5 Parameters to judge Sales Performance

It is customary to look at sales productivity in terms of no of units sold or the value of billing done or the volume of money collected from the market. Sales performance management is something beyond productivity in sales.

What are the parameters that should be used to monitor Sales Performance?

1.     The robustness of the sales funnel

a.       Lead to contact ratio

b.      Contact to Opportunity ratio

c.       Opportunity to Proposal ratio

d.      Proposal to Sales Negotiation ratio

e.       Negotiation to Closed orders ratio

2.     The activity levels at the feeding point of the sales funnel

a.       BTL activity (Points of congregation leads to incremental leads into the sales funnel. E.g. exhibitions, seminars, knowledge forums etc.)

b.      Secondary sources of data collection for the Target Group (TG) defined. E.g. Internet, Directories, Competitors data,
sales training etc.

3.     The systematic process of customer relationship management (CRM)

a.       Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI)

b.      Lapsation

c.       Stickiness

d.      Basket Migration

e.       Average Basket Size

f.        Average Basket Value

g.       Recency, Frequency, Monetary Value

4.     The Sales Dashboard

a.       No of units sold

b.      Value of units sold

c.       Cost of acquisition of new clients

d.      Cost of retaining old clients

e.       Cost of ensuring customer loyalty

f.        Omnipresence quotient in the market for the brand

5.      Opening new market segments for new business development

a.       Identify new market segments

b.      Conduct POC (Proof of concept)

c.       Demand Forecasting

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Salespersons must be Influencers

Are you a good Influencer? Rate yourself by answering the following questions. You may refer to the notes at the end of this blog to facilitate your answers sales growth.

1. Which of the following do you do to ensure that you develop Persuasive skills in yourself?

2. Sit on the customers mind like a bee on flower
3. Stick to your point, no matter what the customer feels or says
4. Craft a middle path on every objection raised by customer
5. Agree to disagree with the customer
6. None of the above
7. All of the above

8. Which of the following will ensure that you are not logical?

9. If customers logic is wrong, you teach him your right logic
10. You always look for your logic within customers logic
11. You first try to disprove customers logic
12. You arrive at the correct logic rather than telling your correct logic
13. All of the above
14. None of the above

15. Which of the following is True and False? Please tick accordingly.

16. Absolute truth is a myth.
17. Absolute false is a reality.
18. Positive and Negative aspects of an argument depends on the perspective of the person talking
19. To be positive in a discussion one has to start with customers aspect of positive discussion channel sales management and steer the same to your aspect of positive discussion
20. None of the above
21. All of the above

22. How do you practically stay calm?

23. By trying to take heavy breaths whenever BP is high
24. By not getting excited on anything
25. By learning early in the negotiation about the expectation matrix of the person that we are trying to influence
26. None of the above
27. All of the above

1. How do you tactfully challenge the views of others without annoying them?

2. By vociferously rebutting the points made by the other person
3. By actively listening to the other person and discussing weak links in the same
4. By raising your voice
5. By showing a strong body language
6. None of the above
7. All of the above

8. How do you handle objections of the other person?

9. By putting a strong logic in your favour
10. By showing the weakness of customers logic
11. By finding a common ground of discussion with the customer sales performance management
12. None of the above
13. All of the above

14. What is most important to you when you are negotiating?

15. Good listener
16. Active listener
17. None of the above
18. All of the above

19. What should you be ready to compromise?

20. Stand
21. View
22. Objective
23. Profit
24. Ego
25. Victory

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Prospect Engagement Model

Leads which have a potential to buy your product or service but have not yet decided to do so are known as prospects.

These prospects who say “NO” to the sales training call need to be suitable engaged on a “Journey from No to Yes”. How does one do this?

We have to conduct a “From – To” approach to such prospects. Try answering the following questions about the customer on a “From – To” mode:

• How is the prospect catering to the need which your proposed product/service promises to resolve?
• How much money does the prospect spend on the need resolution today?
• What could be the wish list of the prospect in the experience of resolving the need as on date?

The answer to these 3 questions sales performance management , if woven suitably into the FAB (Features, Advantage and Benefits) of your product, will help you in engaging all such prospects who say “No” to your sales call.

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Express 2 Excite Prospects

Which of the following applies to you as a salesperson when you EXPRESS facts and figures to your customers :

1. Do you express to impress?
2. Do you express to explain yourself better?
3. Do you express to elucidate your point?
4. Do you express to excite?
5. Do you just express without any game plan in mind?

These are different style followed by different salespersons. I strongly recommend that a good salesperson should “Express2Excite” a prospect.

Express2Excite

Unless the person is excited to talk to you, the latter will not extend a listening ear to you.,

Without a listening ear of the customer, you will never excel in your sales training efforts.

