19 June 2009 | Uncategorized | Miller Heiman

Like a blank sheet of paper, nothing is more full of promise and possibility as a new venture. Just as an artist’s first few strokes lay the foundations of the final painting, the things you do in the first days, weeks, and months of a startup will echo in everything that comes after.

Laying Your Foundation: The Power of Standardized Processes

It might seem at the beginning that you don’t want standardized processes. The virtue of small companies is that they are nimble, quick to react to changing circumstances, and ready to pounce when opportunity presents itself.

New companies, however, are usually understaffed, either through a lack of funds or just the length of the hiring process. You by yourself might even be your whole team! In this situation, you’re going to need every force multiplier you can get. You’ll need to be lean and efficient, focusing your efforts where they’ll yield the greatest return. In short, you won’t have enough time to neglect putting time into sales funnel management.

Preparing for Growth: Coaching and CRM

Having your standard processes in place also makes it easier to bring in new talent. When growth hits, it’s usually a manic rush to keep up the pace. If you don’t already have your procedures in place, your team will be flailing around, doing whatever worked at their last job and likely creating all sorts of chaos and wasted effort.

Standardized processes give new members of your team a framework to base their efforts on. It teaches them how to focus on the clients that are a good match for your organization. It guides them into working with the team, as a part of it, rather than as a flailing appendage with only the most tangential association to your long-term goals and strengths.

With your processes in place, you’ll also better be able to identify what makes your stars stand out, and pass those skills and techniques to the rest of your team. In the 2009 Miller Heiman Sales Best Practice Study, we found that 94 percent of sales organizations recognized as world-class knew what made their top performers successful, as opposed to only 38 percent of all organizations reviewed. Your processes allow you to gather that knowledge and to disseminate it throughout your team. A structure that reviews both wins and losses will allow you to pinpoint not only your strengths but also your weaknesses, and not only in individuals but also throughout your organization. You’ll have the data you need to help coach every member of the team to their optimal performance.

You’ll also be set up to maximize the utility of a CRM. CRMs really come into their own as a team grows, helping to organize the entire team’s efforts while giving you a general’s-eye-view of the organization’s activities. Eighty-two percent of World-Class Sales Organizations identified in the same study reported that their CRM system greatly improved their effectiveness. Having standardized processes allows you to take full advantage of your CRM.

It all begins with your first processes. Getting your team organized, especially when the entire team is you, is vital to achieving not just your short-term sales goals, but ensuring that your company will have what it needs in the future to maintain and expand growth.

Photo credit: kevinq2000

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10 June 2009 | Uncategorized | brian

Miller Heiman just recently released their 2009 Sales Growth Strategies for Australia and New Zealand. Like the general 2009 Best Practices Survey, this new report focuses on the actions and attitudes of the best performing, world-class sales organizations. The focus on Australia and New Zealand has allowed Miller Heiman to fine-tune the process and focus on areas that stand out for organizations in those countries.

Among the differences discovered in the survey is a reluctance to embrace technology as part of the sales process. While 82% of World-Class Sales Organizations felt that their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system greatly improved the effectiveness of their sales teams, only 20% of Australian respondents felt the same way. Part of this may have to do with a general lack of formalized planning and structured procedures. The survey found that only 19% of Australian respondents reported that they use comprehensive prospecting plans when targeting and engaging with a new prospect. Among World-Class Sales Organizations, this number is 70%.

According to Michael Light, regional vice president for Asia Pacific, Australian organisations have typically left prospecting and targeting efforts to the individual salespeople to do their own way. “That means sales managers do not really have good visibility into who their salespeople are targeting and what their salespeople are saying to prospects,” Light said. “This may not have mattered much when business was easier, but in today’s tough economic times, sales management needs to have strong, transparent prospecting plans.”

Where Australian sales organizations excel is in avoiding deep discounts. Only 7% of Australian sales organizations agreed with the statement, “on a regular basis, we much significantly discount in order to win,” as compared to 17% over all and 12% of the World-Class Sales Organizations. According to Light, salespeople in Australia are naturally reluctant to discount, unlike other cultures where it is endemic. “The implication of not discounting is that the value has been well demonstrated,” said Light.

Photo credits: Strange Ones, Robyn Gallagher.

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03 June 2009 | Uncategorized | brian

It would be nice if demands for more sales corresponded with greater resources to pursue those sales. In the real world, however, we’re often asked to do more with less. That sense of urgency, or possibly even panic, can lead you to cram your sales funnel with every potential client who will stand still long enough for you to talk to them. Lots of clients in the funnel makes it obvious that lots of activity is taking place, and the more potential clients you have, the more sales you’re likely to land, right?

Unfortunately, activity is not synonymous with progress in the same way that slapping at the water with your hands and feet isn’t anything like swimming. The flailing swimmer is wasting energy better spent stroking evenly and steady towards a destination. In the same way, stuffing your funnel with clients who are a poor fit wastes resources. Clients in your funnel don’t move themselves towards a sale; if they did, there’d hardly be any need for sales professionals. Somebody has to do the work of bringing the client through the funnel towards a sale. That means every client in your funnel requires effort and attention from your team. If you clog your funnel with any and every client you can find, you’re likely to wind up wasting resources just when you’re likely to have fewer resources to waste.

Clients in your funnel need to be qualified – determine those with whom you can reach a win-win conclusion. Do their challenges and goals match up with your offerings? Can they afford your solutions at a price that is good for your company? Can key decision makers be recognized and worked with in order to arrive at that win-win outcome?

Because the world doesn’t stand still, you need to keep qualifying clients as they move through your funnel. What challenges are they facing today that were not there before? Are their goals still in line with the solutions you’re offering? What new opportunities have presented themselves? As resources become tighter, efficiency rather than activity becomes paramount. Focusing your resources on those clients most likely to arrive with you at a win-win outcome means increasing the likelihood of landing those sales. The alternative may mean finding your team stretched too thin to secure even the low-hanging fruit.

Photo credits: cotaroba, JMRosenfeld.

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