process

(Too) Many sales organisations undertake a CRM strategy and associated hefty investment, and then when the software vendors come on site to undertake their (too) often “generic customisation”, the purchasing sales organisation is jolted into a process that forces them to retro-think about the functionality and the process support that can be derived from their investment.

Eddie Smith, Founder of Sales Schematics Australia, writes...  We’re often asked by clients: “How can we replicate the results that are being achieved by our top sales performers?” In other words, they want to know what they have to do to get their whole team performing at the same level...    

Charles Besondy, President of Besondy Consulting & Interim Management, writes... “How bad is it, doc”? We’ve all seen the Westerns where at some point the leading character gets shot (in a white hat) and an over-worked, unshaven country doctor rushes to his side. The doctor sets his leather bag on the ground and looks at the wound with concern in his eyes. “Tell me straight, doc, how bad is it?” the shot-up good guy asks again weakly. And so it goes for marketing and sales executives who observe their misaligned departments and wonder, “how bad is it, doc?” A flesh wound? Is the artery cut? Is there nerve damage?

Christian Maurer, a Paris-based Consultant, Trainer and Coach, writes... To determine the success of a sales-effectiveness initiative, you need to define measurable objectives, and track them against a baseline that shows where you currently stand. The most common measure of success is a revenue objective. It can be easily measured, and the base line easily established. And yet, measuring things this way can provoke much debate. In 'The Complete Guide to Accelerating Sales Force Performance', Andris A. Zoltners et al. write that the influence any particular sales-force has on revenue varies widely. This is why they warn readers against using just one indicator (e.g. revenue per sales person) to measure performance. So what indicators should you measure?

Glenn Guilfoyle, Founder & Principal of The Next Level, writes... In the B2B environment where core products and services are becoming more and more commoditised, more often than not, customers make their supplier choices on the process outputs that are most tangible and visible to them. Therefore, as suppliers, we live and die daily by the output performance of these critical and inter-related processes, as perceived by customers...

Charles Besondy, President of Besondy Consulting & Interim Management, writes... Is revenue flat or heading south? Time to invigorate the sales force with the latest sales techniques, right? New head of sales takes the reins with the job of transforming the revenue engine. Time to bring in the sales trainers, right? Not so fast...

Sales performance isn't about what you say, how you look, or having the 'gift of the gab'. It is about following a proven process. Our sales training will teach you the world's most proven sales processes, from Miller Heiman.

The Leaky Funnel™ is a marketing strategy book authored by Hugh Macfarlane. This business novel is packed with key arguments for a major change in the way businesses organise and manage their combined Sales and Marketing resources.

It's frustrating for a B2B marketer who wants to become great. So much of the available marketing training and most of the marketing books are written about consumer marketing. It's no wonder that business marketers leave money on the table with much of their marketing.