Metrics Steering the Ship

 

“High-performing sales teams use data as the foundation for their success. Whether looking to increase sales, maximize profit, grow the sales team or beat the competition, the good news is sales leaders have more than enough data readily available in their customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other systems. The key for sales teams is to identify the most impactful data points and key performance indicators (KPIs), interpret the findings and take action to reach or exceed sales goals. An effective way to accomplish this is through well-defined sales KPIs.”

Oracle

 

When I first started in sales, if you had used the word metrics, it would have meant referring to the English system of measurement.

However, now if you use metrics in relationship to the sales and marketing world, almost everyone knows that you are referring to a set of measurable activities that correlate to sales productivity.

Of course, there were some elementary metrics being used. However, they were labeled as work goals or management mandates. At 3M, the benchmark activity was three in person demonstrations and to maintain an ongoing close list of five prospects every week.

In the safety distribution business, my personal benchmark was 20 personal visits with Level A prospects per week. Level A was defined as accounts that were producing or had the possibility of producing $200,000 dollars in sales per year. Keeping in mind this criterion has long been surpassed by time and inflation.

Now, in the advent of CRM software platforms and electronic tracking capabilities, in conjunction with historical productivity data, sales metrics have become more indicative of success.

The following list is a potential set of selling activity measurements that could be used construct an array of metrics for your sales team.

·       Phone calls: Prospecting and follow-up

·       E-mails: Prospecting, informational, newsletters, open rates and clicks

·       Conversations: Phone or in person. Not necessarily a sales conversation

·       Social media engagement: Number of engaging posts, views, and comments

·       Scheduled meetings: To confirm needs, bolster trust, inform and close

·       Demonstrations: Number of demos in correlation to the account potential in revenue

·       Sales presentations: Either individual product attributes or a system solution proposal

·       Referral requests: A superior method of gaining entry into a prospect

·       Proposals: A high quality, written sales contract with benefits detailed. Ready to implement.

·       Probability of a close: The sales teams best estimate of selling the product or service expressed as a percentage.

·       Closes: The exact dollar amount and type of product movement that take place as a result of the sales and marketing activity. To gain a perspective on the activity required to produce a viable income the term close rate is used. That simply means the average percentage of closes compared to the number of qualified proposals that take place.

A creative sales manager or consultant could easily double that list!

Here’s the concern over allowing a mandatory set of metrics to actually reduce sales productivity.

Number one is that a set of metrics that have been poorly communicated to the sales team can produce an over emphasis on hitting those marks and ignoring true sales opportunities. Keeping in mind that there is a limited amount of time and energy where your people are focused on presenting and closing business.

If the individual team members are convinced that their jobs are predicated on turning in the assigned number of reportable activities and not actual sales numbers, then with few exceptions the team will gravitate to the activities that impact their future employment.

Be keenly aware that your team will watch the consequences of their actions and the unofficial rules that play out in the company. If official guidelines are not enforced, then they lose their impact on your people. Make sure any latitude given is based on a firm set of criteria and can be explained to the sales team and senior management.

Concern number two is that the company has become locked into the measurement world and lost sight of utilizing the skills of the sales team members. Every measure should be taken to ensure that metrics don’t replace the best productivity efforts of your team members.

There are some concerns that great salespeople are best left to self-manage because they know what’s best to generate revenue. Don’t believe that lie.

Everyone needs some level of accountability. Everyone needs to be introduced to the latest tools in the sales and marketing world.

Don’t be deceived. There are salespeople who will turn in false numbers just because they are lazy or don’t trust the activity mandates will drive business.

Those people need to be confronted with the requirement to follow management directives.

There may also be situations where a different set of metrics are imposed based on a unique market that the salesperson has been assigned. Also, keep in mind the maturity, talent, experience, and demonstrated productivity in the past may allow more latitude with the mandatory activity compared to a sales newcomer. Let that be the exception, rather than the rule.

When the company and its sales managers lose sight of common sense and compassion because of a dogged determination to adhere to a set of key performance indicators, expect low morale and turnover.

 

 

No Mission Statement to Drive Day to Day Operations

One of the trademarks of a small business enterprise is the apparent willingness to assume the entire organization will understand the day-to-day mission of the company without communicating it to the team. This a critical issue for the sales team. Since they are more likely to be personally driven, they are left to go their own way without any consistent input on their activities,

 A mission statement is an action-oriented statement declaring the purpose an organization serves to its customers. It often includes a general description of the organization, its function, and its objectives.

