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2006 - by George Ritacco
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How to Deliver the Right Message... Every Time.
Frustrated CEO's and sales managers express that thought over
and over, in one way or another. They're talking about their
salespeople, of course. They harbor a feeling that some of
their salespeople just aren't doing what they want them to do,
communicating the right message and they don't know what to do
about it.
If that thought occasionally passes through your mind, read
on.
"What do you want them to do?" I often reply.
Boy - talk about opening a “can of worms.”
That question is often too vague to hold any meaning in today’s
world. Years ago, it may have been good enough to just say “get
out there and sell.” But in today’s business world, it’s not
enough.
The selling environment has changed; your competition has
surely changed and has become more ferocious. Now more than
ever... businesses survive and crash based on the message that
is being communicated to your prospects and clients, how often
it’s delivered... if it’s actually, the right message for
you... AND, if your message differentiates you in the eyes of
your prospects and clients.
How you develop your key positioning statement, (defined as
“the statement” or message that “positions” you in the eyes of
your audience as the obvious choice), how you train your
employees on that statement, how you measure their growth and
the development of their skill sets and last... how they
deliver your message effectively to your audience... are the
critical elements to a successful training, marketing and sales
plan.
Our economy has grown increasingly complex, many markets are
maturing, the demands and expectations of your customers are
growing, your customers' choices of ways to satisfy their needs
are multiplying, and information technology is growing more
powerful and user friendly. All that means is that you need to
be much more effective in your sales communication and
directing your sales force than at any time in the past.
Successful sales management in the approaching 21st century
world requires a more sophisticated answer from you than just
"Get out there and sell!”
”Selling MODE” is great, but without gathering the right type
of marketing intelligence and information from your
prospects... you hamper your success.
Here’s an example: Client “A” owns a small pharmaceutical
company. Every month they are analyzing data to determine their
market share. They also analyze who the high prescribing
physicians are for their drug, as well as for the
competition.
They use that information to make territory and product line
forecasts, as well as a basis for developing more sophisticated
joint marketing plans with his partner-vendors. I'm sure you'll
agree -- that's good information to have. But don't the
salespeople do those kinds of things on their own? Do they
really need that kind of precise direction from management?
Take a little self-test. Consider each of your salespeople, one
at a time. Ask yourself, "Is ...(salesperson's name)....
systematically collecting that kind of market information on
his
or her own?"
On their own? No.
So, what is the first step in getting your salespeople to start
delivering the right message?
Ideally, those things proceed directly from your strategic
plan. For example, if your strategic plan says that you want to
penetrate a new market segment, then you should expect your
salespeople to make X calls per month on that segment, or
create X new customers within that segment, or do X amount of
sales with that segment, or achieve X amount of gross profit
with that segment.
The first step is to develop your strategic plan, and
then to create expectations for your sales force that directly
support that strategic plan.
If you don’t have a strategic plan, it’s time to start
developing one. Here’s a shortcut... Begin by creating precise
expectations for your sales force. Develop a list of the three
to ten most important things (goals) you want them to do
(communicating your specific message should be #1).
Bringing in a certain amount of sales or gross profits should
be one of them, but only one of them.
Next, make sure that your list of expectations is easily,
accurately and fairly measurable. I believe in the acronym
SMAART. Your goals and objectives should be:
1. S - Specific. “Improving service” is not
specific. How, exactly, will you improve it?
2. M - Measurable. Will you be able to
effectively tell how well you are meeting your goals?
3. A - Aggressive. Many people don’t set
stretch goals. Identify what you think you can do comfortably,
then move the bar a little higher. Ask yourself, What is
possible if we get cranking?
4. A - Accountable. Who’s in charge? Who is
responsible for making it all come together?
5. R - Realistic. Nothing kills enthusiasm
faster than impossible goals.
6. T - Time-Specific. Goals need to be
achieved by a certain date or within a certain
period
Look at your goals with creativity. Financial objectives are
SMAART, and they’re easy to identify. But nonfinancial
objectives, such as increasing your customer attitudes towards
you and your company, and lowering employee turnover are also
SMAART. They’re specific, measurable, aggressive, accountable,
realistic and potentially time-specific.
If you're highly automated and use effective sales force,
training and goal measuring software, it'll be a snap. If
you're not effectively automated, it'll be much more
difficult.
For example, one of my clients wanted his sales force to call
on new prospects. His business was growing, and his salespeople
were happy. But he was sure that
there was additional market share to be had in accounts that
were not being cultivated. He wasn't automated, and didn't
believe his veteran sales force would accurately and thoroughly
complete weekly call reports. In addition, he didn’t have an
accurate way to measure what “message” the sales force was
communicating day to day, week to week.
His sales cycle was long, and he didn't want to wait until he
saw actual sales numbers. Those sales could occur 6 to 12
months after the first sales call. He determined
to measure his sales forces' activity, (calling on new
prospects) not the results (sales to new prospects).
