I was reading an article on NYTimes.com called “Salesforce Wants to Remake Marketing — and Itself” and I found the following comments made by Marc Benioff of salesforce.com  fascinating.

“All of us have to become connected companies, changing fundamentally how we sell our products to customers,” said Marc Benioff, the founder and chief executive of Salesforce.com. Trends like social networking and mobility, he says, “are the future of computing.” He added, “Everyone has to move to being a connected, customer-oriented company.”

“There isn’t a business customer I see who doesn’t have the same problem,” he said in an interview before the announcement of the new product. “How do you market, service and sell to customers?” Within Salesforce itself, he said, this means building enterprise software for mobile products, being capable of understanding in real time what customers are doing with the products they have purchased, and staying in constant, and appropriate, contact with customers.

Whilst social media will give each business greater reach and can bring the customer and the supplier into the same community, it still requires businesses to work hard in implementing processes to support these systems. 

I believe that apart from people and technology, there is a third factor that needs to be included in systems, and that is the ability to underpin all transactions that are occurring with processes so that best practice can be aspired to and achieved. If you do not have a process then how can you measure how successful you are in getting the best out of what you are doing and how you are doing it?

I am with technology and the fascination that the only boundaries are man’s imagination, but it has to be applied and take into account the individuals involved, and the processes that are being used to achieve the objectives.

Technology is the foundation, process is the building, and you have people entering, exiting, and occupying the building carrying out various activities. Without the building they would be running around on a building site.

Defining, implementing, and using processes has to be the foundation of any system and not an add-on to work with the main system.  Systems have to be agile in implementation to allow personnel within the business to change the processes as and when change is required and yet allow the business to continue without any disruption.

Systems have to take into account not only technology, the people that are involved from users to customers, but also the processes that are being used.

Before we can improve the sales effectiveness of the sales person and the sales team we must be able to clearly define it. To do that, we have two answer to key questions:

How do your clients perceive you when you are selling to them?  Is it a straight forward transactional relationship whether it be as a preferred supplier or one of many, or as a partner that advises the client on a regular basis how to get more out of the products and services you have sold to them, or a strategic partner that advises the client on broader issues that are indirectly effected by the products and services that have already been sold to them?

Do you have a formal sales process?  If yes, is it left to the discretion of the sales person to use it, or is rigorously enforced? Do you continuously review the process to take into account changing conditions within the sales environment?

The sales effectiveness of a sales person involves analysing each of the steps within the sales process to identify where obstacle could be occurring that would impede performance. Some of the factors that could be taken into considerations include: are the appropriate opportunities being pursued? Are the needs of the client being understood in a timely manner before any actions are taken? Has contact been established with all the people involved? How effective are the presentations that are being made in moving the client to the next step in the process?

Sub-process are set up to deal with the issues faced within each of these steps.  Technology is a key component in supporting this activity, to aid the sales person in such areas as: sales intelligence for account research, sales coaching methodology to be used in certain situations, availability of sales presentation collateral, assistance in developing accurate proposals.

We now have the mix of people, process, and technology. A trend analysis database is being continually developed of all the opportunities that are being handled by the sales team. Using this intelligence, you can identify which market sectors to focus on and which to stay away, at what level to engage within each of the organisations you are targeting, what advantages you can use as leverage against the competition, etc.

This is your ‘Best Practice’ model that should be continually reviewed, and will be used to refine the processes

These are two of the elements within the sales performance optimisation process, and according to CSO Insights, (The anatomy of a World-Class Sales Organisation), some of the benefits achieved by companies that have adopted the approach include a 13% increase in sales people achieving quote, 11% increase in wins, 10% reduction in losses.

‘If it doesn't add value to the business by helping bring in sales, do I really need it?  I can do what I need using Microsoft Outlook, Word, and Excel.

If you are using your CRM system as an administrative tool, then the above could be true.

Here are four reasons that a business needs a CRM system.

