- April 6, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I was at the Deli counter yesterday and I couldn’t help but notice a few things.
There was the veteran Deli guy – short fast strokes on the machine and quick results to go with them.
There was the stoic lady – she didn’t really use her arms as much as she just rocked her entire body back and forth to slice the meat. It took her longer, she repeatedly put her meats on the scale and continued to be under weight and she had the most waste. However, it seemed like very moving experience for her.
There was the new girl – she fumbled everything she touched and it was clear she hadn’t developed her own way yet. She was able to wrap and unwrap, place the meat in the slicer with direction, but her slicing was inconsistent.
And there was the older lady – she was all arms and had to stop periodically to rest them. Despite her experience, her long arm strokes were not efficient, she took a long time but she got the best physical workout.
So, of course, here’s the question that relates to the sales force.
Do your salespeople sound like these folks working the deli counter? Three of the four had some kind of process, but are the processes effective?
- Do they consistently get the desired results? (desired weight to the customer in as little time as possible)
- Are they efficient? (delays from selecting the wrong meat for slicing?)
- Are they all doing it the same way? (transferrable and repeatable?)
- Do they know where they are in the process? (how close to the desired weight are they?)
- Does the process allow them to upsell? (premium cut for just 20 cents more?)
- Are they able to cross-sell? (would you like cheese with your turkey?)
You get the picture. If an efficiency expert was there when I was there he would have been horrified in much the same way I am when I uncover how ineffectively a sales force is using a process for selling.
It should come as no surprise that I use the Baseline Selling process with my clients and combine it with their steps, to-do’s and milestones. This integrated process is then used in the sales cycle, Work style Management or CRM, in the staged, Visual Pipeline, and as a timeline and as an opportunity confidence rater. An effective, formal, structured sales process is designed to achieve consistent, predictable results while providing salespeople with feedback relative to where they are in the process and what they must do next to succeed.
