This document summarizes an article about dismantling traditional "sales machine" models in favor of more flexible "insight selling" approaches. It discusses how sales has become more complex with more knowledgeable customers. Effective sales now requires creative reps who challenge customers with new insights rather than rigid process-driven approaches. To support insight selling, companies must shift to a judgment-oriented culture that emphasizes reps' discretion and long-term focus over short-term goals. Sales managers must act as coaches who facilitate problem-solving and encourage innovation, communication and long-term pipeline development. Companies also need to recruit and incentivize talent suited for complex, insight-driven selling.
Sales Territory Design should support your sales strategy. In this presentation by Sales benchmark Index, you will learn the 3 goals of territory design and how to choose the one that best supports your strategy.
Retail Shopper Behaviour, process of consumer buying in retail, Need recognition, stimulating need recognition, information search, types of buying decision
Sales Territory Design should support your sales strategy. In this presentation by Sales benchmark Index, you will learn the 3 goals of territory design and how to choose the one that best supports your strategy.
Retail Shopper Behaviour, process of consumer buying in retail, Need recognition, stimulating need recognition, information search, types of buying decision
Developing, Delivering & Reinforcing a Sales Training Program - CH07Omar Kotta
For all FCES-IANS students management of a sales force course .
you will find a simply notes with Arab Franco , to help you to understand the chapter easily
Definition of sales promotion
SALES PROMOTION:
Consists of a diverse collection of incentive tools, mostly short term, designed to stimulate quicker or greater purchase of particular products or services by consumers or the trade.
*FACTORS CONTRIBUTE TO THE RAPID GROWTH OF SALES PROMOTION
*PURPOSE OF SALES PROMOTION
*MAJOR DECISION IN
SALES PROMOTION
*SELECTING CONSUMER-PROMOTION TOOLS
*SELECTING TRADE-PROMOTION TOOLS
*SELECTING BUSINESS &
SALES FORCE PROMOTION
TOOLS:
The buying landscape is changing and conventional sales tactics are losing deals. Learn how you can get ahead of the curve and sell more effectively with these account based selling tactics.
Chapter 1 introduction to sales and distribution managementNishant Agrawal
To understand evolution, nature and importance of sales management
To know role and skills of modern sales managers
To understand types of sales managers
To learn objectives, strategies and tactics of sales management
To know emerging trends in sales management
To understand linkage between sales and distribution management.
Serves as a good reference tool to acknowledge own challenges during Strategic Programmes and Projects.
Also during Business and IT Process Implementation.
Companies fiddle constantly with their incentive plans and sales executives are always looking for ingenious ways to motivate their teams. If sales targets are missed, they blame the sales compensation plan and start over. Meanwhile, The finance organization views the comp plan as an expense to manage. That’s not
surprising: Sales force compensation represents the single largest marketing
investment for most B2B companies. So naturally finance tries to ensure that comp
plans have cost-control measures designed into them. Additionally, many companies
respond to cost-cutting pressure from the finance department with incentives that
backfire. More often than not, controls encourage salespeople to spend time with
customers according to the company’s internal needs, rather than when the customer
is ready to buy.
Developing, Delivering & Reinforcing a Sales Training Program - CH07Omar Kotta
For all FCES-IANS students management of a sales force course .
you will find a simply notes with Arab Franco , to help you to understand the chapter easily
Definition of sales promotion
SALES PROMOTION:
Consists of a diverse collection of incentive tools, mostly short term, designed to stimulate quicker or greater purchase of particular products or services by consumers or the trade.
*FACTORS CONTRIBUTE TO THE RAPID GROWTH OF SALES PROMOTION
*PURPOSE OF SALES PROMOTION
*MAJOR DECISION IN
SALES PROMOTION
*SELECTING CONSUMER-PROMOTION TOOLS
*SELECTING TRADE-PROMOTION TOOLS
*SELECTING BUSINESS &
SALES FORCE PROMOTION
TOOLS:
The buying landscape is changing and conventional sales tactics are losing deals. Learn how you can get ahead of the curve and sell more effectively with these account based selling tactics.
Chapter 1 introduction to sales and distribution managementNishant Agrawal
To understand evolution, nature and importance of sales management
To know role and skills of modern sales managers
To understand types of sales managers
To learn objectives, strategies and tactics of sales management
To know emerging trends in sales management
To understand linkage between sales and distribution management.
Serves as a good reference tool to acknowledge own challenges during Strategic Programmes and Projects.