• Identifying where you get business from.
  Develop a profile from all the companies that have bought from you so that you can interrogate the CRM database to find similar companies to approach. The profile could take into account such factors as market sector, size, location, products/services they are currently using. This will save you time and resources in building your sales pipeline.
• What do they buy, for how much, and why?
  You know who bought from you and for how much. Was your pricing policy compromised with discounts to get the business, or did they accept the price that was presented? Was this due to being in competition with a specific competitor, or is it just part of the current sales culture?  All that is needed is that you have all the quotes/proposals not only in document form, Word, PDF, etc. but also the information in a format that can be analysed, product/service, quantities, unit price, unit costs, discount, etc.  It is also important to record the reason why the client bought from you, and also to go back to the client to find out what has been achieved and if they have met their objectives that they set when they purchased the system. All this information can be used to produce compelling proposals that will be presented to clients, with the objective of helping to close the sale as quickly as possible, and allowing you to chase more business.
• Who did not buy and why?
  Using the same process as described in the two previous points, but this time recording the business that you lost.  Any situation that has a similar profile to your lost profile has to be questioned and a decision has to be taken whether to continue with the opportunity or not? Time is your most precious commodity and you cannot afford to go chasing lost causes.
• What does the client think of the service?
  Record each request the client makes and how you dealt with it, what was the outcome, and what the client thought of the way it was handled. It is going to be very difficult to get extra business from a client that has made many requests that have not been dealt with in timely manner, and to their satisfaction.  On a positive note this process could help you identify further opportunities for additional sales, cross-selling or up-selling.

Everything is pointing to maximizing your time to bring in as much business as possible, in the most effective manner with the help of your CRM system.

One of the key things that has to be right is the delivery of any message.  It has to be in line with needs of the person or persons that you are dealing with.

It will be of no use in promoting a revolutionary system to an IT manager of a company who has strict procedures, runs a system on established technology in a manner, which will make him feel that he is taking a risk and losing control. In this case it might be necessary to highlight that there is minimal risk, through test and benchmarks that have been carried out, and that there will be greater visibility of what is happening therefore greater control. His drivers are that he wants to be in control and wants to minimise risk.

Yet the marketing manager of an entrepreneurial company might want to discover new and innovative ways of getting to the market and therefore would be receptive to new ideas.  His desire to use new ideas is driven by achievement and could also be by recognition, to be seen as the person that was responsible for the success achieved by bringing in the new system.

To some degree, we are all driven by one of the following:

• Power
  • Control and rapid progress
  • Make ambitious commitments
  • Make firm decisions, influence and dominate others
• Achievement
  • Influential role and rapid progress
  • Make ambitious commitments
  • Make firm decisions and influence others
• Recognition
  • Play a visible role and have moderate progress
  • Make moderate commitments
  • Make decisions and influence others
• Affiliation
  • Involve others and have moderate progress
  • Make moderate commitments
  • Make decisions with the agreement of others
• Order
• Logical order and moderate to slow progress
• Make low-risk commitments
• Make the minimum of decisions with limited influence on others
• Security
  • Minimal risk and slow and careful progress
  • Make low-risk commitments
  • Make the minimum decisions with limited influence on others

Understanding the personal needs of the people that you are dealing with will contribute to a more effective dialogue and to you achieving your goals.

In B2B sales, needs fall into two categories, organisational and personal needs.

Organisational Needs
A clear understanding of the company’s objectives must be gained and this must be translated to organisational needs.  Organisational needs fall into three categories.

• Financial
  How the company is maintaining or improving its financial results, e.g. improving the margin on each sale, keeping costs under control, improving overall profitability.


• Efficiency
  How the company performs in its various activities,  e.g. the ability to meet delivery schedules on major contracts, the ability to respond to customers’ requirements with a proposal in a given time period.


• Reputation
  How the company is perceived internally and externally,  e.g. to be seen as a caring company by the employees, to be seen as a professional outfit by the city.

