When talking to the Top Management of an organization, it is common to hear “ the sales team does not work. sales are plummeting. We have to make changes in that area and hire a new director. " This phrase is heard more and more in the companies in our environment and must be thought through in depth to find the true meaning and causes of it.
It is true that the final effect -and what is seen in the income statement- is the drop in sales, but, when analyzing the reasons for this drop, in most cases it is due in large part to the loss of competitiveness and not so much to the sales team.
The problem is that on many occasions, this is not known and we find the "star seller" effect. In other words, the sales team is blamed for all the problems and the "star salespeople" who are capable of solving all the problems are always found.
But to understand the situation, you have to have a global view of the situation and understand that there are five components to the sale:
- Strategy (both in the organization and in the sales area) Processes People Technology Product / service offered (customer value proposition)
Usually, sales falls are directly associated with the people in the sales team and the other four elements are neglected, making an inadequate assessment of the situation.
In order to diagnose the situation, I suggest that you ask yourself the following questions:
Regarding strategy:
- Is there a differential positioning against competitors? Is there a clear strategy in the sales area? Is the target audience, segmentation, etc. well defined? Are there clearly defined, agreed and communicated objectives?
Regarding the processes:
- Is there a clearly defined sales management process based on best practices? Do the rest of the organization's processes adequately support customer expectations?
Regarding people:
- Do they have the right profile, are they motivated and do they have enough training?
Regarding technology:
- Is there a technological platform that really manages to help more and better (CRM)?
Regarding the product / service offered:
- Is the product / service different from the competitors in terms of value added to the customer, price, quality, service…?
"We cannot put everything in the hands of the seller's 'skill or expertise'"
If the response in the areas of strategy, processes, technology and proposal and customer value are not satisfactory, then the problem is not only of the sales team but it is a much more global problem and must be dealt with in its entirety.
Against this, clearly there is always the argument that a good seller sells independently of these elements… but it must be understood that we cannot put the profitability and viability of the company in the hands of the "art" of our sellers. Therefore, we must put all possible means to make it as simple as possible to achieve the defined objectives and not put everything in the hands of the "art" of the seller.
In conclusion, the results of the sales area must be analyzed, understanding the company as a whole, since in many cases these results have relatively little to do with the sales team and much with the rest of the organization.
