Assessment and Consultancy |
In addition to development workshops, we often work with clients on a consultancy basis, addressing questions such as:
- What is the right sales strategy for the current market conditions?
- Have we got the right salespeople in the right positions?
- Are our sales processes and CRM systems delivering the right results?
- How does our sales operation stack up against industry best practice?
- How do we get the most out of the upcoming product launch / reorganisation?
- Where should we focus our efforts?
- What is our real competitive differentiator and how do we make the most of this?
- What is the right commission scheme to both deliver our targets and motivate salespeople
- Are our sales managers leading the salesforce?
- How can our marketing collateral be more sales focused?
- How should we measure sales success?
- Why do we win / lose sales?
Our Approach
We work quickly and ‘smartly’ with a focus on clear deliverables and tangible results. Obviously the exact nature of our work varies from client to client, with some recent examples including;
Strategy Workshops - we run executive-level workshops to effectively bring out answers to key questions such as
- What really is our solution and value proposition?
- Who do we sell to and what business problems do we solve?
- What is our competitive differentiator and how do we maximise this?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of our current sales approach?
Sales Skills Assessment - We use a variety of techniques from questionnaires, interviews and accompanied sales calls to structured assessment centres. This is a useful exercise if you want to either benchmark your sales force, or ensure you prioritise sales development investment.
Sales Process Review and Development - We look at existing sales processes, compare them to current industry best-practice and then work with clients to build simple, effective processes that work. This typically includes approaches to prospecting / telephone calls, sales calls, opportunity management, pipeline management, forecasting, account management, use of CRM systems, written proposals, sale pitches and negotiation.
Sales Management Processes - as above, focusing on Performance Reviews, Pipeline Management discussions, Coaching, Proposal Reviews, Opportunity Reviews, Running Sales Meetings
Sales leadership 360 degree surveys - a benchmarked leadership survey to provide you with a view of your sales management team and high-priority development areas. This can either be a pure ‘development’ activity where the end-report is confidential to the individual or a more open approach, where the report is shared with senior management.
Commission Schemes - we have excellent experience at designing schemes that provide the right focus, link payments to sales performance and are straightforward and motivational.
Sales Balanced Scorecard - hitting sales targets is only one way to measure individuals or teams – and can be misleading – we all know poor salespeople who ‘get lucky’ and also excellent salespeople whose client base is suffering, especially in the current climate. We work with clients to design and establish clear metrics that consider other leading indicators of performance, relevant to individual sales roles (eg weighted pipeline, win/loss ratios, sales activities)
Sales Collateral - we offer a full sales collateral design and production service to transform your web site, brochures, datasheets, corporate presentations, proposal templates, blogs etc into client-focused material that actively support your sales activities.
