Comments on: Diagnosing a Dying Sales Department

By: Val

Val — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:41:00 +0000

Now that is the kind of Top of Funnel activity I am talking about! I am glad you brought up that point because I did mention that specifically anywhere in the article and measuring the quantity of first meetings is a very good tool to use as a quick gut check to assess rep performance and a fantastic place to drill down into the details.

From your experience, is the lack of first meetings due to poor time management skills, lack of any training on how to converts contacts into meetings, or some other reason?

I am amazed sometimes by how extensive the sales representative onboarding training can be at a company only to find that when a new Sales Manager is fielded there is zero training provided on how to do the job.

Thanks for the input Chayson. I love having smart readers.

Val

By: Chayson Comfort

Chayson Comfort — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:16:18 +0000

Val,

I agree….to a point. I have found that the most important metric to track as well as the universal starting point for early diagnosis of a sales team/organization is “number of first time meetings”. i have found that when sales management goes awry is when they focus on either end sales (as you pointed out) or outbound activity (which is equally flawed and off target).

How many “first” meetings your reps are conducting per week/month and what’s happening /being said in those meetings is the real core of the sales process. Out of this activity (or lack there of) can one begin to diagnose and then prescribe an effective “fix” to an ailing team. I could go on and on here….but this is and will always be a real source of contention with me as I have regularly worked with and for sales management that either tried to spend all of their time micro-managing the front end (sales activity) or the back end (sales results) in order to coach a sales team. I liken it to a a race care driver. The main focus isn’t spent each week looking at where they finish or what components go into the car before the race. Those are, without a doubt aspects of examination in the overall analysis of how a race is won. But rather, a team examines how the race was run, how many pit stops, when to change tires, how the driver performed as leading indicators of over all success.

Anyways…I love this topic and could go on and on….but I digress. thanks for examining it more closely.

Chayson

By: Dirk Beveridge

Dirk Beveridge — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:39:14 +0000

To accurately assess your sales reality so that you can develop an implementation roadmap for sales process improvement, it helps to observe your team’s effort from two perspectives:
1. A bird’s eye view that takes in the “big picture”–the various roles, processes, and dynamics that fuel your sales performance
2. A close-up view that reveals how your frontline salespeople and managers accomplish their daily work.
In both cases, you must observe behaviors–what your people do to drive results. When you parallel their actual behaviors with best practices, you can see opportunities for growth.

By: sellgosell

sellgosell — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 10:27:55 +0000

I like your analogy John. Glad you liked the article.

Val

By: John Hill

John Hill — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 10:24:21 +0000

Totally spot on. Taking final sales numbers is like driving down the road at 100mph, blindfolded and being given directions by someone looking out the back window.

First you have to understand your business, evaluate your salesforce and get a grip on credit control. That gives you direction, fresh sales and cash.