Sales Automation

Field effectiveness can be enhanced by focusing on automating certain tasks which in most cases I have found to be a drain on salesperson’s resources. I have seen that time spent on these activities often take up valuable time leading to salespeople getting frustrated, such tools would increase selling productivity and, at the same time, lower selling costs. 

I have gone ahead and identified certain tasks that help us in achieving the main objective. I will focus on tools that support such tasks by giving screenshots and samples in some of my future articles (also when I have more time to write in detail on that …;-))).

Some of the tasks that can be easily automated are:

• Reducing the amount of time a salesperson devotes to administrative tasks such as the preparation of call reports.
• Tracking sales leads.
• Managing time and territory
• Developing proposals and persuasive presentations

If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Campaign ROI Reporting

Sales Leaders are usually under a lot of pressure to justify their marketing expenditures. Knowing that a campaign generated a certain number of leads is interesting but it doesn't help justify the marketing campaign expense therefore I have noticed that knowing a Campaign ROI makes a difference as it helps him understand if the Campaign is giving results or not!!. Usually first you have to identify the key success criteria that you want to focus on, for eg :

1. Total revenue,
2. Upsell revenue,
3. Percentage increase in revenue / percentage of new customers.

Then as you complete your marketing campaigns you'll be able to score the success of each campaign against your predefined success criteria using metrics that involve the following different stages:

•    Marketing deliverable
•    Prospect response
•    Lead capture
•    Lead qualification
•    Lead acceptance
•    Conversion.

Just make sure that you establish a success criterion for each of the steps in your marketing process.

All this while simultaneously calculating your campaigns' performance by return on investment (ROI) and average cost. For each campaign in the report: ROI, which is expressed as a percentage,it is usually calculated as the net gain (Total Value Won Opportunities - Actual Cost) divided by the Actual Cost.

If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Components of a Project Feasibility report for a deal

Most of the Project Feasibility reports that I have created for the various deals that I have supported have used the following components mentioned below , which have sufficiently covered all aspects of the requirements of the prospective client in one report.

1. Cost of Implementation: Includes total costs all broken down into the fixed. Variable and other components – Operational Costs,  Projected Revenue & Projected Viability i.e. (Surplus  / Deficit)
2. Cost Derivation Method: Includes basic details and  also some extra details like if an escalation is required and what is the % increase required.
3. Value Assessment: Has details of the % of the returns it will give i.e  ROI, Also should have details if the cost & revenue is optimistic/moderate/conservative
4. Job Creation: An important aspect on how many jobs will be created (please remove if performance enhancing software)
5. Demand/Need for Software : Quite an essential component
6. Appropriateness Assessment: Is the project considered appropriate in terms of project type, cost and beneficiary need, as a seller for us it is usually a big “YES”.with all the details. ;-)
7. Sustainability Assessment :  Should include details on sustainability of the project

If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Sales Pay-out Modeling

Just like the design process the modeling is also based upon the goals the company wants to achieve. For eg : What is the payout under various situations: below budget, at budget and above budget? ,Is the plan capped or uncapped?, Does the commission rate increase after the company reaches various performance levels?

Payout modeling is intended to ward off the effects of ‘unintended consequences.” You do not want to design a plan to reward a specific performance outcome only to have people act in a totally different manner.

Once things are cleared you can then refer to the basic engineering of the model which reflects in the screenshot below

If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Sales Incentive Plan Effectiveness Checklist

As a Business Analyst one of my tasks was to support & design the Incentive plan for the Sales /Client management population I was advised to keep the following checklist in mind while providing support to the design project. This check list can also help identify issues and problems with the existing sales compensation plan.

1. The sales incentive plan must support the marketing strategy and the long-term continuity of the sales force.
2. If the Return on Investment is negative or marginal the program should be reevaluated.
3. Tactical issues usually revolve around avoiding the following:

• Over or underpaying the sales force
• Ignoring new business development
• Resisting management and “doing my own thing”
• Gaming the goal-setting process

The checklist indicates issues & problems with the incentive plan that need further analysis before a new plan can be modeled and then effectively implemented.

If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Sales Incentive Plan Design Process

I have found that most of the design process revolves around some specific goals like increasing revenue, increase retention, increase in market share etc. etc.. , so the design process usually are based upon the goals and the targets that the leadership want to achieve.

