![\"discussion\"](\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/discussion-300x218.png\")
This month I\u2019ll review the last five of these ten most requested topics.<\/p>\n
6. Successful Compensation<\/strong><\/p>\n I continually hear dealers tell me that things aren\u2019t the way they used to be, that the market is very, very competitive and times are hard. And yet, they haven\u2019t revised or even considered revising their compensation to help their sales team survive. Most are using 1980\u2019s sales comp models.<\/p>\n As our market becomes more and more commoditized and the hardware component becomes less of the central focus and more of a contributor to the deal, you\u2019ll have to figure out how to compensate your sales team so that you both make money.<\/p>\n In a lot of cases we rework the comp plan to pay off the full contract revenue vs. the hardware component\u2019s profit. Your compensation is like gasoline to your car. If you don\u2019t put the right octane in the tank your car won\u2019t run right and you could be contributing to its demise.<\/p>\n There are dealers out there today that compensate their sales reps on a multi year MPS contract by paying one month\u2019s payment of that MPS contract to the sales rep. This is probably one of the hardest things I fight to get into dealers\u2019 brains. It\u2019s far less expensive to pay a fair commission on managed service contracts than it is to have a good rep leave and you have to go through the process to find another one or two revolving door candidates.<\/p>\n You must understand, residual commission to a sales rep is a great tool to keep them employed and driving their own momentum. Keep in mind, as competition gets stronger you\u2019ll have to find ways to keep your sales team motivated. If they\u2019re getting the crap beat out of them in the field and your compensation (when they do win) doesn\u2019t elevate their spirits, then those with a healthy view of themselves will already be looking for a new gig. Ask me how I know! Sales compensation isn\u2019t just about revenue. In the beginning during the onboarding process of any new rep, you have to have their compensation attached to their sales prospecting activity; otherwise, most will never complete enough activity to build their funnel.<\/p>\n 7. Sales Activity<\/strong><\/p>\n In any workshop where Sales VPs and Sales Managers are present there are always direct questions about sales activity or prospecting. Many companies today mandate specific numbers of phone calls each week and I highly recommend that no matter how good the sales attainment results are, that you keep this process going. By making sales prospecting part of the \u201cnorm\u201d, the sales leader doesn\u2019t have to deal with the sales reps begging to be excluded from such activity. The bottom-line is, sales results guides you as to how much sales activity is needed and if you KNOW the summer months drop down significantly, you may build a strategy where you push some renewals out and pull some 3rd<\/sup> quarter renewals in to soften the blow and keep sales results coming. When you have consistent month after month sales attainment (with the proper business mix of no less than 20% net new revenue) you\u2019re doing it right.<\/p>\n The problem is there are so few instances of consistent sales attainment that few dealers know how to set sales activity levels at all. You might find that certain sales reps are great at appointment setting and others are great at presenting or closing\u2014use your team to where you get the most consistent sales results. If you have someone who can really set appointments but never close business, build a comp plan for them for setting quality appointments and use them to set appointments for the other reps.<\/p>\n 8. Sales Funnel Management<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s probably not another process more important to a business than managing the sales funnel. When done correctly, you can actually protect your company from the ups and downs syndrome that many companies experience. It\u2019s almost a science, and if there is strong activity creating enough opportunity, you stand a great chance to drive a very accurate forecast, which is a major accomplishment for any business.<\/p>\n Proper sales funnel management will include a review of this year over last year, managing through weaker times of your year, the source of revenue or how the opportunity came to you, the product category, which posts revenue against the products and services you sell and sales stages, which helps you forecast the close date for each sale.<\/p>\n Sales funnels are dynamic\u2014deals constantly change and managing your sales funnel on a weekly basis gives you the greatest control and ability to maneuver quicker than managing the funnel monthly. Effective sales funnel management, like any business skill, can be taught and once you master the process, your company will enjoy a solid revenue growth.