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"Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that automate and streamline financial, customer relationship, and supply chain processes
in a way that helps you drive business success."
Source : Microsoft Dynamics
4 Essential Components for Successful Sales
Sales Force is also known as :
sales force management system,
sales force automation,
SFA,
sales force automation system,
sales force management,
sales proposals management system,
sales proposals automation,
consultative sales management system,
consultative sales automation,
consultative sales automation system,
consultative sales management,
automated proposal management system,
automated proposal automation,
automated proposal automation system,
automated proposal management,
sales proposals,
automated proposal,
consultative sales,
Also stood for:
crm,
customer relationship management,
COMMODITY-TRANSACTION SALE
- Simple product or service'perceived as a commodity by the buyer
- One or two calls'perhaps telemarketing
- One or two apparent decision makers
- Low risk
- Relationships less important'buyer views the sales professional
as vendor
- Technique selling
- Price quote
- Price and availability
more important
COMPLEX SALE
- Complicated product or service
- Multiple
consultative calls, demonstrations, and presentations'perhaps technical sales
support
- Multiple decision makers'executive committee or board-level
decision
- High risk
- Relationships very important'buyer may view the sales professional as a business consultant
- Value-based selling
- Proactive sales proposal or response to a Request for Proposal (RFP)
- Return on investment (ROI) very important or required
Other factors in
most complex sales also have contributed to process and performance problems:
- The economy'companies don't have the funds to buy
- Changes in the buying
process since the late 90's' companies no longer buy products and services
without first completing in-depth analyses
- Required value
proposition'sellers must prove that their proposed products or services make
or save money
Most companies recognize that the world and their buyers'
buying processes probably have changed forever. But, some companies haven't
recognized the need to make changes in their sales forces. They wonder if
their sales professionals can't sell like he did in the past. Perhaps many
sales professionals don't have the skills or tools needed. Here are some
questions a company might ask to assess their sales situation.
Do our
sales professionals . . .
- Follow a consultative sales process designed
specifically for our unique products or services?
- Have the ability to
calculate an ROI for our specific products or services that is accurate,
unbiased, and plausible?
- Write customer-centric sales proposals that
help buyers make informed buying decisions?
If the company uses a contact
management or customer relationship management (CRM)
system, it needs to ask
one additional key question. Does our CRM or contact management system tie
our consultative sales, ROI analysis, and proposal production processes
together?
FOLLOWING A CONSULTATIVE SALES PROCESS
Sales
professionals fall into two classifications: eagles and journey people. The
majority of sales organizations are composed of journeypeople who rely on
their knowledge of the company and its offerings in sales calls.
journeypeople are most comfortable talking about their company's
capabilities. They make lots of statements about their products and services,
in hopes that something will resonate with the buyer. In general,
journeypeople see their job as a facilitator of transactions between their
company and its customers.
While representing less than 20 percent of most
sales teams, eagles produce the bulk of sales revenues'in some cases, more
than 80 percent. What makes eagles so much more effective than journeypeople?
Eagles focus on the customer and their business issues and have
intelligent conversations about their customers' challenges. In general,
eagles see their job as capturing pertinent customer information, diagnosing
customer issues, and then prescribing the most suitable solutions.
Customers view journeypeople as sales agents or vendors only. However, they
view eagles as consultants, because they provide value in every meeting.
Customers will buy from journeypeople if required, but in general, they buy
a lot more from eagles'as much as four times more and they also like buying
from them.
The good news is that journeypeople can be taught to behave
more like eagles. The methods and techniques used by eagle sales
professionals can be captured in a repeatable process. But, this process must
be tailored to the unique products and services of each selling
organization. Once established, the process can be taught to everyone in the
sales team.
With a consistent sales process, journey people will know how to engage in
consultative selling behavior on every call. They can have conversations
designed to gather the information needed to diagnose the specific challenges
of that customer. Then they can prescribe the most appropriate product or
service to address that challenge and develop a supporting value proposition.
Most importantly, by following a consultative sales process, sales
professionals will capture information that can be used to differentiate
themselves from competitive alternatives. In other words, the sales
professional can gain a competitive advantage by how they sell, and not just
by what they sell. Specifically, eagle sales professionals excel in
justifying the value of their proposed solutions and how they communicate
that potential value to customers in their sales proposals. They can do this
because they have diagnostic conversations with customers focused on the
customer's issues and challenges. They also can have sales tools and systems
that integrate with and reinforce their company's unique sales process.
