Managing Channels and Manufacturing Opportunities

Whenever a company’s sales force is mentioned, we tend to mentally recall the old techniques of classic manuals. However, that course of action is dead and has given way to a new strategy based on scientific intelligence, which transforms the sales team into not only an efficient, accurate instrument, but also a true opportunities factory. In what way? It’s very clear: the salespeople are the ones that have their fingers on the pulse of any organization’s customers, and therefore they receive the majority of the information customers transmit: their needs, their interest in other products, their changes and evolution. They are consequently the ones that should identify the opportunities for carrying out the majority of sales initiatives.
This factory of opportunities is built with an appropriate Sales Intelligence strategy. I have the product, the services, the available investment, and the sales team. Now, in the next step, instead of assigning customers randomly or by volume, personalized visits, mailings, or any foreseen initiative in the sales development, the proper sales force management will include five basic steps that are essential to achieving effectiveness.

• Targeting. It is essential to determine which customers are strategic for the company, in such a way that marketing resources are assigned proportionally to the interest that each customer holds. The number of assigned salespeople, recommended channels, specific actions, time period, frequency of visits, and, in short, the entire plan, must revolve around the proper segmentation of customer.
•  Channel assignment. Once the target customers are identified, it is critical to correctly assign the appropriate channel by which to reach them. Apart from the traditional alternatives between direct or intermediary sales, the appearance of new means such as the Internet has given rise to new phenomena in the sales field, such as multi-channelism and de-intermediation in order to make sales actions maximally profitable.
• Sizing the sales force. Now we are at the stage when the company has a clear idea of what channels should be assigned to each customer segment. The next strategic step is to properly size the resources that will be dedicated to each of these groups, according to the sales potential we face, in such a way that avoids the risk of rash or unprofitable investments beforehand.
• Location. Once sized, the sales force must be placed in the most appropriate manner. Most commonly, companies use a geographical distribution, although some opt for divisions by product, and the most advanced are already using divisions based on mirror networks, which assign several managers to each area.
• Resource Allotment. The last, but not least strategic, step is to allot resources: assign the proper sales resources and channels to each customer, according to their value. At bottom, it’s a matter of following a constant maxim and always focusing on the customer as a starting point, in such a way that the most profitable customers are given greater attention and dealt with by means of a pro-active sales strategy in which the initiative is taken, as much as possible, by the company.

This last step is the closing of a process that must now be different in companies, the fruit of the profound transformation that sales force management is undergoing. In the end, there is an underlying question every company must answer: Do I treat the sales network as a crucial part of my results account, or do the sales networks themselves manage the results account using their own criteria? Sales power has rested too much in the hands of salespeople; but are my salespeople a factory of opportunities?