<\/p>\n 9. Deal Strategies & The Close<\/strong><\/p>\n As you can imagine, I attend a lot of dealer sales meetings. All across the country I hear more and more sales reps as they discuss their month\u2019s forecast say something like, \u201cI\u2019ve sent the proposal and I\u2019m JUST WAITING!\u201d or \u201cThey have our pricing and I\u2019VE BEEN CALLING BUT NO REPLY YET!\u201d It seems that in many cases the strategy they\u2019ve used is not much more than to throw a proposal and HOPE! Even on renewals!<\/p>\n Most of the proposals I\u2019ve reviewed have very little incentive for the prospect to act. There also seems to be very little creativity in the offers. This shares a lot about the dealer\u2019s creative juices. Reps usually get their creativity for proposing from their dealership.<\/p>\n With today\u2019s competition you have to be creative and I\u2019m not talking about proposing low profit deals. You have to build proposals with high value strategies that cause your prospect to act now. A very simple example was one that a sales rep implemented this month. His client wanted a 60-ppm MFP and was entertaining off-lease equipment. There were 3 dealers in the deal and the other two were dropping price fast. After meeting with the client it became clear to us that other devices in their office were extremely aged and there was a bigger problem to solve than just the 60-ppm need.<\/p>\n Neither one of the other competitors considered those devices as part of their problem. Our proposal GAVE THEM 3 table-top MFP\u2019s to replace their old devices. The only stipulation is they had to purchase that day. They signed the lease and our sales rep had control of the deal.<\/p>\n Although the 3 smaller devices were FREE the deal brought in over 40% profit not to mention the dealer picked up the maintenance for 4 new devices vs. one.<\/p>\n There are a thousand strategies that can close business. They don\u2019t work every time but by applying the right amount of creativity in your strategy, it\u2019s easier to gain control of the deal and win.<\/p>\n 10. Understanding Forecast Ratios<\/strong><\/p>\n Stats and ratios drive most business intelligence and decisions. It\u2019s important to learn as quickly as you can about your business and what it takes to bring in revenue. Obviously figuring out your cost ratios is equally important. But I find that discovering your forecast ratios can be absolutely empowering to an organization.<\/p>\n Knowing how activity converts to dollars and how accurately you can translate those activities that best make you money is invaluable. This type of thinking should be pushed down to the sales rep level and each person involved in reaching out to your market place should look at their activity process and analyze the accuracy of what they forecast to actual sales won!<\/p>\n During our sales operations reviews, most sales leaders and reps really don\u2019t have a clue as to what makes a deal forecastable. I\u2019ve literally seen sales managers use their forecast tools as a reminder system and only they knew which deals were real and which weren\u2019t. To get to any kind of accuracy ratio one has to understand clearly what makes a deal forecastable and then assess each sales cycle to improve your forecast ratio.<\/p>\n Although these top ten most wanted topics were derived from a long list of questions and conversations, they remain as some of the most important questions I receive today. Continual analysis and improvement of your sales results, activity and process will always yield better sales results.<\/p>\n Happy selling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are many ways to analyze a business and equally as many ways to break down the details around it. Below are the ten most popular topics discussed with dealers over the last few years. Finding Your Way To The Future Building \u201cDifferentiation\u201d Selling Deliverables Clients Will Buy Designing The Sales Organization Attracting High Quality Sales Talent Successful Compensation Sales Activity Sales Funnel Management Deal Strategies & The Close Understanding Forecast Ratios This month I\u2019ll review the last five of these ten most requested topics. 6. Successful Compensation I continually hear dealers tell me that things aren\u2019t the way they used to be, that the market is very, very competitive and times are hard. And yet, they haven\u2019t revised or even considered revising their compensation to help their sales team survive. Most are using 1980\u2019s sales comp models. As our market becomes more and more commoditized and the hardware component becomes less of the central focus and more of a contributor to the deal, you\u2019ll have to figure out how to compensate your sales team so that you both make money. In a lot of cases we rework the comp plan to pay off the full contract revenue vs. the hardware component\u2019s profit. Your compensation is like gasoline to your car. If you don\u2019t put the right octane in the tank your car won\u2019t