With a consultative sales process, a sales team will produce better ROI
analyses for its customers, and improved sales proposals that are
customer-focused. A consultative sales process is an essential first step in
turning your sales team into a competitive advantage.
SELF ASSESSMENT:
CONSULTATIVE SALES PROCESS
Take a moment and assess your current situation
as it pertains to your sales process. The horizontal axis indicates your
level of customization for your current sales tools. Did you hire a
consultant to customize the training? Did you simply attend a public seminar?
Do you have an ongoing program for training? The vertical axis indicates
the commitment of your management team to the use and promotion of a sales
process. Commitment includes financing, attending training, incorporating the
vernacular into reports, etc. For example, if you currently use a hybrid of
methodologies, no custom training, and no commitment from executive
management, then you would likely fall into the box labeled "1". Please take
a moment and put an "X" in the box you feel best describes your current
situation.
Consultative Sales Methodology
Management Support/Reinforcement
3
Management commitment with no customization
5
Total
management support with complete customization
1
No management
support and no customization
3
Some customization with no management
support
Customization Level
Note: A score of 2 or 4 will fall
on the line between quadrants.
Score analysis
- Your organization lacks adequate sales process customization and
management commitment to really be a successful consultative selling
candidate.
- Although you are making strides in either commitment or customization,
there is still a major lack of both to make much of an impact on the sales
process.
- You have gained momentum and have an opportunity to succeed. Pull it all
together and identify what you need to create a complete customized sales
process, or additional management support and commitment.
- 3 and 4 are very similar in that you must be very careful where you put
your "X." If the X falls on the line between highly custom and half way up
the management commitment line, you are on your way to a very successful
career. If your 4 is halfway across the customization line, and on the line
between low and high, you still have more to do to be successful. Be aware
of silo projects when this occurs.
- Excellent job! You are on you way to a very successful sales career.
Remember that this is only one component to success, however.
USING AN ROI ANALYSIS SYSTEM
ROI and Value Justification
are becoming "must-have" components in the selling equation. The ROI Insider
on www.searchcio.com states that "more than 80 percent of IT buyers now
rely on vendors to help them quantify the value proposition of solutions." In
fact, many CIO's now elevate the ability of a vendor to proactively justify
their solutions to one of the top five most important selection criteria.
Several key concepts discussed below provide insight into using ROI Selling
and Value Justification in the selling equation. These concepts also support
the integrated processes proposition because companies don't give their
sales professionals ROI analysis tools they need.
- The right questions for
the right decision maker'Too often when a sales professional gets an
opportunity to meet with a decision maker he doesn't have a logical,
relevant, and consistent set of questions to discuss. He may have gathered
data that is inconsistent, irrelevant, or not pertinent. A sales
professional should have questions and data that will enhance the
conversation, not delay the opportunity. These questions should be an
integral component of a consultative sales process and some of the buyer's
answers to critical, key performance questions belong in a customer-focused
sales proposal.
- The longer a sale takes, the less chance you have of
winning the opportunity'Sales process research consistently shows that the
longer a sale takes to close, the greater the risk of losing the sale to a
competitor, or worse, to no decision. Using value justification and ROI
helps reduce time to revenue because this financial information defines the
buyer's cost of delaying the decision or maintaining the status quo. A
sales professional should be prepared to use these buyer costs in the
consultative sales process and in the sales proposals.
- Quality of ROI
model separates winners from losers'An objective, substantive ROI analysis
tool integrated into a consultative sales process is far more credible
than a lightweight ROI marketing ploy. Using a value justification tool
during the sale and a value assessment program after the sale creates a
paradigm shift for the buyer'the seller is a business partner, not another
vendor. Brian Sommer, VP at Aberdeen, told us once, "Everyone will figure out
the spreadsheet ROI, but no one will put a post-contract program in place
and measure the milestones." It is critical to a successful sales team to
follow up and measure the value delivered.
- Documented decision
making'Some products, especially intangibles like software, are subject to
scope-creep after the sale. As one vendor put it, "The customer buys based on
an 80% fit to their needs, and then quickly focuses on the 20% that they knew
wasn't there when they bought it." A consistent selling method, a sales
proposal that clearly defines the proposed software application and ROI
model, and a value assessment measurement program after the sale can keep
the buyer focused on the key requirements and benefits that originally drove
the purchase decision. The bottom line: Happy customers and quality case
studies for use on the next opportunity.
Ted Matwijec of Rockwell Automation said it best, "Using ROI in the sales
process has changed the paradigm between salesperson and vendor. We are now
subject matter experts and can clearly articulate to our customers that we
have their best interests at heart. ROI Selling has turned the
vendor/customer relationship into a partnership relationship." Sales
professionals must be prepared to use value justification in the sales
equation.
