Posted by Jim Kasper on Tue, Jan 26, 2010 @ 04:35 PM
Hope and Luck Are NOT Sound Account Penetration Strategies
...but if you are relying on them to boost your sales this year, you just may be in the mainstream of sales professionals we speak with every day. In other words, if you are hoping your customers...
- Purchase higher quantities from you this year
- Try NEW products/services you are introducing
- Replace current competitor purchases with your offerings
...you are probably leaving your good fortune up to LUCK and CHANCE! This is NOT a sound strategy.
More and more sales managers want to know "exactly where sales increases are coming from."
The answers are NOT:
"I hope that XYZ customer will buy more widget units this year!"
"With any luck, we should replace our primary competitor at XYZ customer this year!"
Yet we continuously hear sales managers expressing their frustrations with they hear these very answers and doubts about achieving the stated goals.
There are 2 processes that are key to successful account penetration (synonymous with increasing wallet share and includes effective cross-selling):
- The Pre-call Plan
- The Account Plan
The Account Plan
Account planning is a consultative sales approach that:
· Plans what a customer/prospect will buy from you during a given timeframe, usually the customer’s fiscal year.· Outlines a strategy to sell more to “A” accounts.· Sets an accountability timeline for purchases (decision-maker accountability).· Creates buy-in from the top of the organization and provides a “buying roadmap” for other influencers.· Places control of the sales process in YOUR hands.· Plans to replace competitive products.· Helps partners and department heads achieve goals and strategic initiatives.· Greatly assists forecasting.· Takes “hope” out of the sales process.The benefits of conducting account planning are:· Strengthens the relationship and loyalty with the decision-makers· Facilitates you becoming part of the customer decision-making process· Shortens the sales cycle· Provides a barrier of entry to competitors· Helps create more accurate forecasts· Provides sales management with several accountability points · Provides a roadmap for you to hit sales forecasts
The best ways to utilize an account plan:
1. Use it as a “consultative selling” tool to enlist the decision-maker’s buy-in
2. Base quarterly meetings with decision-makers on the plan for purchase accountability Successful global sales producers told us that once they have written the account plan, it is easy to produce a pre-call plan to insure account penetration.
Photo credit:lepiaf.geo
Posted by Tom Rothrock on Mon, Jan 11, 2010 @ 03:20 PM
Believe it or not and although some won't admit it, your sales reps are human!
And as humans, their approach to situations, people and events is formed by prior experience.
A good example is a story we heard about a fellow and a gas station air pump. The air pump had a defective pressure indicator and he overinflated his tire to the point where the tire burst and knocked him over. Although not seriously injured, for a very long time after the incident he was wary and suspicious of all air pumps and avoided them. He drove his car on underinflated tires and when the risks were pointed out to him, he would have somebody else put air in the tires of his car. Finally, a friend wisely suggested that he invest in a good tire pressure gauge so he could properly monitor his tires' pressure.
While the story is an extreme case and the solution is obvious, it does illustrate how experience impacts behavior.
"Big deal, I knew that!" you're thinking. "What does this have to do with sales and sales reps?"
If you manage reps who've been selling for any length of time you must be aware their actions and performance are impacted by the accumulation of their experiences. Those experiences can be very beneficial to their ability to build rapport, establish specific industry/segment credibility, and incorporate best practices for future success. After all, experience results in seasoning and strength.
But a rep's prior experiences can be an obstacle to their success, too. In the case of favorable experiences, such as winning a string of opportunities, they're acknowledged and awarded for their strong performance by you and their peers.
Based upon that experience, your rep may decide that a "one size fits all" approach will work when calling on the next prospect. Although the environment, circumstances, and the players have all changed, your rep may take an inappropriate strategy that will result in lost deals instead of closed ones. Prospects shut down when they're being called on by a rep who claims to "really know their business" before the first question is asked.
One rep we know - who'd been very successful in selling to IT - fell to that very flaw. After closing a series of deals, he assumed all he had to do was to follow a formula which was to impress upon his prospects the significance of what he'd done for others. That strategy can be an effective one, but not in all cases as the rep failed to recognize the differences in the varying needs between his prospects. As a result, his sales went into a tailspin.
What do you do to avoid this happening to one of your reps?
Obviously, you can't be on every call; both geography and time limit your ability to do that. An effective tool in your sales manager's toolbox would be to mandate pre-call planning. You can then review calls before they occur and perform some very useful managerial diagnostics. A few pointers for you to look for are:
- Patterns. Look for patterns that tell you your reps are not just following a formula. Sample your reps plans to verify they are tailoring their approach on upcoming calls which should reflect the differences between each prospect and customer. If you continually read the same questions on every plan, it's time for some field coaching sessions.
- Innovation: Get your best reps to share their successful plans and share them to build your team's bench strength and to incorporate best practices, emphasizing the "whys" of the techniques and not just merely duplicating content.
You can get started by downloading our free guide to pre-call planning.
Photo credit: jantik