Anatomy of aWorld Class Sales

Organization

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How Do You Define World Class Sales Organizations?

87% of sales representatives are achieving quota

17% year-over-year increase in sales revenue

7% year-over-year improvement in lead conversion rate

Win/loss performance improvement of >6% year over year*

*Source: Aberdeen Group

3

Sales Organization Top Challenges

Increasing overall sales effectiveness

Sales process is not aligned to the buyer journey

Sales analytics are not defined or do not align to current goals

Sales and marketing are not in alignment

Lack of tools and resources to enable efficiencies

Source: Forbes

What Are Key Characteristics Of A World Class Sales Organization?

Sales is recognized as a critical component of how the company creates value for clients

Clearly defined sales strategy

Manage sales as a process

Manage the right metrics

Coaching is a business imperative

Sales models vary across industries, company size and maturity, but there are key building blocks for designing a sales strategy and questions you must answer to be successful:

BUYER JOURNEY

FUNCTIONAL ALIGNMENT

PROCESS ENABLEMENT

What content, resources, tools and training do you need to enable your sellers?

Who are your customers and where are your opportunities?

How do your customer’s buy and who do they buy from?

What are the ideal sales channels based on the customer journey? What sales roles need to be created?

What are the key activities and sales stages to align to the customer journey?

Anatomy of World Class Sales

METRICS MANAGEMENT

What are the key metrics to benchmark and track to enable proper behavior?

Buyer Journey MappingAs a customer-centric representation of the decision making and purchase process, a Buyer Journey Map supports the development of the desired experience current and/or prospective customers have with a company, brand or product.

Buyer Journey Maps typically capture:

Customer needs, objectives and

motivations

Stages of purchase decision and key

triggers

Influences and influencers that shape customer

perceptions at each stage

Barriers to positive customer

experiences and successful

interactions and transactions

Enablers and amplifiers that nudge customers along the decision making or

purchase path

Touch points and interactions w/

brands and productsExperiences with the company/brand/prod

uct post-purchase

From Buyer Journey to Sales Process Building an effective Sales Process requires molding activities, engagements and content around customer buying needs as they progress through their journey.

Major Steps Framework Outline sales activities

that will meet the needs of the buyer

Build an engagement plan around desired touch points

Detail assets and sales enablers that will support key activities and engagements

Define the milestones and gates needed to win

Sales Model DesignDetermining how you will deploy sales resources starts with a deep understanding of how your customers buy your product and the needs of the sales model to address that buying journey. By defining customer and product category expectations, we can prioritize strategic, expected outcomes as well as top-level business objectives.

Inputs Requirements

SALES PROCESS

BUYER JOURNEY BUYER JOURNEY SPECTRUM

Custom SolutionsLow SubstitutesComplex Value

COMPLEXSOLUTION

BASEDStandard ProductMany SubstitutesSimple/Easily Understood

SIMPLETRANSACTIONBASED

Identifying team structure based on segmentation needs

Components

TEAM DESIGN ROLE ALIGNMENTTEAM SEGMENTATION

PRODUCT

FUNCTION

TECH

Specifying roles by a combination of: Discrete Function

(prospect/qual), Product

Specialization (new launches, emerging)

Technical expertise (deployment, pre-sale)

Grouping salespeople based on a segmentation strategy

Enterprise

Mid-Market

SMB

FIELD

INSIDE

CHANNEL

Enablement

RESOURCES

TOOLS

TRAINING

With a clear definition of the buyer, the roles, and the sales model – ensure that sellers have the right content, tools and resources at each stage of the buyers journey, focusing on improving customer experience as well as seller efficiency.

Develop content and assets that align to the sales process and support key activities

Identify technology tools that support the sales process and provide sales analytics

Implement training to develop skills and enhance learning

Metrics Management

• Design effective tools for tracking and communicating progress

• Provide a measurement system that allows executives to monitor performance and trends

• Map results to actionable programs to close gaps

To be world class, sales organizations must be built on a culture of data. Identify key drivers for reaching your strategic objectives and translate them into measurable targets so you can monitor behavior and execute data driven decision making that allow for changes that influence results.

DATA CULTURE

SUCCESSMETRICS

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

TRACKING & REPORTING

Key Performance Indicators

Performance Dashboards

Sales Analytics

• Define performance goals and set KPI target values

• Link sales performance to business goals

• Define evaluation criteria for sub-standard, acceptable and excellent

• Design and implement repeatable process for collecting measurements and performing KPI calculations

• Identify repeatable process for updating and publishing

• Develop health audits to ensure continuous revenue improvement

• Understand critical levers for long term growth

• Identify and react to opportunities and threats for your business

How Do YOU Achieve World Class Status?

1. Map the buyer journey: Segmentation and buying process

2. Define the sales process: Align to the buyer journey

3. Outline functions and roles: Design sales model structure

4. Implement enablement: Resources, tools and training

5. Define metrics: Determine goals and KPIs to provide data driven insights and decision making

lenati.com | info@lenati.com | 800-848-1449 | @Lenati

Need Help Getting Started?

Lenati is a marketing and sales strategy consultancy that helps companies acquire, grow, and retain customers. Our clients come to us to build market leadership, whether through radical innovation or intelligent evolution.

Our Sales Performance Team can help you develop sales strategies and implement analytics, process, and enablement that drive improved sales revenue, productivity and overall performance.