Thought Leadership Guide to Next Year
Instructions for the top sales leader:
1. Forward this to specific managers within your organization
2. Ask each manager to click on link for his area of responsibility (or assign links)
3. Tell managers to review links, compare to current practice, and put appointment in
your calendar to discuss
4. Appointment must occur in next 3 weeks.
5. Prioritize initiatives by using 2 criteria: ease of implementation and size of potential
return
6. If you need approval or funding to proceed and must make your case to the C suite,
use this presentation guide.
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Sales Process
o Do you sell the way your customers want to buy? Or the way you always
have? Do your reps know what to say when they speak with a prospect, or do
they use their own system? Think about this now – if there’s a gap, you will
need time to close it.
Sales Training
o Is it happening? If so, is it a one-time “event,” or is it a regular occurrence in
the field? Is it Agile? Does the top sales leader “own” it, or has it been
delegated to a corporate trainer who has little credibility?
Talent Management
o Over half of a sales expense budget consists of direct labor costs making the
relative importance of getting the most out of the team a key sales force
effectiveness driver. This takes time. You can’t afford to start thinking about
this during projection season.
Channel Management
o Once a company has decided to use a professional sales force to perform
some of the essential work, a question emerges: Should the selling be done by
a company owned sales force, or, should the company employ a selling
partner? If you sell through channels, how do you onboard, train, evaluate,
and it necessary, “fire” a channel partner? Get a better system in place before
next year begins.
Demand Generation
o Demand Generation is the science of stimulating interest in your company,
product, or services. Many companies still try to do this in a very old fashioned
and expensive way. They call prospect in the office (no one answers) and
knock on doors (no one wants to see you). Start now learning about how you
can do this more effectively and efficiently.
Thought Leadership Guide to Next Year
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Lead Management
o Lead Management is how you handle a lead once it comes into your
organization. At many companies, the lead is given to a sales rep. If the
prospect does not buy, the lead is never seen again. The link above can be
your starting point to learn how to nurture leads next year.
Territory Design
o Distribute revenue potential fairly. We’ve all seen the average rep become a
superstar because they happen to land in a great territory. But how much
revenue was left on the table? Even more tragic is the sharp, hard worker
who fails because of an unsustainable territory. Companies inevitably try to
“tweak” territories at year-end. Do not proceed on gut feel. Start now and
do the research.
Sales Force Sizing and Structure
o Sales Force Sizing focuses on determining the optimal amount of sales
capacity needed to properly service the market place. And world class sales
organizations that properly configure the sales capacity generate 16% more
revenue than those that do not. This is Sizing and Structure. It takes time,
because you can’t do one without the other. Start now.
Compensation Planning
o At this link, you’ll find some helpful compensation tools. Once you tackle the
sizing, structure, and territory design items above, you will be ready to look
into compensation. Draw a line in the sand and rid your company of the
accumulation of revisions and modifications that have made your comp plans
cumbersome and impossible to explain.
Sales Enablement
o Sales Enablement = Sales Readiness. It is getting the sales force ready to
deliver the new product revenue quota. It designs a sales strategy specific to
a new product launch. By implementing a sales readiness strategy, the sales
force can successfully sell new products and enter new markets. How do you
do this now? Roll out video and a conference call? How many new product
releases do you anticipate next year? Getting a solid set of tools in place now
can help you make next year’s number.