DAEMON QUEST - Ángel Bonet

Keys to optimizing the Sales Force

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 13:02:20 +0200

Sales activity is fundamental, vital, and very complex for any company. A recent study undertaken among 178 company directors worldwide reveals that 55% of sales networks in large companies are incapable of satisfactorily analyzing sales opportunities. It is time for companies to accept that, in an environment of fierce competition and tight budgets, Sales Force Optimization is a critical mission.

Some of the keys to obtaining the maximum performance from the Sales Network at the best price:

Create an intelligent “targeting”: determining target customers is always at the origin of an intelligent sales planning. According to this aspect, it will be possible to design the investments to be carried out: how many salespeople to dedicate, what channels to use, what actions to undertake, in what period of time, and how frequently, etc.
Proper Sales Force Sizing: Sizing does not mean reducing channels and salespeople to a minimum. Sizing means optimally adjusting the sales resources to the potential market. The calculation of the size of the sales force is a critical task, because the network of salespeople can absorb up to 30% of a large company’s sales budget.
Resource allotment: when we know which customers are the most interesting (targeting) and we have a well-sized sales force (sizing), the next step is to assign each customer the appropriate sales and Marketing investments (resource allotment). Determining the number of times we will contact the customer, deciding what channels will be used, or what frequency of visits to establish and by what channel, are part of “resource allotment” actions.
Sales Force Distribution The most common method is geographical: assigning resources according to a specific sales area – whether they be postal codes, “bricks”, Nielsen zones, or others-, but the challenge is to optimize the relationship between geographical area and number of salespeople, always keeping in mind that the best salesperson is not always the one who sells most, but rather the one who gets the most out of the area’s potential, according to its possibilities.
Channel assignment and management: In-person visits, telephone calls, Internet, SMS… Each customer segment must be assigned one or more channels – multi-channelism is a booming phenomenon to be taken advantage of-, according to its value.
Opportunity Factory: an optimization of the Sales Force must necessarily translate into the creation of an “opportunity factory” that constantly alerts us to the times when there are new sales, new contracts, loyalization actions and retention of customers at risk of abandonment.
Coordination of Sales and Marketing: the rivalry between the areas of Marketing and Sales directly harms the results account. It is time that both departments coordinate themselves for their mutual benefit.

Force and Sales are two words as attractive as they are complementary, which, when combined, can be a company’s best sales tool. Learn more about how to optimize them by reading the following articles...

What is Customer Intelligence?

Sun, 26 Feb 2006 12:25:16 +0100

The CRM bubble exploded quite some time ago, and it was more proof of the need for a project’s strategy and operative to advance, if not at the same rate, at least with each other’s help.

In this article, Angel Bonet, partner at Daemon Quest, explains the Fundamentals of what is called Customer Intelligence. A combination of techniques that allows us to convert information into knowledge.

The majority of companies are facing a new paradox with their customer’s information. More information = Greater difficulty in decision-making. This is due to the fact that the information on transactions with the customers and the contribution of the new systems ERP and CRM is gross information and data, neither qualified nor segmented. Customer Intelligence is a combination of analytical techniques that converts these enormous amounts of gross information on the transactions into scientific information ready for decision-making. Its existence in Spain is relatively new, but in a very short time it has proven that its possibilities are endless, as are its applications in the business world.

Intelligence for the Sales Force

Fri, 17 Jun 2005 13:22:57 +0200

Before beginning a road trip, we try to plan the route at all levels: where we are headed to, what the best way to get there is, what schedule is the most appropriate, we problems we might have, and how to solve them, what to take with us... Nobody thinks about starting out without even knowing where they’re going. However, in the sales plan, this paradoxical situation occurs more often than you might imagine.

When considering the commercialization of a product or service, every company
Is aware that they need to use a sales channel, whether it be their own, indirect, or mixed.
What not everybody does, despite it allowing much greater possibility of success, is make
a strategic plan of the whole process. We will need a sales network, of course, but what is the appropriate size for it? How frequently should sales reps make visits according to their client portfolio? How can we evaluate our team?: attending to the area’s potential or to the sales that the reps make?