run right and you could be contributing to its demise. There are dealers out there today that compensate their sales reps on a multi year MPS contract by paying one month\u2019s payment of that MPS contract to the sales rep. This is probably one of the hardest things I fight to get into dealers\u2019 brains. It\u2019s far less expensive to pay a fair commission on managed service contracts than it is to have a good rep leave and you have to go through the process to find another one or two revolving door candidates. You must understand, residual commission to a sales rep is a great tool to keep them employed and driving their own momentum. Keep in mind, as competition gets stronger you\u2019ll have to find ways to keep your sales team motivated. If they\u2019re getting the crap beat out of them in the field and your compensation (when they do win) doesn\u2019t elevate their spirits, then those with a healthy view of themselves will already be looking for a new gig. Ask me how I know! Sales compensation isn\u2019t just about revenue. In the beginning during the onboarding process of any new rep, you have to have their compensation attached to their sales prospecting activity; otherwise, most will never complete enough activity to build their funnel. 7. Sales Activity In any workshop where Sales VPs and Sales Managers are present there are always direct questions about sales activity or prospecting. Many companies today mandate specific numbers of phone calls each week and I highly recommend that no matter how good the sales attainment results are, that you keep this process going. By making sales prospecting part of the \u201cnorm\u201d, the sales leader doesn\u2019t have to deal with the sales reps begging to be excluded from such activity. The bottom-line is, sales results guides you as to how much sales activity is needed and if you KNOW the summer months drop down significantly, you may build a strategy where you push some renewals out and pull some 3rd quarter renewals in to soften the blow and keep sales results coming. When you have consistent month after month sales attainment (with the proper business mix of no less than 20% net new revenue) you\u2019re doing it right. The problem is there are so few instances of consistent sales attainment that few dealers know how to set sales activity levels at all. You might find that certain sales reps are great at appointment setting and others are great at presenting or closing\u2014use your team to where you get the most consistent sales results. If you have someone who can really set appointments but never close business, build a comp plan for them for setting quality appointments and use them to set appointments for the other reps. 8. Sales Funnel Management There\u2019s probably not another process more important to a business than managing the sales funnel. When done correctly, you can actually protect your company from the ups and downs syndrome that many companies experience. It\u2019s almost a science, and if there is strong activity creating enough opportunity, you stand a great chance to drive a very accurate forecast, which is a major accomplishment for any business. Proper sales funnel management will include a review of this year over last year, managing through weaker times of your year, the source of revenue or how the opportunity came to you, the product category, which posts revenue against the products and services you sell and sales stages, which helps you forecast the close date for each sale. Sales funnels are dynamic\u2014deals constantly change and managing your sales funnel on a weekly basis gives you the greatest control and ability to maneuver quicker than managing the funnel monthly. Effective sales funnel management, like any business skill, can be taught and once you master the process, your company will enjoy a solid revenue growth. 9. Deal Strategies & The Close As you can imagine, I attend a lot of dealer sales meetings. All across the country I hear more and more sales reps as they discuss their month\u2019s forecast say something like, \u201cI\u2019ve sent the proposal and I\u2019m JUST WAITING!\u201d or \u201cThey have our pricing and I\u2019VE BEEN CALLING BUT NO REPLY YET!\u201d It seems that in many cases the strategy they\u2019ve used is not much more than to throw a proposal and HOPE! Even on renewals! Most of the proposals I\u2019ve reviewed have very little incentive for the prospect to act. There also seems to be very little creativity in the offers. This shares a lot about the dealer\u2019s creative juices. Reps usually get their creativity for proposing from their dealership. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1879],"tags":[1800,2101],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14340"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14340"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14343,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14340\/revisions\/14343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}