Sales Engine Diagnostic

SALES ENGINE DIAGNOSTIC

Whilst we are most frequently engaged by clients for our group and one-to-one coaching services, some clients seek an evaluation of the running performance of their sales engine before determining most precisely where to make changes that have the optimal impact on future performance.

Commercial Orientation

The way your organisation is set up to face your customers and markets is critical to the efficiency of your sales engine.

We explore your "commercial orientation" with a set of challenging questions:

Is your approach to sales aligned to the corporate objectives and is there a clear and coherent sales strategy?
Are your salespeople gaining access to the intelligence they need to understand the opportunities within their area?
Do they understand what sells well, where and why? Do they know where their prospects are coming from? Which channels are most productive? What are the competitive pressures? In short would they be able to compile a Business Plan for their account(s)?

Quality & Productivity

Getting to buying decisions with the greatest efficiency is a key contribution to value creation for the your customers and your business. We examine the systems and processes in your sales engine for non-value adding components to optimise your outputs. Key questions include:

Are your salespeople maximising their productivity by optimising customer potential within the constraints and opportunities of geography, travelling time and modes of communication? Do you have bodies in the right places and at the time?
Pipeline Planning, Account Planning, Call Planning and Knowledge Management to support them. Do you have it? Is it fit for purpose? Is it being used? What would fit the bill and what do you need to bridge the gap from where you are today?
What is the real impact of your approach to sales incentivisation? It is having the effect you imagine or could it be retarding you ambitious growth plans?

Talent Development

Your sales team, like any team, needs people to play to their strengths in the right position. Equally they need to be getting the leadership that brings out the best in them; how confident are you that this is the case?

Do you have a competency framework that makes clear the skills and behaviours expected at each level in each sales role? (Does this guide role design, recruitment and induction?)
Are your sales performers building skills in their roles or do they have a tendency to “winging it”?
Do you have performers in the right roles based on their mind-set, drive and beliefs?
Do your sales performers see a progression path that fufills their aspirations and develops what they are best at? (Or do you end up promoting people away from their core competencies?)

Recommendations

In order to provide our diagnostic service we will need to understand your sales objectives and have access to the sales community; frequently extending to your customers and internal support functions.

On the basis of our research into your sales engine, we will compile a comprehensive assessment of Risk and Opportunity in relation to the likelihood of achieving your goals and targets based on the alignment of the inputs we observe and the likelihood of achieving the outcomes you desire. There will be no "black box" or "pseudo-science" associated with our analysis. We will keep the assessment open and transparent so that you can understand and challenge our conclusions.

We will also make recommendations on what steps you might to take to improve your scoring. We will make these recommendations based on your needs, many of which we would not be in a position to address for you. We will however make recommendations of suppliers who may be able to assist you where we cannot.