These three groups inter-relate and influence each other.

At the beginning of a sale, we may assume what the organisational needs are, but we have to question our contact(s) to establish what the real organisational needs are.

Each of the contacts will have a dominant organisational need, and the way to establish this is to focus on the contact’s position within the organisation and his responsibilities, and how they fit into the organisation’s activities.

The contact will usually express the organisational needs as: problems, situations, or conditions.

Establishing what the organisational needs are helps us define a direction for sales planning.

The next blog will focus on personal needs.

How many times have you entered a store and been met by an assistant with the phrase ‘how can I help?’ It’s even happening on the internet when you go onto a sight a pop-up window appears asking if you want to chat to an assistant.

In both the examples, whether in person or on the internet, the assistant has an objective to help you to buy. The same approach should be taken in B2B sales, guiding the client towards buying.

The sales person should be the catalyst in helping the client to buy. The best way to expedite this is for the sales person’s sales cycle to be aligned to the client’s buying cycle.

A typical example of the selling cycle is:

• Lead
  Receiving an inquiry and following it up to establish a rapport.
• Qualification
  Identifying the issues that exist and the underlying reasons that are causing the problems and whether the lead is one that should be pursued because it fits within the prospect profile.
• Requirements
  Once rapport has been established and a sales opportunity has been identified, the next step is to get a clear understanding of the prospect’s requirements and get them confirmed by the prospect.
• Proposal
  This is more than just a description of what is being offered and how much it will cost. The proposal should also cover the issues the prospect faces, how they will be addressed, and what will be the benefits that the prospect will enjoy. It should also cover any referrals describing how others with similar problems have derived a benefit. It is more than just a quote.
• Negotiation
  Be prepared to negotiate, and that means even if there are no objections to the proposal to get the prospect to confirm their acceptance of the proposal, and if everything is what it should be, ask for the order.
• Fulfillment
  In placing the order both parties should agree and confirm the resources and timescales involved in fulfilling the order. We are all busy so having a plan at least puts down markers as to when and how the implementation should be carried out. Having no plan allows the whole project to drift because there is no accountability.

Now the trick is to align the sales cycle to the buying cycle. I have heard and seen on many occasions in B2B sales situations that quotes are sent out on purely a request for pricing with minimal, if any, qualification being carried out. There is a belief if we keep sending out quotes someone will buy at some stage. If we look at the example above the proposal stage, which is not carried out in full, is being moved up the cycle to the requirements stage, if not before the qualification stage. There is a need to build momentum through the number of opportunities that are being worked on, but make them qualified leads that you have a chance of winning because you have developed a good rapport and understanding of the prospect. Your time is precious so don't waste it.

Align the sales cycle to the buying cycle and you will be able to help the client.

An example of the buying cycle can be found in the blog: It’s not only about sales, but the whole of the customer experience.

My last blog, It’s not only about sales, but the whole of the customer facing experience hopefully helped in demonstrating that by being process driven will bring discipline in what you do and give you a datum by which you can assess performance and then decide whether the process needs any changes.

Having an understanding of the customer’s buying process is only part of the jig saw of sales management. Other parts of the jig saw are as follows:

• Sales Plan: Identify what sectors and organisations are to be targeted and what you will be offering. A clear understanding of your product and pricing strategy needs to be conveyed to the sales force so that they can deliver a consistent message to the market. Develop sales collateral that will highlight the issues your offering will address and the benefits it will bring to the prospect. Sales collateral could be a mixture of web site, data sheets, case studies, videos, etc.
• Sales Targets: Set your targets by time period, e.g. month, quarter, or annually. This could include different revenue streams, large sales with a long sales cycle, to small sales with next to non-existent sales cycle. Define what you expect the average order and margin values and sales cycle would be for each of the revenue streams. If you do not have any historic data to base it on set what you think would be the values. Even if these numbers prove to be incorrect, at least you started with a datum to measure against as orders are placed.
• Sales Pipeline: Establish what the gap is between the sales targets and the current pipeline. You are now in a position to estimate how many orders you will require. Working backwards you need to define what the conversion rates could be through the various stages of the pipeline, e.g. suspect to prospect – 10:1, prospect to hot prospect – 5:1, hot prospect to customer – 3:1. Once again the ratios might not be correct, but at least you now have a datum to measure against as sales opportunities move from one stage to another within the pipeline, so that you can modify them as and when necessary.
• Sales Development: The pipeline needs to be continually nourished with new leads as quickly as possible. Your task is to decide where and how leads can be generated. The activities could range from digital marketing: website, blogging, e-shots, etc. to networking both digital and face–to-face events. Establish what associations, conferences, and exhibitions you could attend to meet the people you want to meet from the companies you are targeting.
• Sales Performance: Use your sales system not only to track your sales activities, but also to measure the performance of your sales personnel, products, markets, customers against the parameters you established in going through the steps outlined above, i.e. measure and refine the conversion rates, the average order and margin values and sales cycles for each of the revenue streams.

Start with the basic information that you have, and build on the model outlined above. Do not wait to establish the definitive model because by the time you think you have established it, the model would more than likely have changed because of the market conditions. As you use the model you will soon discover what is missing or what needs to be modified. The overriding factor is that this is a continual process throughout the year and therefore a change from the traditional annual planning session.

Take a few minutes and right down what you know in each of the sections. You now have the beginning of your sales model that you can focus on.

My last blog was called Sales: How can you get to somewhere when you do not know where you are?

This is true of any process within business, or within life, and therefore does not only apply to sales.

Looking at the customer facing processes within business, this would apply to marketing to generate awareness and leads, sales to convert prospects into customers, and post sales to deliver the products and services required to maintain a strong customer base.

Although we view these as distinct functions, we should consider them as sub-processes to the overall customer facing experience and therefore one sub-process should integrate with the other seamlessly.

I have seen this approach being successfully implemented when there has been strong leadership from the top down that believes in the integration of people, processes, and technology, whilst minimising the politics that could hamper the customer facing experience.

Taking on the customer facing experience approach requires a good understanding of your prospective client and what process he or she would go through in identifying suppliers, to appointing and working with a supplier.  The best place to find out about this is within your existing customer base. Map out what they went through to become your customer, and how they have behaved since becoming your customer.

A typical example in the sales environment would be that the buyer undergoes the following steps within their process.

• Awareness
Some prospective buyers are seeking information or are continually being made aware of what innovations, products and services are available or forthcoming.  At this stage there is no specific need, but an interest to be aware of what is available.
• Need
The prospective buyer has an issue caused by a downturn or increase in the business, and there is a need for product or service to help him in this situation. The Awareness step might be carried out during this step if it has not been carried out before.
• Conviction
The pain staking job of identifying which products and or services are preferred and from whom is undertaken using various media whether via the web, face-to-face, etc.  The list of suppliers is drawn up and through due process is reduced to a short list of suppliers.
• Commitment
The buyer decides who is the preferred supplier and the negotiations are finalised on both commercial and technical terms.  Technical in this case does not only refer to technology, but also to any item that has not got commercial connotations, e.g. the training to be offered. Once all is agreed the order is placed.
• Fulfilment
It is said that ‘the sale begins after the sale’. To retain your customer, and in some cases for the customer to act as a reference if not give referrals, then the delivery of the services, products, or systems must be carried efficiently and effectively in the quickest possible time. The customer will only be happy when he can clearly see the benefits derived from the products, service, or systems that he is using.

Examples of the marketing and customer service processes will be made available in future blogs. 

Stop, look, and listen to your customers and you will build up an invaluable store of information as to their habits and the processes that they employ.