In a nutshell, sales training programs is not about outsmarting the prospect into listening to you. It is all about methodically

1. Methodically exciting the customer
2. Inducing the customer to extend a listening ear to you
3. Excel in Sales

You may contact us on http://consult4sales.com for more on this.

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10 Points all Entrepreneurs must know about Sales

1. Define your TG (Target Group) as clearly as possible in terms of Income graphics, Demographics, Psychographics & Firmographics .

2. Demand Forecasting and Target Setting is a scientific sales growth process and should not be done under an euphoric outburst.

3. Tactical planning and Strategic thinking cannot be done by sitting in offices. Data obtained first hand on the field is the only way to prepare a Go-To market plan.

4. Salespersons are not magicians who can do what you cannot do. Please do it yourself before you ask your salesperson to do it. e.g. If you give a monthly target of 30 units of sales training per month for a specific salesperson , you should be able to sell at least 2 units per day before doing so.

5. Sales Teams need a Sales Manager to be managed. In a start up , the CEO has to perform this role. Learn Sales Management be fore you venture to do so.

6. Support your sales person by actively investing in Lead Generation , Complaint handling, Reference Selling, Supply Chain Logistics, Customer Service and Quality Assurance.

7. Ensure that you have statutory budget for Marketing in terms of percentage of gross sales performance management done. Brand building is a conscious exercise and cannot be taken up after one has earned enough money.

8. Rub shoulders with Salespersons on the field. Do everything possible to ensure that the salesperson is coached.

9. Empower the salesperson to take some decision on the field rather than moving up and down ever since.

10. Believe in the religion of sales.

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Customer Satisfaction and Content

Wife , Girlfriend and Customers are never satisfied. They love you so much that they always expect something better and new from you. While they do appreciate your last service, they immediately compare your next service with something else new that they see in the market and always wish that you should be the best!

It is important for Customer Service Professional not to feel frustrated on this syndrome.

What should one do to ensure Customer Satisfaction? Or

Should we go for Customer Contention first. Customer Satisfaction will follow.

Customer Contention sounds like a more practical concept to me. Contention is for the moment and satisfaction is the sum total of contentions over a period of time.

Customer Satisfaction = Sum( Contention 1 + Contention 2+ ……. + Contention “n”)

In a nut shell , Customer contention is a journey which culminates into customer satisfaction. We are all looking for a life time value from a customer and hence would not like the journey of contention to end. Whenever it does end, if it has to, let the customer decide whether they were satisfied or not!

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Unleash the Power of your Sales Team

Powerful Sales Team dissipate a lot of their positive energy in squandering their focus over multiple market segments and scattered prospect maps. The term “Unleash” means that somewhere the management is hindering the process of their realizing their full potential. The question is how to unleash?

Let us look at the following steps:

1. Right Person for the Right Job
2. Hunt in packs. All alone you can never catch your prey
3. Do not allow your sales team to die of indigestion
4. Be a mother to your sales team every morning and a father to them every evening.
5. Celebrate small victories with your sales team

Right person for the Right Job

Sales is a generic world which demands one or more of the following competencies:

Prospecting, Sales Presentation, Sales Negotiation, Tele calling, Digital marketing, Branding, Sales Metrics Planning, Sales Closing, Lead Generation, CRM, Sales Funnel Management, Sales Dashboard Management, Sales MIS, Complaint Handling, When we employ someone in Sales Dept, let us allocate their specific function rather than expecting them to do everything in sales.

Hunt in Packs.

It is very difficult to catch your prey when you go to the jungle all alone. Build a Sales Team and not a bunch of salespersons only.

Do not allow your sales team to die of indigestion.

Indigestion rather than starvation is the cause of death of most salespersons today. There is so much information in the market and so many types of prospects that many new salespersons lose focus and track in trying to satisfy all possible market segments.

Be a mother and father to your sales team

A sales team which does not see their sales manager everyday at least twice is bound to either get indisciplined or lose their track of work. The Sales Manager is very caring like a mother in the morning and very demanding like a father in the evenings.

Celebrate small victories with your sales team

It is important that you celebrate every small achievement of sales teams. Do not wait for the big day because you may lose many of them by that time. Budgets may vary but victory celebrations should be omnipresent with a sales team.

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Discuss, Dialogue & Deal with Customers

Salespersons must understand that if they want to deal with customers successfully they should initiate a discussion through a process of dialogue rather than debate and for sure derail a sales training!

What happens if you debate with a customer?

1. You win the debate. ( Customer will develop an ego problem and will never buy from you)
2. Customer wins the debate. (Customer will never buy from you)

So it is clear that debating with customers does not lead you anywhere in life even if you have very strong points in your favour in the said debate.