How to make an authentic Force out of Sales

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 17:14:12 +0200

Title: The Complete Guide to Accelerating Sales Force Performance
Authors: Andris A. Zoltners, Prabahkant Sinha y Greggor A. Zoltners
Publisher: American Management Association (2001)

One of the aspects dealt with least in Marketing manuals is the sales force. In the majority of reference books, the curriculum focuses on aspects of a global strategy, more related to the brand, the image, or the product than how to achieve results effectively. The importance of the sales force in goal attainment, although it is vital, is usually left aside.

Sales Force Effectiveness. Sales Network Optimization

Sat, 26 Mar 2005 13:17:31 +0100

Abstract

New ways of managing sales networks are arriving with force, based on Sales Intelligence.
Sales planning must be based on the previous analysis of customers, the potential market, the competition, and the sales network itself. Once all this analysis is done, we must design goals and proceed to assign resources.
“Customer allocation” constitutes one of the pillars of the sales strategy.
Despite the boom of certain software tools (“Sales Force Automation”, ETMS, CRM...), these do not always involve the sales force in achieving better results. A Sales Intelligence strategy is necessary in order to support the sales representatives in attaining their goals.
The rise of new sales channels has changed the way in which sales networks are organized and coordinated.
Correctly sizing the sales network translates into aspects such as the proper location of the network, the presence of reps in areas with high growth potential, and the proper layout in terms of the competition.
Geomarketing, or geographical sales analysis, is the tool with which to correctly size the sales force, since it allows us to recognize on a map the measurements that identify markets and target customers.

A company’s success depends in large part on the performance of its sales team; an item that usually constitutes 20-30% of any company’s costs. Few organizations worry about structuring their sales networks and revolving their strategies around the axis of customer value. Only by placing the customer at the center of sales planning is it possible to properly size sales networks and correctly assign the necessary channels and resources.

1. From the old sales networks to the New Sales Strategy

For many companies, the sales force represents the spinal cord of their organizations. In a multinational such as Avon, a large part of its business success comes from relying on an enormous army of representatives that, door-to-door and living room-to-living room, has shown, tested, and sold its products, giving the company a familiar and personal tone that a large part of the competition lacks.While the cost of personal sales represents between 8 and 15% of a company’s spending, as opposed to the estimated percentage of advertising costs (an average of 1-3%), the effort has paid off for Avon.It currently has more than 3.5 million distributors worldwide, 700 million customers, and a turnover of more than 6 billion dollars annually (more than 2.5 billion dollars go to commissions for sales reps).

Debunking myths

Thu, 03 Feb 2005 18:21:33 +0100

Business logia has given rise to a series of beliefs which, seen from the policy of orientation towards the customer, are somewhat less than half-truths. One of them is the one that contends that he who has the most customers is the market leader. When those customers generate little value in comparison to what the company spends on them, they become dead weight that can lead a company to bankruptcy.

Nor are the most solvent customers always the best for companies. In the case of credit entities and banks, it seems clear that the best customers are those that can clear their debt in the shortest time possible, because that allows the organization to quickly recuperate the money it loaned. However, in the long-term this is not true, since the more time a consumer takes to repay a loan, the more interest they must pay and, most likely, the more services they will use.

Seeing with the client’s eyes

Sat, 01 Jan 2005 12:09:53 +0100

Advertising and marketing campaigns, whether they be direct or mass, are inundating our lives. E-mail inboxes have become a new bottomless pit where every day hundreds of unrequested sales offers land. And these offers don’t even respond to our needs. The cinema and television constantly broadcast images that invite us to consume, sometimes in a veiled way, sometimes eloquent. In the sports world, sponsorship even includes the bodies of athletes and swimmers, which is living proof of the triumph of the new commercial aesthetic that rules in this young century. But the efficiency of these strategies is more than debatable.

Tesco: 100% commitment to customers

Sat, 01 May 2004 17:27:14 +0200

Company: Tesco

Objectives: improving the company’s image; increasing market share in Great Britain and becoming the sector leader.

Solution: total focus on customer in all company processes; Clubcard; improvements in distribution network and points of sale, optimization of layout and management by categories.

Result: Tesco is the leading supermarket chain in the country.

The British supermarket chain Tesco is a perfect example of the maxim that focusing on the customer can save a company from failure. The company’s poor service and lack of popularity with the public led, in the 1980’s, to using the expression “Doing a Tesco” as an equivalent to failure.