Also during Business and IT Process Implementation.
Companies fiddle constantly with their incentive plans and sales executives are always looking for ingenious ways to motivate their teams. If sales targets are missed, they blame the sales compensation plan and start over. Meanwhile, The finance organization views the comp plan as an expense to manage. That’s not
surprising: Sales force compensation represents the single largest marketing
investment for most B2B companies. So naturally finance tries to ensure that comp
plans have cost-control measures designed into them. Additionally, many companies
respond to cost-cutting pressure from the finance department with incentives that
backfire. More often than not, controls encourage salespeople to spend time with
customers according to the company’s internal needs, rather than when the customer
is ready to buy.
Here’s a presentation I created from my latest blog post on International Volunteerism. It includes helpful tips you can use make sure that your participation in international volunteerism is more helpful than harmful.
A brand audit is the first step in brand strategy development and is used as a diagnostic tool for determining where the brand strengths lie and for identifying its potential vulnerabilities or shortcomings. See our updated "How-To"!
Říjen - měsíc PSA, Zavařujte, konzervujte, ukládejte, bydlení: Pes v interiéru, Tao = fáze začátku a růstu - pokračování, Naše přednášky v Městské knihovně v Praze, Energie dní v týdnu od 3.10. 2016
V2 - Head Hacking : The Magic of Suggestion and Perceptiondalepearson
The focus of the talk is the journey of studying NLP, Hypnosis and Mentalism, to really realise the power of language over the human mind, and how we can use this as social engineers, to become the master manipulators.
In this article, the authors suggest that sales managers need to realize that not all sales visits to the customers will necessarily create value for the customer. Sales managers need to realize that different sales processes exist when dealing with customers and the key factor determining the sales process is got to be based on how much value a salesperson can bring to the customer. The
authors go on to identify three different types of sales processes and give reasons as to why value based segmentation is the best way to help your salespeople deliver value not just for their customers but also for themselves.
Sales casualty analysis: why sales numbers do not happen and what to do to ge...Browne & Mohan
Despite significant investment in resource and infrastructure, many companies suffer from long sales cycles, lack of funnel, targets missed by miles and very low closure rate. Reasons for poor sales numbers are common across industries. In this white paper, Browne & Mohan consultants detail the inhibitors of sales growth and how to address the same.
Sales is an area where many companies find the outcomes belie investments and outcomes. Many companies attempt sales transformation in a piece-meal fashion. In this paper, we discuss the framework for sales transformation and five fundamental levers of sales transformation.
Rewiring sales organization for growth and scaleBrowne & Mohan
With markets becoming volatile and uncertain, shortening of products and commoditization, sales function is facing huge challenges. Companies need to rewire their sales organization to provide it with enough flexibility, visibility, actionable intelligence and ownership for employees. In this Whitepaper, Browne & Mohan consultants share how to rewire sales organization to set the company for revenue growth and scaling up.
8 Critical Success Factorsfor Lead GenerationGil.B
Until now, "lead generation" was associated with direct mail campaigns, sometimes supported by a flashy website, sporadic trade show appearances, intense email blasts or stabs at telemarketing, but with very little, if any, special attention brought to bear on the complex sale.
Meanwhile, marketers are constantly reminded that the company needs more sales leads NOW. Unfortunately, that immediacy often means sacrificing quality for sheer quantity.
A flood of ordinary, low-quality leads doesn\'t mean better sales - so why waste your time? The challenge is to adopt lead generation programs that will increase the odds of creating better sales leads, ultimately resulting in long-term, happy and profitable customers.
Sales performance in a changing world.. This short document will help you see why we work the way we do in sales performance and give you an quick insight into our services
Companies have become savvy customers; they have often determined the solution and the supplier they need, and the price they are willing to pay, before the salesperson enters the scene. In this competitive environment, the premium on finding, training, motivating and retaining star performers has never been higher.
Because firms only measure past sales performance, they have limited insight into how a salesperson will do going forward and what types of training and incentives
will be most effective. Failing to forecast a salesperson’s future value can lead to costly misallocation of training and incentive dollars. Many firms overvalue their poor performers and undervalue their stars, which might lead to undervalued top salespeople to slip trough their fingers and into competitors’ arms. This article illustrates a novel method for measuring a salesperson’s future profitability to the firm. Future performance is linked to specific types of training and incentives and show how those investments can dramatically boost revenue.
Social networks are critical in sales. Companies and salespeople can improve
performance significantly by understanding the interplay among the different webs
of customers, leads and colleagues they develop.
