well-designed CRM software tool can be specified to support them and then managed to drive sales team productivity and return…………….. and these considerations become important for selecting the most appropriate tool. Customer classification and coverage; prospect profiling and penetration; infrastructure to support […]

(Too) Many sales organisations undertake a CRM strategy and associated hefty investment ……. and then when the software vendors come on site to undertake their (too) often “generic customisation”, the purchasing sales organisation is jolted into a process that forces them to retro-think about the functionality and the process support that can be derived from […]

Picking up from the end of last month’s discussion on this topic of “The sales process and the order-to-delivery process” we move onto : Take-out # 2 – manage, monitor and measure your sales process as a process, underpinned by the same business rigours and disciplines as the other business processes that we somehow think […]

This is the last in this mini-series of monthly bulletins in which I will write about the virtues of applying elite level sporting measurement (AFL, NRL) to the B2B business setting.  I used the term “vertical Sales scoreboard” to describe how each member of the team should be equipped thatrepresents an integrated set of indicators […]

Last month I wrote about the virtues of applying elite level sporting measurement (AFL, NRL) to the B2B sales setting.  I want to extend  the theme this month and enrich the point I made regarding the value of rigorous, objective and scientific measurement for the sales organisation.  And keep some link to my elite level […]

How did your football/rugby team go last weekend? I am a hapless AFL Richmond supporter, so many weekends I cannot bear to turn to the sports pages to read the obituary. When the Tigers do crack it for a win (even a draw is cause for celebration for Richmond fans), I can’t wait to rip […]

Last month we commenced this escapade on differentiating sales team optimisation (StO) and sales exec effectiveness (SeE), by focussing on sales team optimisation. So let’s differentiate this month! By contrast, SeE includes the identified, tailored team and individual training and skills development programs required to capitalise on the optimised team environment. A synergistic effect often […]

Just two different and complicated ways of saying the same thing?  More obfuscation created by consultants to assist Heads of Sales de-clutter what did not need to be cluttered in the first place? Well, not really.  A rich understanding and appreciation of these business imperatives turns out to be one of those chicken and egg […]

Spin Selling……………Solution selling………….Conceptual selling…………….New conceptual selling………Professional selling skills……….the list goes on and on.  The Sales sections of bookstores are loaded with them.  Since the mid 1980’s, professional selling started to garner enough respect to be studied and written about.  The Huthwaite group were possibly the early pioneers, and they observed and captured data to analyse […]

Previous monthly discourses have touched on the critical importance of visit activity rate benchmarks as part of the solution to the problem of sales team productivity and RoI. This month’s topic will return, albeit from a different perspective. We have already seen that the true cost of a Sales Exec visit when viewed from a […]