Often, we will see a police department’s mission statement painted on their vehicles. The statement assumes that the citizens know that the statement is referring to the police when it states: “To serve and protect the lives, property and well-being of our citizens.”

This should encourage not only the officers, but the general public as well when they ask what purpose the police are serving.

One of my previous employers is Vallen Safety. Vallen is in the safety equipment and MRO supply business. Their mission statement says: “Our mission is to provide the products and services your business needs to build and maintain a safe, healthy and productive workplace.”

This provides the individual salesperson with an overview of their daily goals when they structure their day and ask themselves what’s the purpose of this phone call, preparation effort, and presentation. Granted, it does not address the highly competitive nature of selling in an MRO supply environment. However, it does serve as a directive to sell the correct products into the companies that have a need for those items. It also, provides a guideline for the product managers to stick to the core product lines and avoid diffusing the image and capabilities of the company.

It is important for the ownership of a small firm to develop and implement a mission statement for the company that is stressed on consistent basis. Your mission statement should make it very clear to the sales team what their focus must be when they interface with your prospects and customers. Your mission statement provides an aspect of hope to your team that the owners and management are engaged and concerned about the future of the company. Which, of course, includes them.

Not only does the mission statement provide guidance to the company, but it also provides an ever-present marketing effort on behalf of the company. Display it on your website, in your building, in the warehouse, at the bottom of your sales flyers, the back of business cards, at tradeshows, on quote responses, on social media, and on company sponsored webinars.

Use it as a tagline when introducing yourself in public. And use it as a banner on company newsletters.

The mission statement positions the company as a supplier of goodwill to your prospects, customers, and business associates. It should serve as a branding tool and a statement of principles that the ownership wants communicated into the business community.  

 

 

Failure of the Sales Team to Follow Up

If there is a cardinal sin for any salesperson, it is the failure to follow up on viable leads or closeable prospects. What constitutes a closeable lead can be very subjective. However, I would rather error on the cautious side than to assume an opportunity has passed me by.

There is a myriad of reasons why your prospect is not communicating. It may be that higher priority projects were assigned to them. They could have changed the capital budget criteria, so that your item had to go through a budgeting process. Don’t forget long-term illnesses and COVID type issues that stop projects in their tracks.

Economic downturns can put a halt to projects based on management directives to curtail spending. I have been in the selling field for four plus decades and have rarely outsold a downturn in the US economy.

Simply do not assume that silence from your prospect does not mean that the project has vanished.

And yes, I know it would have been so simple for your contact to drop you a quick note to let you know what happened. However, most of the time that simply does not happen.

I would also use other sources in the company to determine why there are delays. On several occasions in the past, I have contacted the staff secretary to ask if the person is well. At least that gives you a clue if something serious has happened to your primary contact.

There is a lesson to be learned here as well about getting to know as many people as you can and developing trust relationships to keep the flow of information coming.

Set up a follow up schedule based on your last correspondence with the prospect. Be sure to ask them why the purchase has been delayed. Don’t make a fool of yourself by following up to aggressively.

When you follow up, remind them of the previous communication, including the specific date referenced to lend credence to your follow up call.

If they are difficult to catch in person, follow up with other methods, including e-mails, texts, video clips and paper mail. Consider a donation to a charity in their name and then ask for a personal meeting.

One of my clients tried a FedEx letter which included a personal letter, pricing, and a company capabilities brochure to catch the prospect’s attention.

A recommended timetable might be a twice a week contact effort to start, then a weekly, a bi-weekly, and then a monthly outreach. Never let your follow up efforts go beyond a quarterly contact.    

All follow up efforts should be purposeful. State specifically why you are calling and add some aspect of closing now to expedite the business. Never make your contact effort so casual that it appears you are calling just to shoot the breeze or imply that the business is not important to you.

As a motivating factor, remind yourself how much of a sales and marketing effort that you and your company put into closing that sale.

As a sales manager, I knew exactly what the salary, benefits, and sales expenses where for myself and my sales team. We also knew our inside sales support team expenses and the amount of inventory held in stock. Once you have those numbers, minimum goals can be established to justify having a salesperson in the field.

Remember the number of people who are depending on you to close the business, so they can have a job that they depend on.

Gary D. Seale - MBA

Trucon Communications and Consulting

Austin, TX

 

 

 Business Priorities

We all know that time management is a simple concept that can make or break our productivity on any given day. Here's a simple tip to help structure your priorities.

Make a list of the action items that you would like to see accomplished. Day, Week, Month, quarter, 12 months.  For this article's sake, let’s work on a day.

