Focus Magazine - Spring 2015 - (Page 28)

FEATURESTORY and managing the successful implementation of the sales eﬀectiveness initiative. To support them in these eﬀorts consider providing education and training on change management so that they are knowledgeable in best practices and lessons learned when leading transformational change. Once that has been done, leaders and managers need to understand the: * Reason for the change and the focus on sales eﬀectiveness. * Nature of the change including new terminology, tools and resources. * Specific tasks, sub-tasks and steps sales reps will need to do diﬀerently. * Impact that the sales eﬀectiveness initiative will have on compensation. * Impact of the sales eﬀectiveness initiative on sales-related roles. Ensuring sales directors and sales managers are wellprepared prior to rolling out the sales eﬀectiveness initiative will build credibility for the leadership and management team and will maximize the probability of successful implementation, uptake and sustainability. Actively involving sales managers in the roll-out of education, training and tools will position them as leaders of their teams, foster teamwork and to prepare them for reinforcing new approaches and coaching the adoption of knowledge and skills. At the conclusion of the initial sales eﬀectiveness rollout assess knowledge and skill to measure learning transfer. Celebrate quick wins and achievement by recognizing those who have embraced the sales eﬀectiveness initiative and had success. Evaluate the Initiative's Impact Sales manager observation of selling skill mastery, sales process execution, use of the CRM, use of sales tools and delivery of marketing messages is a way to see the eﬀect the initiative has had upon sales professional behavior. Completing the customer experience assessment at regular intervals will also provide insight into changes in perception about the company, its products and its people. Completing the sales force assessment again, a year aer the sales eﬀectiveness initiative will reflect improvements in knowledge, skill and alignment to the go-to-marketstrategy. ere are a number of other metrics that can be evaluated to assess the impact of a sales eﬀectiveness initiative including sales-cycle time, win-loss ratio, forecast accuracy, pipeline value and personnel turnover. However, the two key performance indicators that will truly assess the value of the sales eﬀectiveness initiative are sales revenue growth and improvements to the bottom line. Benefits of Sales Effectiveness ere are a number of benefits a firm will realize by focusing on sales eﬀectiveness. e single largest benefit and reason is improved business performance over the long term. A sales eﬀectiveness initiative enables firms to communicate more eﬃciently through the creation of a common sales and/or commercial language that will also help create consistency in any brand's message. Sales managers will have more impact in their roles by participating in a sales eﬀectiveness initiative because their capabilities will be strengthened in setting expectations, training, coaching and developing their people. Beyond business results, sales eﬀectiveness plays a key role in shaping organizational culture by: * Fostering an environment that promotes a desire for salespeople to be engaged and encourages talented salespeople to achieve high levels of performance. * Setting the right business expectations and measuring the performance of every sales professional. * Rewarding superior sales performance through compensation and recognition of salespeople and sales managers who deliver exemplary results. * Studying top sales performers and sales managers to identify the keys to success. * Consistently attracting, promoting, and developing sales managers who will attract, train, develop and retain high sales performers. By investing the time and eﬀort necessary to reach sales eﬀectiveness objectives and goals, your company will be rewarded by realizing the benefits outlined above. I Tom Manos is president and CEO of Peak Performance Insights. Email Tom at tom.manos@peakperformanceinsights.com. 28 FOCUS | SPRING 2015 | www.L-TEN.org http://www.L-TEN.org

Focus Magazine - Spring 2015

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