The  usual Sales Compensation  plan design process goes as follows

Step 1 : Evaluate Business Economic Value Drivers
Step 2 : Analyze Current Plan Effectiveness
Step 3 Part A. Determine Pay Strategy
Step 3. Part B Plan Design
Step 4. Payout Modeling
Step 5 Administrative Guidelines and Communication

If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Best Practices: Designing a Sales/Solution Process Map

As a Consultant I have often found it easier to help a client when I understand their Sales/Solution Delivery process better, to do this I usually start off with a process map which helps me in analyzing my clients strengths and weaknesses so that I may be able to project them in manner that would be beneficial for them. I have mentioned some principles that help me guide through the process.

Common Mistakes when doing process Mapping
1.   Don’t start with a detailed map as you run the risk of losing track of the big picture
2.   Normally analysts start with focusing  on the client, instead Focus on the Seller as we are are doing a sales map and not a satisfaction survey
3.   Initially start the exercise by mapping without showing how the results will be measured
4.   Don’t go about copying other departments sales maps because most of the times they don’t apply to you

Principles that provide you with better insights
1.    Foreground goals in organizing your process map
2.    Determine how to create value for your client throughout the process
3.    Define and project the map tools, skills & performance metrics along with the process
4.    Engage your people in the process map to define problems and solutions

If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Projecting Budget vs. Forecast vs. Rolling Forecast

I should begin by advising that many companies usually have different takes on how do the measure or analyze their budgeting and forecasting, and in my usual vein I start of with my usual advice on the fact that they typically need both a budget and a forecast to manage your company.  They all have different purposes.  In the budgeting process, many executives focus almost exclusively on the income statement.  Usually Revenues are the primary concern, as if increased revenues will solve all the issues so Management decisions that affect the balance sheet accounts can have a greater impact on the company than revenue increases.
 The Rolling forecast takes the initial 36 month forecast and updates the projections at the end of each quarter.  In the end I usually show them what I have in my mind which is what I have attached below.

I have attached a chart that we used which pits Actual vs budget Vs forecast which we used to often analyze our performance

If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Factors affecting Sales Forecasting

As an Field Effectiveness Analyst I have often been asked to keep track of certain factors that might affect the sales, usually the list is endless, but I have managed to narrow it down to some of the most obvious basic reasons

•    Number of sales reps
•    Number of working days
•    Advertising expenditures
•    Product pricing; customer terms
•    Currency exchange rates
•    Appointments set
•    Number of leads generated, outbound phone calls completed
•    Conversion rates for: Contacts to Prospects to Customers
•    Web hits, Google rankings, SEO metrics
•    Economic conditions (local, SMSA, state, region, country)

Like I said earlier the list does not end. Every company is different, and some factors could change

 If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Where do you look to squeeze in the Benefits ??

Often I have had salespeople pestering me to project Productivity, costs & Revenue on the presentation, as a result I have identified some key points which help me identify & project the benefits in the product / solution.

• Increasing productivity
− Reducing the number of tasks
− Reducing time per task
− Reducing skill level needed
− Increasing resource utilization
− Reducing need to add headcount
− Reassigning headcount to more productive tasks

• Reducing costs
− Reducing overhead expenses
− Avoiding planned purchases
− Improving asset utilization

• Generating revenue
− Creating new revenue sources
− Reducing time to market
− Reducing lost revenue such as downtime avoidance
− Optimizing current opportunities

If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Sales Dashboard Design Process

The dashboard design process usually consists of a metric selection, design and implementation steps. Each of these steps involve some basic principles outlined below.

Metric Selection

• Supports stated objectives, strategies and goals
• Can be directly impacted by sales management
• Can be measured in a cost effective and timely fashion
• Reflects one of the four key dimensions of sales performance (readiness, productivity, efficiency and effectiveness)
• Enables performance benchmarking with industry competitors and best-in-class companies

Dashboard Design Principles

• Reflects senior management priorities
• Balances internal and external metrics
• Includes measures of past performance and indicators of future performance
• Minimizes the number of metrics in order to facilitate management interpretation

The actual design process is outlined below along with the detailed steps involved:

Metric Selection
• Identify existing and potential metrics by corporate performance perspective (interview process)
• Categorize metrics into four dimensions of sales performance (efficiency, effectiveness, productivity and readiness) and eliminate unclassifiable metrics
• Create preliminary scorecard matrix that combines business perspectives with sales performance dimensions
• Review scorecard matrix for completeness and add metrics based on experience

Dashboard Design
• Eliminate metrics that cannot be measured or are too costly to measure
• Eliminate metrics that cannot be significantly impacted by sales management
• Prioritize metrics based on alignment with stated strategy and goals
• Select top metric per cell in scorecard matrix based on alternative approaches
• Evaluate alternative scorecards and select most appropriate metrics

Implementation
• Assign metric accountability
• Determine performance targets
• Obtain available benchmark data
• Determine monitoring, interpretation and feedback procedures and guidelines
• Develop corrective action review process

If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Some Prospect Qualifying Questions

Often knowing which questions to ask from a prospect and what specific answers to look out for is the key to qualifying prospects and getting them to the next stage of the sales cycle As usually it is critical for the Sales folks to ask the right qualifying questions when first talking to prospects. As I have noticed that too often, sales reps are so focused on presenting their sales pitch that they end up doing way too much talking and not nearly enough listening. I have listed some questions I believe are to be best practices for qualifying prospects.

Introductory Questions:

•    What are the main objectives of your company?
•    Are there any specific products/services/solutions are you looking for?
•    What are your immediate needs?
•    How familiar are you with our company?
•    Have you had any experience with our products/services?
•    How familiar are you with our new products?
•    Whose products/services/solutions are you presently using?

Qualifying Questions:

•    Tell me more about your specific situation.
•    What are your top three criteria for buying?
•    What qualities are you looking for in (product/service/solutions)?
•    What do you like most about the products you are presently using?
•    What would you like to change?
•    What specific features are you looking for?
•    What are your major concerns?
•    Are you part of a buying team? If so, what specific information are you looking for?

Demonstrating Questions:

•    What do you think of this product’s performance?
•    How does it compare to your present product?
•    How do you feel it will stand up to your specific needs?
•    What do you think about incorporating our products/services/solutions into your specific strategy?
•    What specific concerns do you have regarding our products/services/doing business with us?
•    How do you plan on using this in your organization/department?
•    What do you see that you particularly like?

Closing Questions:

•    Who else other than yourself is involved in the decision-making process?
•    When are you looking to make a purchasing decision?
•    What are your budget constraints?
•    Who else should we be contacting?
•    What would you like to see as the next step?
•    How do you propose we get started?
•    How soon would you like our sales representative to contact you?
•    What is your time frame for making a decision?
•    What else would be important for me to know?
•    What else would be important for you to know?

If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Twelve Essential Attributes of Effective KPIs

Often I have been asked to choose or recommend KPI's that would portray the performance of a project, I have usually chosen metrics based upon the following characteristics

1. Aligned. KPIs are always aligned with corporate strategy and objectives.
2. Owned. Every KPI is “owned” by an individual or group on the business side who is accountable for its outcome.
3. Predictive. KPIs measure drivers of business value. Thus, they are “leading” indicators of performance desired by the organization.
4. Actionable. KPIs are populated with timely, actionable data so users can intervene to improve performance before it is too late.
5. Few in number. KPIs should focus users on a few high-value tasks, not scatter their attention and energy on too many things.
6. Easy to understand. KPIs should be straightforward and easy to understand, not based on complex indexes that users do not know how to influence directly.
7. Balanced and linked. KPIs should balance and reinforce each other, not undermine each other and suboptimize processes.
8. Trigger changes. The act of measuring a KPI should trigger a chain reaction of positive changes in the organization, especially when it is monitored by the CEO.
9. Standardized. KPIs are based on standard definitions, rules, and calculations so they can be integrated across dashboards throughout the organization.
10. Context driven. KPIs put performance in context by applying targets and thresholds to performance so users can gauge their progress over time.
11. Reinforced with incentives. Organizations can magnify the impact of KPIs by attaching compensation or incentives to them. However, they should do this cautiously, applying incentives only to well-understood and stable KPIs.
12. Relevant. KPIs gradually lose their impact over time, so they must be periodically reviewed and refreshed.

If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

I recommend reading Wayne W. Eckerson's - Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring and Managing Your Business, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Publishers