Prioritize based on what’s going to contribute to your bottom line, and in conjunction what current deadlines that cannot be missed.

You have three options. 

1. Ignore it – wipe it off your should do list, it does not contribute          

2. Delegate it to someone else, or find a way to automate it.

3. Do it yourself and do it well, without the baggage of nagging, undone chores for the day. The sun will rise again tomorrow

For example, you have two important phone calls to expedite the order process. They will determine your workload for the remainder of the day. Make those.  You have a bid deadline tomorrow morning at 10 AM for a significant piece of business at a large potential account. Get it done.

You have a report due to senior management that not due for 10 more days. You need to make some progress, but the more pressing priorities require it to be pushed back.

You have fallen into the habit of reading the world financial news every morning, it contributes nothing to your business success factor. Save that energy and concern for a weekend effort or wipe it completely off your must do list.

Gary D. Seale - MBA Trucon Communications and 

Consulting   www.truconbd.com

 

Taking a Long Term Perspective
 
 

Having spent over half of my post college working career working in the industrial distribution business, I found the prevailing culture among the rank and file employees to be one of survival.  From my experience and conversations with people in other industries this experience is not radically different. 
 
In economically perfectly competitive businesses such as distribution, there are normally multiple outlets for essentially the same products.  This makes it very difficult to differentiate yourself.  And now in the age of internet commerce and increased information availability, it is even more difficult for providers of similar products to separate themselves from the pack.
 
The short term perspective driven by the competitive nature of industry causes many daily mistakes.  However, there have been some benefits to the customer in the form of rapid responses to requests for quotes, more rapid technical responses, prompt deliveries, product innovations and more efficient supply programs.
 
The felt need for instant responses from the suppliers causes people burnout, lost profit margins, lost business, inaccurate responses, compromised integrity and strife inside the company and outside the firm with all levels of stakeholders.
 
There are several ways to combat the pressure you may feel from the need to compress as much activity into as short amount of time as possible.  Number one is to do the most thorough, quality job possible in the time allowed and trust God to provide for your well being.  This type of attitude and conduct will honor God and significantly help in reducing time pressured errors.
 
Another way to combat the stress and errors driven by a short term viewpoint is to get a firm grasp on the long term impact of your decisions.  You must ask yourself if the value of delivering an unqualified technical response, a poorly researched bid, a partially developed product, a poorly written report or unprepared sales call is worth the risk. 
 
These are just a few examples of rushing through a process in business that demands a quality effort.  I’m sure you can think of many others in your area of expertise.  Simply stated, the risk of losing your integrity, reputation, concern for others and business opportunities is in no way compensated for by the time gained by cutting corners.
 
Try this proof of short term versus a long term perspective by grabbing a calculator and performing some simple math.
 
Fifty two weeks a year yield 260 working days.  Subtract 9 paid holidays and 10 days of vacation to yield 241 days.  Then begin to determine what percentage a week, a day, four hours and one hour represent as a percentage of that working year.
 

One Week = (5/241)	.02074 %	Or 2.1%     year.
One Day   = (1/241)	.00414 %	Or .004 %  year
4 Hours = (4/1928)	.00207 %	Or .002 %  year
1 Hour = (1/1928)	.0005186 %	Or .0005% year

 
 
Then begin to determine the time required to get the job done properly versus the rushed job that was perceived as necessary.  Look at the chart or perform the calculation your self.  What appeared to be a true crisis of time is in effect just a small fraction of the time available to accomplish the task.  This exercise will help you get a perspective on time when you are bogged down in a tedious but necessary task.  In addition, the proper amount of time can be allocated to truly important tasks.
 
Finally, step back and look at the importance of the task as if it took place one year ago.  With that perspective, what impact will the completion of the task have on the bottom line?  I am not recommending that workers ignore any task that does not make their personal priority list, but rather that tasks are given a level of importance commensurate with their long term importance.   
 
Yes, haste truly does make waste.  From poor designs, scrapped products, wasted time, and damaged reputations, the consequences run the gamut of tangible and intangible costs.
 
Application:
 
Are you finding yourself or your organization being pressured into the mistakes generated by haste?  Reflect on the quality of your work and how it honors God, look at the relative amount of time required versus the time available and take a long term perspective on the way you use your time.
 
 
 

 

Purchasing Wisdom

18 Items to consider before you make a capital purchase

In these days of outrageous marketing tactics and deceptive sales come ones, it would appear that discerning between fraud and legitimate offers would be an easy task.  Unfortunately, that is not always the case.