We struggled with a way to easily, fairly and accurately
measure the activity of calling on new prospects. And then it
hit us. Bingo! Suppose they allowed technology to help them
deliver the RIGHT MESSAGE as well as, help them in tracking
“new quotes” and opportunities...
We couldn't measure sales calls made to prospects, but we could
measure the next best thing -- quotes made to new prospects.
The system would be easy, accurate, and fair. We could also
measure... with real-time tools - “key message”
delivery.
What we wanted the salespeople to communicate... those “key
messages” were added to the system and viewed by the
salesperson each time they made a call. By clicking a box for
the message that was delivered, we were able to track which
message was actually the most effective.
Having decided that, it was an easy step to give each
salesperson a quarterly expectation for the number of "quotes
made to new prospects." Our strategic initiative, "Gain market
share," turned into a measurable expectation for each
salesperson, "Generate X quotes per month to prospects not on
the database."
In the past, another client of ours “process” of monitoring
on-the-job performance and keeping proper employee evaluation
records was a laborious one. What our client "used to do" was
forward a Word document (essentially a checklist) to all of
their managers across the country for monthly progress reports
on their employees. The managers would in turn fill out the
form and email it back to the administrator.
When all of the record forms were received, the administrator
would compile the information and submit it all to Human
Resources, so that they could decide who gets promoted and who
gets a salary increase.
This process was not only time-consuming, but reports couldn't
be optimized in real-time (they had to wait once a month to
collect all of the documents from the field). In addition to
lost productivity, that current system allowed for people to
basically "slack off".
When the online performance management tool was rolled out to
their organization, productivity increased immediately. What
they got was...
-
a central repository for over 300 individual performance
appraisals which could be easily searched upon by
management and HR.
- an easy to use, online "update" form where managers
could check off items that were completed and add their
comments as to how the employee performed vs the goals that
were set.
- a place where managers could go, whenever they
wanted... essentially the forms were online, 24x7 and could
be accessed and updated at any time, from anywhere with a
computer.
- instant, real-time feedback - which allowed for
actionable information to be at their fingertips, when they
needed it most.
- HR could now benchmark who the "star performers" were,
who were on the training and development "fast track" for
promotion, in real-time. No longer did they have to wait
for monthly updates.
Their ROI was significant - but witnessed mostly through the
time that they saved and their newly-found ability to make
quicker decisions.
Let’s Quickly Review: There are two critical things that we are
measuring here: the number of potential opportunities in the
pipeline, as well as, the effectiveness of our objective
“measuring” and tying that back on an individual employee/
salesperson basis.
Utilizing the right type of technology can effectively let you
deliver your message, measure and train your employees and
track your “new quotes”, opportunities or “key positioning”
statements, all through one system.
The right system would allow you to benchmark and evaluate
the effectiveness of your training program, measure it against
the actual objectives and goals achieved, while simultaneously
delivering the right message to each prospect and client that
you touch, every time.
Here’s the system in a nutshell.
1. Come up with your “positioning statements” - what makes you
different? Why should your prospect consider you as the obvious
choice over your competition? What elements position you and
your company as the experts in your marketplace? These key
positioning statements need to be recorded and measured for
their individual effectiveness. If you have a way to automate
the tracking of these key messages... you’re ahead of the
game.
2. Create individual scorecards, by role or position. The
scorecards need to contain the criteria and objectives that are
important to the success of your campaign. A SMAART goal could
be - “deliver 15 new ‘quotes’ in the first quarter”. Another
goal could be - “back-sell” or “cross-sell” 1 present client /
per month.. into some of your other products and solutions.
List these “goals” down the card, include a sign off date, a
“rating” - 1-5, and a comments section to document results and
feedback.
3. Based on the results of #2, develop training courses and
presentations that can be scheduled and delivered automatically
to those individuals based on the evaluations derived from your
scorecards.
What you end up with is a new type of marketing/sales force
that is delivering your key message based on their own
individual objectives. But most importantly, you now have a
“real” method to track the effectiveness of your marketing, as
well as the ability to tie-back your individual training
directly to performance objectives.
Most business owners think they can just deliver product
knowledge, send their salespeople on the road and everything
just takes care of itself. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong.
Most games are not one with HOME RUNS. Most games are won by
doing all the right things, hitting, fielding and delivering
good, sound “pitching” that position you as the expert and
obvious choice for your customers. When you do that and do it
right - you sales and marketing programs transform
overnight.
And, by using the right technology to manage everything - you
maximize your resources, your productivity and your overall
effectiveness and can reach the heights that you’ve only dreamt
about.
Stay Frosty.
George
About the Author:
George Ritacco is the Director of Client Services for Global
Vision Technologies, Inc (GVT)., www.globalvisiontech.com a
premiere software developer specializing in powerful,
easy-to-use Internet systems for online training and
development, sales and marketing intelligence, pharmaceutical
sales ops, case management, and court reimbursement. GVT’s
primary goal is to provide our customers with tools for
improving productivity, profitability, employee morale and
turnover.
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:-)
Source: http://www.ezineartcles.com
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