So, you have run your annual StO analytics. Thereby, amongst a range of productivity driving outputs, you will have refreshed which customers belong in your top class for targeting, your mid class and your lower class.

Putting aside the granularity of the math around your methodology, you should also have essentially produced 3 sub-classes within your top class:

  • Your tier 1 loyals (where you enjoy high share-of-wallet)
  • Your tier 1 stars (medium share-of –wallet)
  • Your tier 1 cultivates (low share-of-wallet)

Now the question becomes how to differentiate the visit program to be executed by your sales execs accordingly. This is where another specific piece of your StO analytics kicks in – your position-in-market (PIM) market share. Amongst a bunch of useful interpretations, this plots your relative market share strength and your growth status, against competitors. As you bring together these two critical StO analytical outputs to address the question of setting visit program frequencies in accordance with customer classifications, the starting default position for most mature market B2B sales organisations is the ubiquitous…

  • Monthly for tier 1 …lets say 11 pa … as for most of us no visits occur between Xmas and Australia Day
  • Quarterly for tier 2 customers
  • Zero or 1 pa for tier 3 customers

Be careful … this is a just a useful starting point and needs to be tailored. To begin this tailoring, if your current market share position on the pim places you in the dominant player 80/20 top end of the pim shape-of-curve, then you should investigate a weighted visit program frequency across your 3 tier 1 sub-classes

  • 2-2-1, ie: 11pa for your Loyals and also for your stars, but 6pa for your cultivates

If you are placed anywhere else on the pim curve,ie in the midrange 10/10 where 10% of competitors enjoy a combined 10% market share or even lower down the curve where 70% competitors enjoy a combined 10% market share, but your share is on the rise, investigate a weighted regime across your loyals/stars/cultivates of …

  • 1-2-2, ie: 6pa -> 11pa -> 11pa

But if your market share is static or in decline investigate …

  • 2-2-1 weighting

So that provides the basis for the quantification of  your visit frequency regime for sales exec program execution.  Of course there is the qualitative development of what they will do in those visits.

But that is another story on its own.

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