It’s the end of the year. As a business or sales leader, hopefully you’re going to hit your 2017 sales goals. However, if you aren’t, before you disrupt your organization with one of four standard moves when sales aren’t going as planned, take a breath.
First, the knee jerk reactions. In my 40+ years experience they are:
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Blow up your sales team
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Fire your sales leader
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Contract for some new sales training
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Buy a new CRM system
While any one of the above, or a combination of them, may ultimately be the right answer, to do so without conducting some research is dangerous. What information, you ask, might be valuable to have prior to making a drastic, or expensive, or disruptive (or two or three) move? How about understanding how your sales organization responds to the following statements (these are just a few of many):
Marketing:
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Our marketing staff understands the business drivers in our markets
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We have thoroughly defined our various target markets
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We have a current social media strategy
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Branding is important to us and ours is effective
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Public Relations activities are important to our business
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Our marketing communication differentiates us from the competition
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We actually have the resources to timely achieve our marketing plans
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We teach our customers things about their business that they either misunderstand or don’t know
Sales:
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We have an ideal customer profile that is documented, understood, used, up-to-date, and updated as necessary
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All sales and marketing team members can effectively give our company’s “elevator pitch”
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We have specifically designed questions to ask during the qualification process that indicates the fit of each prospect against our ideal customer profile
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We have a method for meeting with key customer decision maker(s) early in the process
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We cultivate “Mobilizers”
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We follow a well-defined sales process
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We effectively use financial metrics (ROI, Payback Period, Cost of Indecision)
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We incorporate collaboration with our clients in building a business case for our solution
These are a small subset of the sorts of statements that constitute a Sales Baseline Assessment. You may think of others. The point is that without getting an objective assessment of your sales function – not your people – it’s hard to know what to address first. Such an assessment provides the insight and information needed to identify opportunities for organizational improvement.
When considering an assessment, here are some keys:
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The assessment should be fast, non-disruptive, and free from consultant bias
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The assessment should be anonymous, so your team is free to be open and honest
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The assessment should takes hours/days to complete, rather than weeks/months
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The assessment should force a ranking of key capabilities, rather than allowing you to give everything a ‘7, ‘8’, or ‘9’
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The assessment must lead to an Action Plan and not just be an academic exercise
Here is what sales leaders say about assessments:
“I’ve been a Senior Sales Executive for several years. Over my tenure in my position, I’ve come to appreciate the value of making decisions based on facts and data. Too often we in sales make decisions based on emotion and “gut feel.” That’s a mistake.” – VP Sales, Regional IT Consulting Firm
“A self-assessment provides results that are not biased by a consultancy with their agenda. When it’s on-line it’s not disruptive. Finally, getting results within days of completion means faster time to value.” – Region President, National Staffing Company
A sales baseline assessment – a much better choice than a knee jerk reaction.