 

The crafty company knows to mix enough truth into the offer that will lend strong credibility to the business proposition.  The potential consumer owes it to their company to thoroughly check out the offer before proceeding with a major commitment.

 

The thorough investigation of the potential products and services falls under the category of due diligence responsibilities for the institutional consumer.  Some commonly asked questions and activities required before a significant business to business purchase are as follows:

 Pre-Qualification Questions

• Product sampled and tested in a “real-life” situation
• Product performance meets or exceeds accepted engineering standards
• Product performance meets or exceeds internal company criteria
• Warranty provisions
• Competitive market pricing provided
• Ability to meet delivery criteria
• Determine financial stability of the supplier
• Commitment to support product with parts and engineering support for a minimum period of time
• Training provisions-personal, computer and written programs
• Local support necessary?
• Back up inventory available within specific period of time
• Repair capability
• Willingness to custom program or engineer product changes
• Product history provided – mean time between failures
• Third party references
• UL, CE, or other testing agencies approval
• ISO listings, internal, external quality audit scores provided
• Totally unique product or multiple sources of similar product available

 

These types of criteria help protect the institutional consumer, but what clues can we use to protect ourselves against unscrupulous providers of personal goods and services?

 

Once again research in the area of a potential purchase is an important aspect of avoiding a painful personal decision.  The internet allows us a significant method of comparing features and pricing in many common product categories.  Look closely at features versus pricing in comparable items.  The old cliché that says if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, holds a great deal of truth.

 

A good example is used automobiles.  You will typically see a correlation between age, miles on the car and brand.  The newer the car and the lower the miles, the higher the price.  High miles on a newer car drives down the cost.  Low miles on an older car will command a higher price than a car the same age, but with more miles on it.  Other aspects such as gas mileage, sound systems and comfort features will demand variations in pricing.

 

Don’t get pushed into the “same day” close tactics employed by many high ticket consumer items.  Most of these methods are used to complete a sale when your emotions are running strongly in favor of ego satisfaction and not the long term cost of credit.  And it is rarely true that “there is only one item left like this.” 

 

Watch for the fine print in contracts which may weigh heavily in favor of the seller.  This is especially true is some financing options, where interest rates can be escalated dramatically in the case of tardiness.

 

We all should know there are physical clues to someone who is malicious in their pursuit of business.  As stated in Proverbs 10:10, “He who winks maliciously causes grief, and a chattering fool comes to grief.”

 

Watch closely for other clues such as a lack of eye contact, absolute statements about the superiority of their product, strong bait and switch tactics, overly emotional appeals and the inability to adequately explain the features of their product.  Look at the physical appearance of their facilities, the individual salespeople, the product brochures, printed forms, and record keeping procedures.

 

I clearly remember being taken by a local attorney in my hometown over a teenage fender bender incident.  Convinced I was in the right, (despite the traffic ticket I received).   I hired a wrong side of the tracks lawyer based on the recommendation of some friends.

 

His office was a disaster of piled up paperwork and dust in a small frame building in the center of town by the railroad freight depot.  His physical appearance was unkempt and he quickly took my case and money.  On the day of the trial he appeared late and unprepared.  The judge quickly found me guilty as charged.  My attorney told me to go to the clerk and plead “nolo contendre” and he would see that the charge did not go on my driving record.  However, what actually took place was that he paid the reduced fine and pocketed the remainder of the fee.  My ignorance of the legal system and poor choice of attorney cost me and the other party involved, money and time.  It also meant higher insurance bills for me, a driving record incident and the sting of legal system distrust generated by the lackadaisical approach used by my lawyer.

 

These examples are just a reminder that it always pays to practice wise purchasing tactics or suffer the consequences.  Therefore, don’t get caught up in the folly of fools by rushing into quick decisions or failing to ask the appropriate questions.  The penalty you bring on yourself will be justly deserved.

 

 

Guiding Principles

 

How many of you are married with children or had brothers and sisters?  I’m sure you noticed the personality differences despite the almost identical upbringing.  Family life closely resembles a scientific experiment without the control factors.  Testing and research prove that certain aspects of our personality are inherited.  Gene research has proved how amazingly similar we all are, but how a little rearranging of the DNA makes us uniquely different.

 

We know by observation and previous studies that people often fall into four distinct personality styles. 

 

1.     Outgoing

2.     Domineering

3.     Perfectionists

4.     Low key

 Let’s accept as a premise that some people have a little leg up in our culture by personality style.  In the business culture that exists, the domineering types and perfectionists tend to do better than the fun loving/outgoing or low key personality types. And yes of course, there are exceptions!  Now let’s complicate the issue by revealing that the primary emotional and learning capabilities we have, are established between the ages of 1 and 5. The most revealing fact here is that you are emotionally established by your environment at a very early age.  