Have you ever visited a city when all of a sudden you seem to be lost? You know where you want to get to, but you are disoriented and therefore no matter how much you turn 360 degrees it makes no difference. I was going to suggest getting the map out, but nowadays you are more likely to use your smartphone to locate where you are and seek directions to get to your destination.

It’s no different in sales.

The first step is to identify which cities you might be visiting, that is how many types of sales you would be dealing with:

• key account sale
• general sale
• sales desk sale
• maintenance renewal

The next step is to have a good understanding of the layout of each of the cities, that is the sales process for each type of sale:

• who is going to buy the product – who is the typical client who would need your product or service.
• what would they be buying – what issue would you be addressing both at a corporate and individual level.
• why they would be buying – what are the benefits and why should they be buying from you
• what challenges you could be facing - commercial, legal, social, environmental, competition, etc.

Lastly, when you are in any of the cities you need to understand where you are and how far away you are from your destination, or how much progress you are making towards closing the sale?

As you are walking towards your destination you are going to pass certain landmarks that are on the map and you will feel much more comfortable that you are getting nearer to your destination.

What are the important landmarks in your sales process?

• The client’s issues that need to be addressed have been clearly identified and confirmed
• There is a strong productive working relationship with the decision maker, or in larger sales the decision making team
• Funding is available, and the client recognises that he will gain significant benefits compared to what he will pay.
• There is a deadline by which everything must be operational because it is based on an important event that will happen within the client’s organisation.

It’s not that hard, but you have to stop, look, and most of all listen. Take the three steps and you will know where you are in each of your sales opportunities, and what has to be done to get the sale.

I have been reading various articles about the lack of sales forecasting accuracy and that the implementation of CRM systems could be part of the sales prevention problem in B2B sales, and it got me thinking that both of these problems could be tackled if there are clear directions towards getting the sale. We need a sales road map, or using technology a sales satnav.

To try and help in understanding how B2B businesses can optimise their sales performance, I have developed a simple B2B prospect rating scale template, which you can download (click here) and adapt to your business.

The definitions are there as a guidance, so it is up to you whether you use ‘suspect’, ‘prospect’, and ‘hot prospect’ as the labels for the various bands within the pipeline, and also whether you use the percentage milestones indicated or choose your own, as simple as 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%.

With any journey you need to find out about the route that you are going to undertake and what you could meet on the way. Firstly we must have an understanding of how our potential customer is going to buy. What does he or she do during this journey? If we look at the spreadsheet the top part is labelled ‘Buyer’ and maps out the criteria that the buyer will be considering during his or her buying cycle. Think about the most productive sales that you were involved in and map out what route you think your prospect was undertaking.

Knowing the journey that your buyer is to undertake, what do you plan to do to help him along that journey? The row labelled ‘Supplier’ shows the criteria that we as the supplier would want to achieve in this process. In the main it is about getting the buying cycle and the selling cycle as much in line as is possible, so that the journey is as smooth as possible.

The row labelled ‘Interaction’ is there so that we can confirm by actual activity that we have arrived at a certain point within our journey. It could be as simple as the client acknowledging that they have an issue that they are going to address in the next couple of months and would like you to meet with them to begin the process of understanding their requirements.

At the bottom of the spreadsheet is the ‘Timeline’. Not only do we want to make the sale, but we would like to achieve it in a timely manner so that we can meet our personal and business goals.

All satnavs not only give you details about the route, but they also tell you how long it could take, so why not through down the challenge and see if you can do it in the time that has been specified?

Please remember that this is a template, whether it is in a spreadsheet or in a CRM system and therefore should be used for guidance. Not all customers will buy in three months, but it is a good indicator if they buy between two and four months, the average being three months. Modify your template if the average time is six months otherwise this map will be of no help to you. The key thing is review and refine as you go along and keep it simple. It is better to start with a simple map and add to it as you travel the route than to produce a map that is hard to understands and therefore people will not use it.