Archive for August, 2009

You can generate more accurate forecasts and higher sales productivity with sales development accounting

You’ve identified your target accounts, and you’re now accurately measuring work-in process.   You’re well on your way to helping each salesperson make a reliable sales forecast.  When your salesperson is filling out an Account Data Sheet for each account, you’ve helped each salesperson to categorize and document qualification data.  The further along in the qualification process an account becomes, the better idea the salesperson has about whether he (and your company) will get an order, when he’ll get it, and for how much.

Self motivation is the strongest incentive

Now, identify what the salesperson to wants – or needs – to earn.  From the interview process, you should have a good idea of why and how much each salesperson expects to earn from your company.  Are they looking to your company for basic earnings because they just lost a principle and they have to replace that income?  Do they have one or more children going to college and they have those expenses?  Are they looking ahead to retirement and need to build their investment portfolio?

The question is, what is their sales motivation?  You should know if they can reasonably expect those earnings from the assigned territory.  You’re already making it easier by designating what information they should collect.  For a motivated (and skilled) salesperson, this is all you need to do.  This is more than most of his principals do.

They are making a work-in-process inventory to make it easier to meet their earnings objective.  You can’t get stronger motivation than that – unless you bring up their earnings objectives when their spouse is present.  Thus the reason for a joint interview when hiring.  If this isn’t a new salesperson or rep, you can still get into an earnings expectation conversation with each current salesperson in conjunction with telling them how much you are doing to help them reach their goal.

The forecasts will continually become more accurate as they get experience in using the process.

For assistance in establishing  marketing accounting tools, and implementing Sales Performance Quality Assurance™, ask for Knotes & Comments 104 and 201, or call us, or email us.

You can generate improved growth and profits with sales development accounting

If you want to improve  your management of sales results, whether you’re  selling through independent reps or employee salespeople, consider adding an accounting tool to your marketing strategy.  It has been repeatedly proven that the key to improving results is using a structured system.  When effectively implemented, a structured sales process adds reliability to the achievement of profitable growth.

One benefit to Sales Performance Quality Assurance™ is that sales development progress can be measured with relative accuracy.  Let’s consider the sales work-in-process inventory.

A Work-In-Process Inventory reveals the value of sales development progress

When you have a checklist of  information you need to close a sale,  it’s easier to collect the information.  When you document the information, it’s easy to see what’s missing.  Now divide the list of information needed into groups and give each a status designation.

Thus, you have a work-in-process status designation that reveals how far along the sale has progressed, and presumably how much effort has been made or time expended.  This is much more precise that asking the salesperson, “When are you going to get a Request For Quote?”

Next, we’ll determine how to improve forecast accuracy and sales productivity.

For assistance in establishing a marketing accounting system, and implementing Sales Performance Quality Assurance™, ask for Knotes & Comments 201C  “You Can Achieve Profitable Growth by Treating Sales as a Production Process” and 203C “You Can Have The Control You Want.” Then call us or email us concerning your specific challenge.