 

Remember the obligatory computer programming course you had to take in High School or College?  G. I. G. O., Garbage In Garbage Out.  It looks like our lifestyle has the same premise.

 

What if we changed the programming to E. I. E. O?   Excellence In Excellence Out.

 

Could that make a difference?          

 

Now we have established that we are pre-wired, but to a large extent we are like a brand-new computer.  The basic operating programs are installed, but the hard drive still has a tremendous capacity for more programs.

 

You may have some obstacles to overcome, or you may have had a tremendously nurturing, joyful childhood.  But the truth is as adults, we all have a choice about how we are going to act.  Some old negative programming can be overwritten with enough diligence.  The human mind has amazing capacity if it is stretched. All of us have a tremendous capability to change if the right energy and discipline is applied.

 

Here is a little tip to help you during a time of transition.  Remember the old remedy for controlling anger?  Count to 10 before you speak?  Think of life’s daily events as an A-B-C event sequence.  Instead of potentially explosive incident A leading to negative reaction C.  Insert the filter B into the thought process.  B is the filtering thought that allows us to consider the consequences of our actions.  That will be one small step in reprogramming our thinking.

 

If we want to develop an internal source of motivation, then I suggest we adopt a model used by many wise individuals and companies.

 

Establish 3-6 guiding principles for your life and develop a mission statement that addresses the goals you have set for yourself.  The principles should be the guiding beacons that direct the mission statement you develop.

 

The principles should be axioms that will not change due to circumstances or time.  Therefore, they are long term value statements on the way to run your life.  Principles should be statements such as:

 

1.     I will treat others with respect, dignity, and deep concern for their wellbeing. (Golden Rule Mentality)

2.     I will always practice truthfulness and integrity.

3.     I will not give my commitment to anything that I cannot or will not keep.

4.     I will give 100% to anything I commit to.

5.     I will practice the highest quality and fairness in all my endeavors.

6.     My primary motivation is a God centered relationship.

 

The principles guide the mission statement.  The mission statements can be short- or long-term goals.  Goals may be actions or activities such as:

 

•        I will earn my MBA within 3-4 years

•        I will lose 15 lbs by years end

•        My company will achieve the agreed upon sales and profitability goals for this fiscal year.

•        My company will earn an ISO 9001 rating within 10 months

•        I will learn enough Spanish to have a working vocabulary within the next 24 months

 

Does it sound too simple to be true, can it really be that easy?  How do you produce a habit, and eliminate old thinking styles?

 

Work hard to eliminate or reduce the old, ingrained thought patterns that had a negative impact on your personal and business life, realizing that they are punitive to you and others around you.  Replace the old self diminishing thoughts with your set of guiding principles.  Print out a copy or jot your principles on a note card and place it in your day timer or wallet.  Read that list of principles before you go to work in the morning, noon and night.  Review your daily conduct considering the principles you have set for yourself. 

 

Strive to correct any conduct deficiencies.

 

Your principles will direct the approach you take to achieve your goals.  Set logical, step by step approaches to the accomplishment of these goals in reasonable time periods.  Check your progress periodically and you will be pleasantly surprised at the accomplishments.

 

In addition to your repetitive review of the guiding principles, try these things to assist with your new internal motivation goal.

 

•        Read books that provide insight into admirable character

•        Sign up for a course in your area of interest

•        Memorize your principles and focus on them to guide your plans

•        Develop a positive, can-do attitude

•        Develop and conduct action-oriented objectives

•        Be aware, your self-value is secure in God’s love, failures are learning events

•        Focus on the important, leave the trivial behind

•        Deeply value relationships 

•        Be other centered

•        Surround yourself with can do people

•        Avoid anger and judgmental thinking

•        Seek out positive personal growth

•        Get a proper diet, rest, and exercise

•        Enjoy life

 

In conclusion, success has three important components:

 

1.     Drive: The internal desire to obtain a goal

2.     Personal focus: The ability to focus on your goals and avoid trivial activities

3.     Discipline: Working through difficult issues that will help us obtain our goals

 

  

 

Apply these principles to build the motivation that will carry you to success in your life. Replace the old with the new and positive.  Remember; you determine your attitude, not life’s circumstances.  Focus on the things within your control and don’t let those outside your control bother you.  Utilize your principles and goals to direct your life to new levels of achievement.

 

Gary D. Seale - MBA

The Trucon Consulting Group

www.truconbd.com