Sales Efficiency

The 4 Stages
Most Sales activity can be broken down into 4 distinctly different stages or quadrants from prospecting through to managing accounts.

If sales teams know how and where to identify opportunities, what account management plans or pipeline management tools look like and can then apply all of the correct activities within these tools then the results will follow. The assumption here of course is that they have the requisite skill sets to implement the process. (This is covered in the behavioural change area of the site)

Effective Activities
"Look after the activities and the results will look after themselves."

This is a driving principle of the work we do at TH&A. Our tools and processes are all facilitators of activity, either the quantity, the direction or the quality of the sales function.

"Effectiveness is doing the right things...Efficiency is doing the right things well!"

Stage 1 - Prospecting
In the first quadrant we determine the criteria by which an organisation chooses their prospects.
Most 'good and profitable' business is a result of customers fitting within a set of criteria (either explicit or implicit). These can be grouped, scored and actioned accordingly thus maximising efforts. We take customers through an evaluation process of their best current customers to determine themes and key measures.

Stage 2 - Budgeting and Activity Management
The important knowledge in this quadrant is: Know your goals and your success ratios. Your TH&A consultant will take you through the design of a simple yet effective tool to manage all of the activities that will maximise pipeline output.

Stage 3 - Pipeline Management
Your BDM in Perth tells you she has a 90% chance of winning a piece of business. Your BDM in London says the same. Who is right and what is 90% based on? Optimism, feedback or just plain 'Gut Feel'? What happens when you have 120 people using the same "science" to put together a forecast?
In this stage we develop effective probability measures to assist in the forecasting process and we tailor a number of solutions specifically for your environment.

Stage 4 - Account Management - Customer Engagement
Yet again we continue with our theme of activity management. We create tools to help measure or "score" the value of a relationship. Is a good relationship good just because you entertain regularly or you have a regular flow of revenue? Once an organisation learns how to "engage" it's customers at all levels, the relationship becomes stronger. The measurement tools we build are actionable and in most cases universal so they can be applied to all customers big and small. This process can be applied to an organisation's 'Top 10' or any number of accounts. Your TH&A consultant will help you develop a specific activity based engagement strategy for your business based on a number of methods at their disposal.