The sales process can be represented as four distinct stages, which all require a
different set of abilities and network configuration. If salespeople and managers
understand how networks function, they can pinpoint the most effective network
configuration for each stage of a sale and take the actions necessary to create it and
outshine competitors. In each stage of the sales process, the salesperson’s efforts
come down to two essential and complementary types of network-management
actions: managing the information flow and coordinating the efforts of contacts. This
article offers a framework for systematically managing different social networks, by
matching the network to the task. The article also presents three levers managers
can use to encourage salespeople to integrate the network-based view and make the
best possible use of social networks.
This document summarizes three connected pieces of work by Steve W. Martin, that should resonate with salespeople and sales managers alike. A lot of research has been conducted concerning the right capabilities a salesperson should have to become a high-performing top salesperson. This project involved the interviewing of top salespeople and sales leaders to gather more information
about the attributes necessary to exceed your quota.
This interesting articles suggest that successful salespeople need not always
exhibit extrovert tendencies, nor will salespeople be at a complete disadvantage
if they introverts. The author works on a concept proposed by bestselling author
Daniel Pink and proposes the ambivert (referring to an individual who falls
between an extrovert and an introvert) as the ones who are more likely to be
successful in the long run. Basing himself on a sample of salespeople, Adam
Grant, proves his point and offers some pointers for sales managers.
Based on extensive research, this study by the Corporate executive Board
(CEB) builds on their idea of the challenger sale by providing strategies by
which salespeople can better understand the diversity that exists in the decision
making unit of the customer and work on making sure that the diversity does
not drive apart the customers from a key decision. On the contrary successful
salespeople work on developing a consensus in the decision making unit of the
customer and using this to drive home the sale. The various strategies to help
consensus are then elaborated in the article.
1. Vlerick Sales Centre Article Summary Series
Dismantling the sales machine (by Brant Adamson, Matthew Dixon and
Nicholas Toman, Harvard Business Review, November 2013)
Summarized By Ellen Croux and Deva Rangarajan, Vlerick Sales Center
Introduction
This is the world of the sales machine, built to outsell less focused, less disciplined
competitors through brute efficiency and world-class tools and training. Recently
sales has been caught off guard by dramatic changes in customers’ buying
behavior and sales performance has grown increasingly erratic. The very
approaches that made the sales machine so effective now make selling harder. The
sales machine is stalling. Leaders must abandon their fixation on process
compliance and embrace a flexible approach to selling driven by sales reps’ reliance
on insight and judgment.
The rise of insight selling
Today a customer is better informed than ever before. In this world a process-
driven sales machine approach falls short, because they give sales rep’s no room to
exercise judgment and creativity in dealing with highly knowledgeable customers.
They leave reps with little to do but compete on price. As explored in our article
summary ‘the end of solution sales’ the new environment favors creative and
adaptable sellers who challenge customers with disruptive insights into their
business. Insight selling is flexible, in recognition of many possible routes to a sale.
The sequential tactics that once led to predictable progress in a sale no longer do,
the most effective approach to a sale varies from deal to deal.
Research of how a sales leader can best support insight selling, showed that a lot
of B2B organizations still apply the sales machine. They are marked by a strong
process orientation, clear lines of authority and close governance through formal
rules.
When looking at the organizational climate most consistently associated with
insight selling behaviors however, we find a mirror image of the sales machine,
with two principal features: an organizational emphasis on the judgment of
individual reps and a managerial focus on providing guidance and support rather
than inspection and direction. Transforming a sales organization along these two
dimensions is crucial for giving reps the support and latitude they need to win in
the new environment.
2. Changing the organizational climate
In a judgment-oriented sales organization the climate consists of managers who
serve as coaches, a large extent of self-management among the workforce, a focus
on collaboration and long-term judgment criteria. To create this kind of
environment, sales leaders must rethink how they manage and what they measure.
Managers must focus on the customer’s behaviors, especially any signals that the
customer would be responsive to a new insight about its business. The research
points to a series of changes required to support a new organizational climate:
- A strong emphasis on creating demand early in the sales funnel, rather than
responding to it much later. This promotes pipeline building and not pipeline
velocity. Sales leaders force their reps into the price-driven sale they were
hoping to avoid, when they prioritize efficiency and speed.
- Managers should give reps greater latitude in the qualification, prioritization and
pursuit of individual opportunities. Reps are most likely to succeed when they
feel supported rather than directed and when they are held accountable for
outcomes solely. ‘It is not the journey but the destination we have to focus on!’
