Cracking the Sales Management Code (Book Summary)

Step 1: Carefully define the Business Results you want to achieve. Typically:

1. Revenue
2. Value of weighted pipeline
3. Customer satisfaction

Step 2: Choose the sales process(es) and associated Sales Objectives most likely to help salespeople in distinct selling roles achieve their desired business results. Processes include:

(note: MCO = market coverage objective; SFO=sales force capability objective; CFO = customer focus objective; PFO = product focus objective)

• Territory management process (when you do not have time to adequately make proactive outbound calls to every prospect and customer in your territory)
  1. Percentage of market opportunity covered [MCO]
  2. Percentage of target accounts contacted [MCO]
  3. Revenue from new customers [CFO]
• Account management process (when you mainly pursue multiple deals over time with a smaller set of individual customers)
  1. Percentage of customers called [MCO]
  2. Revenue growth in existing customers [CFO]
  3. Customer retention rate [CFO]
• Opportunity management process (when individual sales are complex and involve multiple calls)
  1. Deal win/loss ratio [SFO]
  2. Length of sales cycle [SFO]
  3. Average deal size [CFO]
  4. Revenue by product [PFO]
• Call management: process (to improve the effectiveness of individual customer interactions when individual calls can greatly affect the outcome of the deal)
  1. Number of meetings held [SFO]
• Sales force enablement processes
  1. Time to productivity [MCO]
  2. Undesirable attrition rate [MCO]
  3. Sales person skill/competency index [SFO]

 

Step 3: Select the Activities to manage day-to-day to ensure you (directly) meet the chosen objectives:

(note: many Activities directly impact multiple Sales Objectives)

• Territory management (note: usually done by sales operations)
  1. Number of accounts per rep
  2. Number of calls made per account per rep
• Account management
  1. Account plan usage (remember to involve customers in the process!)
  2. Number of interactions per account (ex: calls scheduled 120 days before renewal)
• Opportunity management
  1. Adherence to opportunity planning process (relatively unused)
  2. Utilization of proof-of-concept resources such as engineers or executives
• Call Management
  1. Call plan usage (relatively unused) – esp. objective, opening, buyer motivation, questions to ask, objections to handle, etc.
  2. Number of calls logged in CRM
• Sales force enablement (note: usually done by sales operations)
  1. Training investment per FTE
  2. Number of reps per manager
  3. Frequency and quality of coaching (ex: via periodic surveys of reps)

 

More great insights:

• Sales success depends on the caliber of first-line managers who should be continuous improvement experts, rigorously tracking progress against the goals they set. They control Activities to help (directly) meet Sales Objectives which in turn drive desirable (but wholly unmanageable) Business Results. Hence, training and enablement are more important for sales managers than they are for salespeople.
• “The specific sales processes you need in your sales force are determined by the nature of each individual selling role.” “Generally speaking, we see a trend toward sales forces having a greater number of more specialized selling roles. Management long ago began to separate “hunters” from “farmers,” but the number of boxes on the frontline org chart continues to grow. From industry specialists, to product experts, to sellers who serve niche markets, the roles we find in sales forces are becoming more diverse in nature and more narrow in scope. This not only makes the seller’s tasks easier to master, it also reduces the management challenge of hiring, developing, measuring, and compensating complex roles.”
• “If your salespeople are being asked to do too much, it’s quite possible that they’re really doing too little.”
• “If you don’t support your desired behavioral changes with new metrics, tools, and skills to reinforce and measure the change, your sales force will quickly revert to its previous state.”
• “Our own approach to change management can be best described as comprehensively minimalist.” “you must focus your efforts on the critical few Sales Activities that will directly affect your Sales Objectives and Business Results.”
• “Assign quantitative values to your A-O-Rs.”
• “Sales force metrics should be reported on a need-to-know basis.”