Building a World-Class Sales Organization
World-Class Sales Organization.
We hear those words a lot. Some companies aspire to it. Others claim to be there already. You are more likely to hear claims like those from a large enterprise, but you have better odds of actually achieving it in a small-to-midsize company.
What exactly is a world-class sales organization?
Some would say it's a description of a company's people. Others would suggest it has more to do with results. Many would say it's about the size of the sales force. And a few would point to sales leadership and discipline.
Our Definition of a World-Class Sales Organization.
The model of a world-class sales organization includes:
- Sales Leadership
- Sales Architecture
- Sales Infrastructure
- Sales Talent Management
- Sales Enablement
- Sales Human Capital
There is an important distinction to be made here. At a large company, there could be one or more individuals responsible for each category in the model. In a small business, one person (and sometimes fewer than that) may be responsible for all categories. And in many companies, some of those categories are placed under the direction of people who aren't qualified to lead them. In other companies, there are huge gaps where some (or all) of one or more categories are missing.
Let's discuss the challenges of this model in a smaller company where there may be a half dozen salespeople reporting to one sales manager. How is one person supposed to handle:
- Sales Leadership
- Sales Architecture
- Sales Infrastructure
- Sales Talent Management
- Sales Enablement
- Sales Human Capital
Some of the help, which we provide in small and mid-market companies, occurs when some (or all) of these pieces are missing altogether, or when they have been undefined or improperly executed.
Now is a good time to determine where the gaps exist in your sales organization and then deal with them. It's not as important that you get it right, as it is that you have the above in place. You can get them right over time.
HOW WE HELP YOU – PRESIDENT/CEO
YOUR LEADERSHIP TEAM
CEO and Board Members in a meetingNothing is more important to a CEO than the synergy and alignment resulting from a powerful, effective, engaged Leadership Team. But not all Leadership Teams fit that description. Evaluate your Leadership Team to learn what impact it has on revenue, identify gaps where crucial roles are not being filled effectively, identify opportunities to work more effectively together, and develop skills that your leadership team must have. Our Key Management Dynamics Assessments were developed from the ground up to be used specifically with a Leadership Team. Learn more about the Key Management Dynamics.
YOUR SALES FORCE
Most companies have already cut every expense that can be cut and the only remaining area where a CEO can improve profitability is by significantly increasing revenue. How? By optimizing the sales force so that the entire team is generating more revenue, more consistently, and at greater margins. The first step toward that goal is to evaluate the sales force. A sales force evaluation answers the most pressing questions you have, including whether the existing people can execute your strategy, the impact of sales management, whether you have the right people in the right roles, whether you’ve been hiring the right people, which of your non performers can become performers, how much better they can become, what it will take to get them there, why their results are the way they are, and much more. Learn more about the Sales Force Evaluation.
Following a sales force evaluation, you’ll want to develop a sales process or optimize the one you have, optimize your sales pipeline, and develop metrics that actually drive revenue. You’ll also want your sales manager(s) developed so that they can have the desired impact on revenue by effectively coaching, motivating and developing their salespeople while holding them accountable to the agreed upon metrics. And when everything else is in place, you’ll want your salespeople to become more effective at overcoming resistance, developing opportunities and closing new business. Learn more about Training.
HOW WE HELP YOU VP
YOUR SALES FORCE
Vice President with Sales TeamMost companies have already cut every expense that can be cut and the only remaining area where a CEO can improve profitability is by significantly increasing revenue. How? By optimizing the sales force so that the entire team is generating more revenue, more consistently, and at greater margins. The first step toward that goal is to evaluate the sales force. A sales force evaluation answers the most pressing questions you have, including whether the existing people can execute your strategy, the impact of sales management, whether you have the right people in the right roles, whether you’ve been hiring the right people, which of your non performers can become performers, how much better they can become, what it will take to get them there, why their results are the way they are, and much more. Learn more about the Sales Force Evaluation.
Following a sales force evaluation, you’ll want to develop a sales process or optimize the one you have, optimize your sales pipeline, and develop metrics that actually drive revenue. You’ll also want your sales manager(s) developed so that they can have the desired impact on revenue by effectively coaching, motivating and developing their salespeople while holding them accountable to the agreed upon metrics. And when everything else is in place, you’ll want your salespeople to become more effective at overcoming resistance, developing opportunities and closing new business. Learn more about Training.
You’ll want to make sure that from this point on, you hire only those salespeople that are extremely likely to succeed at your company, selling to decision makers in your marketplace, with your price points, and against your competition. Learn more about our Recruiting Solutions. And you’ll want to use our legendary Sales Candidate Assessments to aid in the selection process.
