SFE Framework Fault Finder
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Look Up – Company Strategy
Account
Segmentation
Buyer Personas & Buyer
Process Maps
Lead Generation
Demand Generation & Lead
Management
1
Develop
Sales
Strategy
Sales Process
Map customer/prospect buying process to custom built sales
process
Channels
2
Determine optimal route to market
Sales Force
Structure
Organizational model
effectiveness vs. efficiency
Sales Force Size
Match selling capacity to
market demand
Sales Infrastructure
Talent Management, Territory Design, Sales Management, Sales
Performance Management, Compensation, Onboarding
1
Look Around – Delivery/Product
3
4
Develop
Go-toMarket
Plan
Design
Sales
Force
Build
Infrastruc
ture
Look Up – Company Strategy
How does this impact Making the Number?
• If Sales strategy does not align with Corporate strategy,
the ‘number’ may not be appropriate or the Sales
force may be wasting effort on the wrong activities.
Possible faults?
• Corp strategy ignored or misapplied.
• Sales strategy not followed.
• No monitoring of strategy alignment.
What to do for 2014?
• Get the corporate and sales strategies.
• Discuss them with the appropriate parties in order to
completely understand them.
• Draft measurements and a monitoring process to
enable ongoing strategy alignment and execution.
• Facilitate a meeting between sales and corp leadership
to propose your approach for ensuring 2014 strategy
execution.
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Account Segmentation
How does this impact Making the Number?
• If accounts are not segmented or the buyer population
is not ‘known’, sales efforts are wasted going after
prospects that are not likely to buy. .
Possible faults?
• Lacked a crystal clear Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
• Did not build buyer personas or journeys.
• Stayed with status quo account/prospect targeting.
What to do for 2014?
• Help Sales to build an Ideal Customer Profile.
• Offer HR resources to request, schedule and perform
buyer interviews.
• Facilitate Marketing and Sales to identify and build
buyer personas and Buyer Process Maps (BPMs) with
micro-questions.
• Ensure Marketing is trained for the use of personas
and BPMs in developing marketing materials.
• Plan and procure training for the sales force on:
– Buyer personas
– BPMs
– Latent vs. Active Demand sales cycles
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Lead Generation
How does this impact Making the Number?
• A lack of quality leads for the sales team to run
through opportunity management reduces the chance
to make the number. Also, leads that go un-nurtured
fall out of consideration of your products/services.
Possible faults?
• No clear agreement between Sales and Marketing was
obtained on lead and opportunity definitions..
• Guidance to Marketing not provided on the most
effective spend of dollars and resources.
• Ineffective resources staffed in the Lead Development
Rep (LDR) role.
What to do for 2014?
• Facilitate Sales & Marketing on a clear definition of
when leads are passed to sales and when they remain
in marketing for nurture.
• Help Sales learn how to effectively prospect and fit
their efforts into a lead process that works.
• Determine with Sales and Marketing if the LDR role
profile should be changed.
• Assess current LDR staff and manage talent
replacement or augmentation where needed.
– Look for candidates that are involved in adult education.
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Sales Process
How does this impact Making the Number?
• Sales processes help make success repeatable by
aligning to how a buyer buys.
• A sales process provides built in metrics to ensure
better forecasting and focused coaching opportunities.
Possible faults?
• The Sales process and sales aids were not adopted and
adhered to or were abused.
• Sales management was not held accountable for the
uptake of the sales process.
• Training and reinforcement of the process and sales
aids did not ensure ongoing effectiveness.
What to do for 2014?
• Ensure Sales and Marketing look at the complete
buyer cycle to ensure any sales or marketing processes
are aligned to the way a buyer buys.
• Update training materials to include reinforcement
activities.
• Employ gamification methods with the updated
training.
• Work with Sales leadership to check that sales
management compensation and objectives put them
in the responsible position of sales process success.
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Channels
How does this impact Making the Number?
• Using a single channel may not effectively reach all
buyer types or markets.
• Channel-to-market mismatches cause excessive cost.
Possible faults?
• Training materials are not geared for any indirect
(external) channels or partners.
• Assessment of go-to-market strategies was not
performed – often along with a misunderstanding of
the company’s true buyers/markets.
• Existing talent not assigned to the correct roles (for
example, direct rep in an inside sales rep role or vice
versa.)
What to do for 2014?
• Push Sales to assess current go-to-market strategies,
especially with a perspective from the buyers and
markets.
• Revamp or augment training materials on products,
markets, sales processes, etc. so that they are more
‘channel’ friendly – both internal and external
channels.
• Assess talent to ensure that all roles (direct reps, inside
reps, channel or partner managers, etc.) are
adequately and effectively staffed.
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Sales Force Structure
How does this impact Making the Number?
• Unclear sales organizations cause role corruption and
the ‘too many generals’ problem – leads to too much
effort internally and not enough customer facing time.
Possible faults?
• Performance management has not provided macro
indicators of sales force capabilities or excesses.
• Time studies or employee surveys missed obvious
evidence of low productivity.
• Optimal org structure advice was not provided or went
unheeded.
What to do for 2014?
• Ensure performance management monitoring and
reports reveal actionable thresholds when they occur.
For example, too many accounts for one sales rep, but
not enough for another.
• Take a look at the complete sales and marketing
organizations to determine if there is redundancy or
inefficiencies to be corrected.
• Instead of or in conjunction with an employee
engagement survey, query sales reps on their time
management behaviors to identify those areas that
take them away from customer/prospect facing time.
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Sales Force Size
How does this impact Making the Number?
• Not enough reps of the right type means markets may
be underrepresented.
• Too many reps in a market causes buyers to be
confused and have “seller fatigue” – and go where it is
easier to buy.
Possible faults?
• Sales teams have been allowed to grow or stagnate
without a link to overall structure strategies.
• No workforce management measurements have been
applied to the sales force.
• Metrics in HR are too focused on vacancy or total
headcount – not considering market potential.
What to do for 2014?
• Take a look at the complete sales and marketing
organizations to determine if there is redundancy or
inefficiencies to be corrected.
• Facilitate Sales and Marketing in the assessment of
market potential to determine if the sales force is
over- or undersized.
• Come up with calculations that help Sales understand
the expected gain from a single hire based on market
potential and skills match.
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Sales Force Infrastructure
How does this impact Making the Number?
• The talent of the sales force is not high enough for
consistent number making – especially in a changing
buyer market.
• Performance conditions do not provide for a successoriented environment where sales can excel.
Possible faults?
•
•
•
•
Recruiting and hiring practices get the wrong people.
Talent has not been assessed, developed or managed.
Sales Comp drives the wrong behaviors.
Tools and infrastructure are lacking or are too
cumbersome for efficient use.
What to do for 2014?
• Do a complete talent assessment of the sales force.
• Determine the factors in the environment that repel
(or prevent retention of) A player reps.
• Ensure Sales compensation and related quota setting
pass the 13+ tests for success.
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Look Around – Other Areas
How does this impact Making the Number?
• Other department activities may cause customer
attrition or prevent sales fulfillment.
Possible faults?
• Delivery functions not aligned with Sales.
• Customer service/support not goaled on helping Sales.
• Product development not working with Sales.
What to do for 2014?
• Determine what other areas may have an impact on
Sales.
• Identify areas that may be causing lower customer
satisfaction, customer attrition or “bad press”.
• Help work with all areas to have mutual metrics and
objectives in place.
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