- A strong emphasis on encouraging innovation and a sense of business
ownership among sales reps.
These findings, however, make sales leaders nervous. Many average performing
reps benefit from or rely on clear direction. It is important to note that providing
the support these reps need, doesn’t mean returning to the sales machine
approach. The key is to give them considerable discretion regarding their activities
when guiding them and holding them accountable for specific milestones on the
way to a sale.
A customer-verified sales funnel
A customer-verified sales funnel is a traditional model in which salespeople and
their managers have used a combination of rep activities and customer ‘verifiers’ or
behaviors, to track the progress of a deal. Leading sales organizations have
embraced two important changes to this practice. First, they track and report only
the customer verifiers, not the reps’ actions. This way reps are free to think more
creatively and they are explicitly encouraged to focus on achieving certain
outcomes in the best way. Second, they are verifying behaviors very early in the
process that signal whether the customer is ready to change. This selling approach
is about creating demand, not simply responding to it.
Changing what managers do
Surveys revealed that despite the pressure to create a judgment-oriented climate,
sales managers in most companies still seek compliance rather than judgment and
creativity. Nonetheless, few companies stand out for their ability to modify their
local climates in order to encourage and support a new approach to selling. Three
behaviors separate them from the rest.
3. Facilitation
Rather than telling their teams what to – or simply taking over deals – exemplary
sales managers serve as connectors within and beyond their teams, encouraging
collaborative strategy development and problem solving. They encourage
innovative thinking and push team members to challenge each other. As a result,
sales reps on these teams know much more about activities in all territories and
they commonly share ideas about how to handle an especially tricky deal or
whether an opportunity is worth pursuing at all. One of the most important drivers
is network performance. The sales managers are experts at maximizing network of
performance within their teams, they encourage members to build, leverage and
contribute to their networks.
Informal communication
These sales managers regularly communicate up, down and laterally. They provide
a constant flow of information. Communication activities often happen outside
structured settings, it is often transparent, occurring through a continual dialogue.
The managers are constantly in teaching mode, listening to their teams, asking
questions and offering guidance. To be this informal, every conversation has to be
meaningful and move business forward.
Long-term focus
Rather than rewarding reps for short-term deal volume and velocity, these
managers encourage them to cultivate business pipelines designed to generate
substantial growth over the long term. It take tremendous discipline to ignore the
siren song of the close of each quarter. Maintaining a long-term focus requires
managers to monitor customer verifiers, base sales forecasts on them and direct
reps’ creativity and critical thinking to the most promising opportunities.
A new type of talent
A judgment-oriented sales climate will divide the sales force, awakening the latent
potential in many salespeople and leaving those who find reassurance in the
directive world of the sales machine to struggle. As sales leaders recruit they’ll
have to rethink their approach to ensure that the new hires will thrive in this
climate. Only 17% of the existing sales employees score high on the competencies
required for success in insight selling and the sales labor market is skewed strongly
toward emotional intelligence rather than IQ. Sales requires more judgment than
ever before, emotional intelligence is not enough.
In addition to using selection and assessment tools to identify the small percentage
of salespeople who have a natural ability to succeed, managers should also
consider hiring professionals not currently in sales roles who have the excellent
critical thinking skills and are willing to sell. There are two ways in which leaders
can attract and retain such nontraditional hires:
-
-
4. - They must emphasize the importance of collaboration and judgment. The talent
they are looking for demands an environment that supports individual decision
making.
- They must shift the emphasis from extrinsic, short-term rewards to intrinsic,
long-term motivators such as autonomy and the opportunity to generate value
for customers. Although short-term incentives are useful for driving simple,
transactional sales, the effectiveness of these traditional pay structures
diminishes as sales become more complex. Building a climate with the right
incentives and rewards can boost the effort that salespeople make above and
beyond their basic job requirements and increase their intent to stay.
Conclusion
The death of the sales machine cuts across functions and industries and speaks to
the changing nature of work. Organizations that continue to embrace the sales
machine model are watching margins fall as their solutions are commoditized and
their best sales professionals seek different environments. A judgment-oriented
climate doesn’t only increase sales deals significantly, but adopting this sales
approach also attracts many sales reps looking for employment from across the
industry. As knowledge-workers know, the key to success, is to hire the best
employees, create an empowering environment, provide the necessary tools and
guidance, and then get out of the way.