ROI Selling is a program that includes all of the concepts
discussed. Each component is equally important to a successful selling
campaign. Further, it is critical (1) to use Value Justification during the
consultative sales process and sales proposal creation and (2) to assess the
value delivered after the sale. Ignoring the need to provide sales
professionals with an integrated ROI model may result in limited success.
USING AN AUTOMATED PROPOSAL PRODUCTION SYSTEM
Some companies don't give
their sales professionals the tools they need to write winning proposals.
Often there are no defined content requirements, standards, or guidelines
for writing sales proposals. Some sales professionals can write proposals
without getting management review and approval. For many sales
professionals proposal writing is a time-consuming, cut-and-paste task that
often produces a document disconnected from the sales process. A low Proposal
Close Ratio actually might more closely reflect a sales professional's
writing skills or poor use of a word processing system rather than his
selling ability.
A company must ensure that its sales professionals write
sales proposals that help buyers make informed buying decisions. Equally
important, the company must ensure that its sales proposals:
- Are
customer-centric
- Contain the pertinent customer information gathered
during the consultative sales process, including the results of the ROI
analysis
- Reflect the sales organization's quality and branding standards
The bottom line is that a proposal doesn't have to be good, just perfect!
Perhaps one reason a sales professional can't sell is because he can't write
that perfect proposal because he's too busy being an eagle'maybe he's not
the best writer, or maybe he doesn't have the time or inclination to take six
to twelve hours of word processor system training, or maybe he isn't getting
any help from the company.
Implementing an automated proposal production
system can fix a lot of the problems and provide significant benefits to the
company and its sales professionals. An automated proposal production
system:
- Allows the company to develop custom proposal models for each of
its products or services to ensure content accuracy and
consistency'factory-approved wording
- Reduces the time needed for sales
professionals to write a winning proposal'they only have to input
customer specific information gathered during the consultative sales and
ROI analysis processes
- Generates proposals that reflect the company's
quality and branding standards'no cut-and-paste or formatting tasks
- Provides management with information to monitor sales production activities
and measure results
WHAT TYPE OF SALES PROPOSALS ARE YOU WRITING?
Check where your sales
proposals and consultative selling process fit on this quadrant, which
relates the:
- Amount your sales proposals are customized for your
prospects
- Degree a sales professional integrates writing a sales
proposal with the sales activities of your company's consultative sales
process
Sales Proposals
Integration with Consultative Sales Process
3 Buyer-focused proposals but with minimal connection to a
consultative sales process
5 Buyer-focused proposals that confirm
results of a consultative sales process
1 Boilerplate Proposals
3
Proposals incorporate a minimal amount of the buyer information
gathered during a consultative sales process
Amount Customized for Prospects
CONNECTING THE PROCESSES
When sales professionals integrate
their consultative sales, ROI analysis, and proposal development
processes, they find process connections'those buyer information areas where
their selling, analyzing, and writing activities overlap. These process
connections are in several main areas:
- General buyer information
- Business challenge information: ways to reduce or avoid costs or to increase
revenues
- Product or service application: how the proposed product or
service works in the buyer's business
- Value Proposition: financial (ROI)
and non-financial benefits the buyer receives from the product or service
- Implementation: how and when the product will be implemented and the
buyer's involvement in the project
A sales professional doesn't passively
accumulate process connections information throughout the sales cycle.
Rather, he or she gathers process connections information as the result of
proactive and consultative sales process activities. Some examples of how a
sales person gathers process connections information include:
- Performing
a search in Harris InfoSearch to capture some information needed to complete
a custom precall planning worksheet in preparation for the first call to a
prospect.
- Performing a website search to learn about the prospect's
company, products, customer base, etc.
- Completing prospect and ROI
questionnaires further to understand the prospect's unique situation, key
pain indicators, and needs.
A sales professional also proactively uses process connections information
throughout the sales cycle. For example, a sales professional will use
process connections information to:
- Determine the customer's system
configuration requirements to price a system.
- Develop a ROI valuation to
prove the proposed service's value proposition
- Write a confirmation
letter to confirm the prospect's needs
- Write a sales proposal to provide
the prospect with information on which it can base an informed buying
decision.
The point is, to work effectively, a sales professional must
systematically gather and use process connections information. Custom sales
tools provide the instruments of this purpose.
