By Debbie Depp
They say there are no guarantees in life. Not so. Building the wrong sales structure will guarantee you won't get top sales performance.
A Towers Perrin survey of U.S. high-tech executives determined that 64 percent believe their sales forces lack the competencies to be effective and 62 percent believe the design of their sales organizations hinders customer satisfaction.
Those on the positive end of that equation are probably using a combination of tactics designed to maximize sales performance.
One of the most powerful strategies for improving sales performance is to rethink the relationships between telesales, field sales, and channel partners to maximize the strengths of each.
Every sales organization differs, so naturally there's more than one right way to skin the "structuring " cat. For instance, if your company already has a field sales force, you may be able to stretch its range by adding telesales.
According to Jeanne Lambert, president and CEO of Telesales, Inc., "A volume-oriented sales approach is critical when fighting for company or product awareness or broad market penetration."
One company enhanced results of its 125-person field sales force by adding 25 telesales reps to amplify efforts in field territories. They found it reduced conflict by aligning field sales and telesales by geography.
Since then, telesales has established relationships and sold to MIS departments, the company's application partners and government agencies. This restructuring helped this company become a dominant player in their marketplace.
They also discovered a small pocket of revenue lurking in their business. Management determined that application development partners with less than $25,000 in orders represented just 12 to 13 percent of their revenue.
However, the field sales organization spent 40 percent of its time on these accounts. To eliminate this misapplication of resources, they refocused telesales on that segment of the company's business. Because these customers had been underserviced, this change provided the following benefits:
- Field salespeople can pursue larger opportunities.
- Small accounts are well known and receive more service.
- Telesales helps field sales develop major applications.
- The entire sale is handled inside.
- Cost of sales is decreased.
In another instance, the success of a strong telesales group eliminated the need for any field sales force.
One family-owned business historically used only advertising to create demand for its industrial and safety supplies. An inbound telesales group handled all the inquiries. When they decided to take a more proactive approach, they added an outbound telesales group to rejuvenate flat sales. As a result, the company has yet to field a feet-on-the-street sales team.
For years, sales at a manufacturer of test equipment, had been driven by nine telesales people. Since then, however, the company has developed a field sales organization to call at senior management levels and handle the top ten major accounts within a telesales territory.
With defined geographic territories, telesales reps are compensated for their own and resellers' sales. Field salespeople, working in conjunction with telesales, receive compensation on all business in the territory in addition to a bonus based on how the telesales reps in their territory perform against plan.
The rationale behind introducing field sales was to carry the momentum established by the telesales group. Management points to the integration of telesales and field sales as the force that strengthened customer relationships, improved customer satisfaction and drove up revenues.
When business strategies change, the sales organizational structure can be rendered obsolete.
For many years about one-third of a Midwest company's $30 million business came through telesales. Reps spent 85 percent of their time selling to end-users. But the VP of worldwide sales recognized that the strength of their products was their capacity to integrate with third-party applications. He repositioned the sales organization to put as much business as possible through Value-Added Reseller(VAR) channels.
The company now sells to VARs and corporate organizations through a 15-person field sales force rather than through telesales. Telesales resources were repositioned to 20 telemarketing positions with vertical market expertise.
At that time, they moved to a team selling model. This consists of a corporate account manager, a VAR manager, inside telesales and technical support. The new model minimized conflict between field and VAR salespeople, and their customers like the wider choice of options. Since that change, revenue has grown 25 percent. About a quarter of that growth is attributed to this organizational shift.
With the rapid rate of change in business, it's hard to stay ahead of the pack. In Guerrilla Selling by Jay Conrad Levinson, Bill Gallagher, and Orvel Ray Wilson, they leverage the changes in technology and breakthroughs in the field of psychology like mind mapping with information and surprise to take the business high ground. Ingenuity and boldness are the tools of a sales guerrilla.
"Guerrilla selling means breaking with convention, using time, energy, and imagination instead of brute persuasive force. It means getting to know your customer so well that they refuse to do business with anyone else. It means being super honest, super ethical, and super responsive. It means the customer, not the salesperson, makes the major decision about what gets sold and how they want to buy it. It mean solving the customers' problems and enlisting them as allies."
Taking this course means the sales structure you choose must be customer-driven because it all starts and ends with the customer.
When Robert Miller and Stephen Heiman explore why people buy in their book, Conceptual Selling, they define three key phases of the sales call:
- Getting Information
- Giving Information
- Getting Commitment
"Getting Information involves understanding what you need to know about your customer's current situation so you can effectively tell your story.
"Giving Information involves describing and possibly demonstrating your product or service in relationship to the needs of the customer.
"Getting Commitment means resolving any of the uncertainties that might prevent your potential client from buying, even though the fit between his needs and your solution is right. We don't mean 'overcoming the customer's objections.' We mean working with him so that the two of you share Commitment to the selling process, at every step of the way."
These three phases of the sales call often involve different skill sets. That means creating a sales structure that balances the skills of telesales, field sales, and channel partners to maximize the strengths of each for the ultimate benefit of the customer.
Whatever combination of models you choose, it's important to incorporate the needs of your sales teams, channel partners, and customers. The best solutions are fair to all. So, yes, there are guarantees in life. And one of those is that if you pick a winning combination of sales strategies, your profits will increase. |