What is the advantage if salesperson enters into a discussion through a dialogue and avoids the debate?

Example:

Customer – I am sure that your product is not of the right quality. The look and feel itself tells me everything.

Bad salesperson – Sir, let me prove to you that my product is of the highest quality sales audit due to the following reasons : a) ISO certified b) ISI mark from govt of India c) Customer installed base of 2000 d) Complaint history is zero e) so many good features in my product.

Good Salesperson – Sir, you are such an experienced person. You must be right in your judgement. What kind of look and feel are you looking at? For fulfilling the need in question, what kind of product are you using right now? How is its performance? etc etc These questions will make the customer talking and you have already started a dialogue with the customer market penetration strategy.

Advantage :

When customer talks

1. It helps the salesperson conduct his “Need Analysis”.
2. Customer raises objections and the salesperson gets an opportunity to handle the “Objections”.
3. Salesperson gets an opportunity to understand the customers perspective so that he can explain / demo his product with the right perspective. e.g. A customer buying washing machine has little space in his balcony to use the front loading option and the salesperson starts lauding the advantage of a front loading washing machine because there was no dialogue. Finally the salesperson lost the sale.
4. Salesperson will get an opportunity to close the sale.
5. Sales management training call will not get derailed.

As a fresher in Eureka Forbes, where I started my career in Sales, we were made to take an oath: ” Thou shall never debate with a customer. Your job is to discuss with the customer through a dialogue.!”

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10 Points all Entrepreneurs must know about Sales

1. Define your TG (Target Group) as clearly as possible in terms of Income graphics, Demographics, Psychographics & Firmographics .

2. Demand Forecasting and Target Setting is a scientific process and should not be done under an euphoric outburst.

3. Tactical planning and Strategic thinking cannot be done by sit ting in offices. Data obtained first hand on the field is the only way to prepare a Go-To market plan.

4. Salespersons are not magicians who can do what you cannot do. Please do it yourself before you ask your salesperson to do it. e.g. If you give a monthly target of 30 units of sales per month for a specific salesperson , you should be able to sell at least 2 units per day before doing so.

5. Sales Teams need a Sales Manager to be managed. In a start up , the CEO has to perform this role. Learn Sales Management be fore you venture to do so.

6. Support your sales person by actively investing in Lead Genera tion , Complaint handling, Reference Selling, Supply Chain Lo gistics, Customer Service and Quality Assurance.

7. Ensure that you have statutory budget for Marketing in terms of percentage of gross sales done. Brand building is a conscious ex ercise and cannot be taken up after one has earned enough money.

8. Rub shoulders with Salespersons on the field. Do everything possible to ensure that the salesperson is coached.

9. Empower the salesperson to take some decision on the field rather than moving up and down ever since.

10. Believe in the religion of sales.

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5 Pre requisites in a Salesperson

Small and Medium Enterprises often fail to solve the problem of recruiting the right salesperson who can be retained in the system to give right sales growth results first time, every time. This makes the whole process of forming a sales team so much more painful and expensive.

What are the minimum qualities that we should look for in a new sales person?

1. Listening Skills : My salesperson should not be a great talker. He should have the capability to make the customer talk and listen well.
2. Story Telling: Customers like to listen “Facts” weaved in a story. Blank facts, if not laced in a story, sounds very boring to customers.
3. Organized in life: Salespersons must be very organized with their data and information.
4. Self Discipline: This is of paramount importance. Self discipline in life with time, papers, documents etc is very important for a salesperson.
5. Wall-Climber: The tenacity and sagacity to look for solutions even when you are facing a wall so that you are able to climb the “wall” and get over it to move on is very important for a salesperson with good sales strategy.

What are the qualities that the HR dept is supposed to induce in a sales person after they join your organization?

 A sales belief system which will “install” the following :

• Lead Generation
• Lead Engagement
• Sales Negotiations
• Sales Funnel Management
• Customer Satisfaction Index
• Customer Service
• Customer Service Recovery
• Customer Relationship Management
• Farming a customer transaction into a Life Time Value

When we look for all this in a salesperson even before he or she is inducted into the system , one of the following two will happen:

1. You will get a salesperson with a very strong belief system which may or may not be aligned to your organizations belief system.
2. You will never be satisfied with the kind of salesperson that you get because even Lord Krishna will not be able to exhibit all the qualities that you look for in a salesperson.

Let us be more pragmatic and ask ourselves as to what we want before we go out to advertise and interview for new talent.

If you are still perplexed on this issue, please feel free to call us through our URL: htttp//www.consult4sales.com

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