In most companies, developing sales managers requires more than training, so we compliment the training with one-on-one coaching to make sure they can take what they learned in training and use it effectively to coach and develop their salespeople. Learn more about Coaching.
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU: HUMAN RESOURCES VP OR DIRECTOR
You are responsible for having the right people in the right seats on the bus and you do it quite well. However, if there is one area where you could be more effective, it would definitely be in the sales department where you just don’t seem to be able to achieve the same results, even though you duplicate the process you use for filling other crucial positions. Sales is different. It requires a different process, different mindset and different tools. That’s where we can help you. Learn more about our Recruiting Solutions and our recruiting tools.
HOW WE HELP YOU: NON-PROFIT DIRECTOR OR CHAIR
Two of the most difficult aspects of directing a non-profit in today's difficult economy are leveraging your board of directors and generating donations and revenue from services.
The board, especially your executive committee, should be a powerhouse of leaders, who came together for their mutual passion for your cause, to leverage their synergy, experience and ideas to help your organization define and achieve its goals. Unfortunately, it hardly ever works like that. We can help you get your board, executive committee and/or leadership team working much more effectively together by identifying the gaps in leadership styles which, when filled, make the team much more effective. Our Key Management Dynamics Assessment was built from the ground up, not only for the board room, but for the non-profit board room! Learn more about our Key Management Dynamics Assessment.
When it comes to generating revenue, your fund raising group needs to overcome resistance and increased competition for reduced amounts of available funding, and the people selling corporate and consumer services are trying to get money that no longer exists! Although you don't use this word, we do, and it's called selling. We can help you learn more about the capabilities of the people you have in the funding roles and help you develop their effectiveness doing it. If you don't have the right people in those roles, we can help you select people who could have a greater impact on your ability to fulfill the organization's mission.
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU: FOUNDER/OWNER
You're an entrepreneur and you may still be in an early stage of your company's development. If so, you need to sell, but you need to sell like an entrepreneur, not like a salesperson. An assessment sheds light on where the selling skill gaps are which, when addressed through training and/or coaching, will accelerate your revenue growth.
You may be making the transition from entrepreneur to executive, in which case you should review either the CEO/President page or the VP Sales page, depending on whether or not you have a Sales VP between you and your sales force.
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU: INDIVIDUAL SALESPERSON
If you are an individual salesperson, you care about earning more money, becoming more successful and making yourself more marketable. We are here to help. Our training and coaching have helped individual salespeople like you literally double their sales in record time. It all depends on how change ready you are. If you aren't yet ready to abandon the thinking, methods and behaviors that lead to mediocre results, we won't be able to help much. But if you're ready to experience life as a top producer and big-time money earner, we will help you make the changes necessary to achieve your goals.
SERVICES
ASSESSMENTS
Sales Candidate Assessments – Our Sales Candidate Assessments are unique and offer unprecedented value. They rely heavily on accurate, reliable, validated and sales specific feedback to help our clients select"A" players for their sales teams.
Sales Force Evaluations - Most of our engagements begin with a Sales Force Evaluation, which provides an in-depth look at our clients' salespeople, their systems, processes and overall strategies. This helps answer the most difficult questions about sales team performance and provides a road map for planning an effective and meaningful program.
In addition to answering tough questions, we can alert you to problems with your current hiring criteria, the quality of your pipeline, the effectiveness of your sales management efforts, and help discover any misalignment with strategy. We can show you if your salespeople are capable of executing your strategies for going forward, how comfortable they are with your model for going to market, and explain why sales opportunities are lost or stalled. We can identify salespeople who can perform more effectively and what you must do in order to help them reach their potential. We can also identify non-performers who can be saved, predict how long it will take, and define the help they will require to become productive. And, if you are attempting to transition your company from "Good to Great," we can help you understand which people should be on your bus, which seats they should be in and which of those team members should be off your bus.
SERVICES
TRAINING
Kurlan & Associates provides results oriented, customized or module-based training for sales, sales management, business development and professional service firms.
Kurlan's sales development curriculum is based on Dave Kurlan's best-selling book, Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. Unlike complicated selling systems utilizing 7-12 steps with hard to remember acronyms, Baseline Selling uses the baseball diamond to provide a recognizable, memorable, and intuitive process. It's powerful yet simple. It's customizable and very actionable. Our powerful and entertaining development program will excite your entire team and your train to fame time will be quite impressive.
We work with your people on an on-going basis. First we provide a solid foundation based on sound theory, and follow up with role-playing, examples, problem-solving, tactics and strategy.