PROCESS CONNECTIONS BELONG
IN A CRM OR CONTACT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Putting process connections in a
customer relationship management (CRM) or contact management system helps
ensure that a company's sales force sells consultatively because the process
connections represent the customer information a sales professional must
gather (and use) to sell a product or service. If this information is
contained in fields on an "opportunity" screen in a CRM/contact management
system, then these fields also can become sales process guides'they reinforce
the organization's consultative sales process.
If a company uses automated
ROI analysis and sales proposal systems, then the process connections
contained in its CRM/contact management system streamline the analysis and
proposal production processes. Facilitating the ROI analysis and proposal
generation requires interfacing the CRM/contact management system with
these two systems. The interfaces pass the appropriate process connections
needed to generate the customer centric ROI analyses and sales proposals.
For example, to sell an automated payroll system, a sales professional
certainly needs to know how many employees the prospective customer has. The
CRM/ contact management system, ROI analysis system, and a proposal model
in an automated proposal system would contain matching [Number Employees]
fields. More importantly, the sales professional also needs to gather
other consultative information during the sales process needed to calculate
the ROI and write a customer-centric proposal. This other customer
information might include key performance indicators, improvement
opportunities, application variables, customer-specific benefits, ROI
calculations, and implementation variables'the process connections that
represent matching fields in the three systems.
The diagram below
illustrates how the following four components interface and overlap:
- Consultative sales process
- ROI analysis system
- Automated sales
proposal system
- CRM/contact management system
The process connections represent:
(1) the customer information overlap
between the four components and (2) most of the matching fields in the
CRM/contact management and the ROI analysis and proposal production
systems. The Value Proposition for Integrating the Sales Process Components
THE VALUE PROPOSITION FOR INTEGRATING
THE SALES PROCESS COMPONENTS
Integrating the four sales process components results in several benefits for
a sales organization:
- Defining customer information requirements, the
process connections, helps reinforce a consultative sales process
- Selling consultatively builds rapport and relationship with a prospective
customer and also helps change perceptions'this organization's sales
professionals are more like eagles and less like journeymen
- Automating
the ROI analysis process provides the buyer with the much-needed value
proposition which can reduce the length of the sales process
- Automating
the sales proposal development process reduces writing and production times
and helps ensure the production of customer-centric, consistent, and
quality sales proposals
- Leveraging a CRM or contact management system as
the process connections repository brings structure, accountability, and
focus to the sales, ROI analysis, and proposal production processes
- Integrating and automating the processes increases Proposal Close Ratios
because sales professionals:
- Sell consultatively
- Gather and process the
right customer information
- Produce accurate and plausible ROI analyses
- Develop customer-centric proposals that help customers make informed buying
decisions
With access to and benefit of the four integrated process
components, sales professionals will have the tools and skills to achieve
spectacular results. They will be the eagles of the new millennium, better
prepared to analyze, consult, differentiate, communicate, compete, and win.
Credits:
Michael J. Nick is President and founder of ROI4Sales and author
of How to Build the Perfect ROI, ROI Selling, and coauthor of Why Johnny
Can't Sell ... and What to Do About It (August 2006 release). Michael speaks on
ROI and conducts several public workshops and seminars throughout the year.
His expertise has extended internationally with companies like Rockwell
Automation, Imation, Oracle, GEAC, S1 Corporation, and Great Plains Software.
Michael has been featured in Selling Power, Sales and Marketing Magazine, and
several online web sites like Netbriefings and Progress Business.
Bob Kantin
is President of SalesProposals.com™ which provides sales proposal design,
development, integration, and automation services. Bob has written several
books on sales proposal design and integration including Sales Proposals Kit
for Dummies. Bob is also co-author of Why Johnny Can't Sell ... and What to Do
About It (August 2006 release). SalesProposals.com™ offers Sales Document
Builder, an Internet-based sales proposal and other sales document production
and management system.
Tim Sullivan is Director of Development at Sales
Performance International, a global provider of sales and marketing best
practice consulting, training, and tools. For more than two decades, Tim has
been an analyst of what makes the best sales professionals effective, and his
findings on sales and marketing practices have been published in Marketing
Management, SellingPower, VARBusiness Online, and many other trade journals.
www.salesproposals.com
www.roi4sales.com
www.spisales.com
About Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft
Dynamics™ is a line of financial, customer relationship and supply chain
management solutions that helps businesses work more effectively. Delivered
through a network of channel partners providing specialized services, these
integrated, adaptable business management solutions work like and with
familiar Microsoft software to streamline processes across an entire business.
http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics
Bob Kantin
Salesproposals.com
Michael J. Nick
ROI4Sales
Tim Sullivan
Sales
Performance International