When the economy goes through a period of prosperity, businessmen or entrepreneurs generally want to believe that nothing will prevent sales from continuing in the present boom, or that, having settled on a plateau of comfort, they come to feel that it is not worth the effort and invest in improve the sales management they currently carry out.
This article will be beneficial for those who, despite the boom, are really oriented and eager to increase their productivity in sales, they will discover here the keys that they can begin to consider and analyze and then apply to sell with greater productivity.
By completing the following reading, one will have been conceptually enriched. However, this will not allow us to really achieve this important quality in sales management, which represents "producing results at 100% of the potential available", nothing more and nothing less.
For this reason, achieving maximum sales productivity only requires going through three stages: that of reflection, decision and that of action. Then there may be other stages such as the analysis and correction of deviations with the specific purpose of continuing to improve.
Previous essentials
Definitions always contribute to a deeper understanding of each term we will use. This leads us to establish that sales productivity "is the maximum number of units (successful results and customer satisfaction) that are produced per unit of time."
We know that sales results represent the essential resources for any organization to survive, generate growth and enjoy the profitability implicit in the price of each transaction.
The sale results are totally objective, that is to say: they are obtained or not, so they must be free of all arguments that belong to the wonderful repertoire of excuses when they are not achieved.
In addition, they are fully quantifiable and measurable in units, in money or in operations, which is important to record not only the results but also the actual performance of each of the sellers. This is what allows them to be perfected and brought to their maximum productive capacity in each period of the year.
Likewise, the results are obtained through the successful, efficient, intelligent and planned actions of each representative, since the sum of individual productivities is precisely what gives maximum productivity to the sales team and the organization.
What is required to maximize productivity?
Now, if you want to achieve 100% productivity in each period of the year, this will depend on having each and every one of the following five resources:
- Products and services in quality and in sufficient quantity to respond to the demand obtained from their management.Professional sellers, that is, they possess the appropriate profile (for the product or service and image of the company) and trained to carry out consultative sales management. before each potential buyer in a consistent way, through efficient and professional management. (1) (2) A constant and growing portfolio of qualified opportunities to advise and sell by each seller, registered and managed efficiently. This important sale management is called Prospecting; for more information see in (2) and (3)An effective management methodology, so that it constitutes the most direct way of generating sales results according to the type of product or service and the profile of potential customers, efficiently using daily time, backed up by the registered information of each potential buyer. The proper method is what each seller must learn to start doing efficiently from the first days of incorporation, and must be continually correcting and perfecting itself over time. (4) An efficient management, that can lead efficiently and improve the management of each one of the team members so that they obtain the maximum potential they possess within an effective planning, monitoring and control process. (two)
Then do the following reasoning exercise: Choose any one of them and remove it from the list and then reflect on what will happen to the results of your monthly management if you don't have it.
Perhaps you will settle for what you get, but it is good to recognize that what you stop selling in a highly competitive market due to the absence of any of those resources will be capitalized by the competition that will fill the gap in response to your demand in the market.
Conclusions
What usually happens in many sales teams is that 80% of these results are obtained a few days before the end of each month, while there is widespread uncertainty in the entire team at the beginning of the new period due to not knowing who to interview for achieve the goals to be achieved.
This is a characteristic symptom that indicates that there are operational deficiencies such as those described above.
The favorable times of the economy should not be periods to relax due to the income that is more accessible to obtain. Resting on the laurels to reach the crest of the wave or make the plank on it is not recommended.
There are competitors in each niche or activity and new competitors with a greater appetite for success and who will know how to take advantage of the wave to bore over it while others rest until they turn and roll in the sand, enter the market permanently.
The propitious moments in the economy turn out to be the most favorable moment to grow even more and to distance itself from the competitors, because when storms are coming and the sails must be reduced it will surely not be the best moment to do it.
References:
(1) E-book "The Professional Sale"
(2) E-book "Keys to a successful sale" for effective management.
(3) Professional Distance Selling Course or "in company" Professional Selling Course
(4) Management Consulting
© Copyright 2007, by Martín E. Heller