While salespeople will receive training on skills, process, strategy and tactics, sales management will receive training on coaching, motivation, recruiting, accountability, pipeline management, leadership and strategy.
"Sales Training Buyers Beware" by Dave Stein, CEO of ES Research Group
How long training takes before it works.
What is Sales Force Development.
SERVICES: SALES PROCESS DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION
Did you know that 91% of the companies whose sales forces we have evaluated were lacking a formal, structured sales process? For over 25 years, Kurlan & Associates has helped companies optimize their sales process by collecting all of a company's steps, tasks, goals, milestones and to do's, and mapping them onto the Baseline Selling Sales Process, assuring that steps happen at the right time, in the right sequence, and for the right reasons. When the entire sales team follows an effective, repeatable process, fewer shortcuts, mistakes and missteps lead to increased sales. As a company with a 25 year track record for success in working with companies to help them accomplish their sales goals, we have the historical data, the wisdom and expertise to help you accomplish an effective sales process.
USEFUL LINKS
Do You Have a Sales Process?
Sales Process – What Have You Gotten Away From?
12 Questions About Your Sales Process
Top 10 Rules for Getting People to Follow Your Sales Process
Sales Process is to Religion as Sales Methodology is to Prayer
Sales Process – 5th of the 10 Kurlan Sales Competencies for Building a Sales Culture
Seth Godin Reinforces the Proper Sales Process
Sales Management – Most Important Functions in the Sales Process
What Automotive Technology Teaches us about Sales Process
When the Sales Process Doesn’t Support Sales Competencies
SERVICES: COACHING
Clients never have to worry about our sales professionals lacking the expertise to bring them to the next level. As a Company with a 25 year history and renowned for its expertise, Kurlan & Associates offers highly qualified, veteran sales development experts who provide effective, timely coaching to salespeople, managers, sales leaders, and C-Level executives. Our team meets stringent criteria for expertise and we ensure ongoing training of our own team to ensure that our clients get the maximum value for their investment. Our unique coaching personalizes your experience, gets to the root of individual issues, and enhances the overall training experience.
SERVICES: RECRUITING
Sales Recruiting is one of the toughest tasks within an organization because finding the right people that will not only sell, but who will thrive in your culture is a very tricky feat. We help clients develop a world-class, sales specific recruiting process to identify, attract, filter, interview, select, hire, on-board and retain top sales talent that will succeed in the client's business, with their pricing model, competition and challenges. In some cases, for those clients that prefer to outsource this process, Kurlan & Associates will provide turnkey solutions, handling the entire recruiting process on the client’s behalf.
SERVICES: SALES FORCE ARCHITECTURE
When it comes to sales force architecture, Kurlan & Associates and Objective Management Group have the tools, data, validation, understanding and track record and expertise to optimize your sales force. While you may not need to resolve all of the issues that make up sales force architecture, many of them apply to most companies:
Optimization – do we have the right number of salespeople and can we do more with less?
Roles – do we have the right salespeople in the right roles and, if not, what are the best roles for them?
Models – which of our salespeople can make the two most desirable sales transitions of the 21st century? Who will be able to transition from behaving like an account manager to being more proactive at hunting for new opportunities and new business? And who will be able to make the transition from presenting/proposing/quoting to more customer focused consultative selling?
Process – do we currently have an effective sales process or do we need a more formalized, structured, optimized sales process?
Selection Criteria – have we been selecting the right people for our sales organization and, if not, how should our selection criteria change?
Alignment – is our sales leadership/management team aligned on strategy?
Execution – is the current sales force capable of executing our changing strategies?
Sales Management – how effective is our sales management team at coaching, motivating, recruiting, developing and driving accountability? Is their success or lack thereof a result of their people or their sales management skills?
Development – Which of the B's, C’s and D players can step up and become A's and B’s and who can’t be developed? What will it take? How long will it take? How much improvement is possible? What will the ROI be?
Compensation – Is our current compensation plan effective and are our people motivated by it? if not, what must change?
Our pioneering, world-class suite of sales force assessment tools will take the guess work out of the equation and provide answers to all of these questions, along with insights, recommendations and action steps to make the redesign of your sales force as effortless, efficient, cost-effective and time-saving as possible.
SERVICES: TRAIN THE TRAINER
If you prefer the economy of scale that a train the trainer program can provide, Kurlan will work with your trainer and/or training team to help them deliver Baseline Selling training throughout your organization. Even trainers experienced with multiple methodologies, systems and processes find that the Baseline Selling process and methodology are easy to internalize, adapt and share in companies with diverse audiences, products, services, markets and geographies.