“The less I see of what’s his name? – The more I forget him!”

A vitally important sales activity is that of managing existing customer accounts to consolidate and grow the relationship. Yet, unfortunately, when compared over time, the customers’ interest levels increase while salespeople’s interest levels tend to decrease.

This creates a “relationship gap”.

To-days, clients/customers are looking for vendors who can be business partners, who are willing and able to share risks and who are able to properly manage the entire sales process.

Traditional commercial methods are being relegated to the annals of history. The new, more discerning customers of today have seen to that. They now wield greater bargaining power, demand more value for money and have become more knowledgeable and professional when it comes to decision-making.  Essentially they are crying out ‘‘understand me first, then sell to me ’’ this is precisely why we need a new type of approach for a new type of customer.

In essence, without a sustained approach to ongoing servicing and support activities, customers that took months to win are ultimately lost because there was a lack of interest from their supplier.

Maximizing a workforce around one common goal that creates value for the customer, the organization, and the employee is the only way to focus the activities of a sales team. It is critical that each employee is able to measure the value of each activity undertaken during the day and can make the connection to the overall goals and strategy of the organization. If there is no clear line of sight between what they are doing and the value to the customer, clearly they are doing the wrong thing

No rating will keep sales waiting!
The more existing accounts that salespeople have, the less time they can devote to prospecting for new client business. Therefore, they need objective criteria to determine which of their prospects to contact first. This can produce huge timesaving that have enabled several organizations to increase sales purely by introducing “prospect criteria”.

The concept behind prospect criteria is that the salesperson creates a profile of the type of customers who offer the greatest potential for doing business. Factors that enter into a customer’s priority score might include such things as level of business need, budget, and reference able accounts in the same industry. A simple rating system allows the salesperson to determine which prospects to contact first and ensure that they visit all of the right people

Periodically, the Financial Times conducts a survey of British industry to try to establish how companies go about their purchasing.

The survey is very comprehensive, broken down into many kinds of products and services. It also groups every kind together to give an overall picture…

From a Sales Director’s perspective, these are very worrying statistics.

Questions are the answer
When planning sales activities, the following five questions answered fully help maximize sales activity:

 When looking at potential customers, how do your salespeople decide if they are right for your organization?
 Which of your salespeople’s prospects do they contact first?
 How can your salespeople objectively define the probability of new business?
 What actions do your salespeople take to reduce the risk of losing their customers?
 What actions do your salespeople take to develop new business from existing customers?

Only when sales leaders have clear, comprehensive answers to these questions can real, effective, account management begin.

Here is some additional reading that you may enjoy: “Making The Most Of Customer Service”

Tomorrow, we move on to Challenge Four – “The significance of sales team morale, and in post recession, the debilitating effect of “self-limiting beliefs”

Today’s News: You really must tune in to this… It is going to be be great!!

I am so looking forward to it: Niall is absolutely brilliant and so refreshingly original. No over-inflated  ego here!!  What you see/hear is what  you get. 

You can book your FREE place here - you will thank me!!

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