“Sales transformation” is becoming a popular buzzword as sales organizations evaluate their go to market strategies and look for ways to improve results. A few months ago, I tweeted, “The song Change or Die by Papa Roach should be the theme song for businesses in 2010.” A tad extreme, but true!
This week I had the opportunity to attend a webinar on the topic of sales transformation, led by David Fritz of Growth Solutions, LLC and Jerry Colletti of Colletti-Fiss, LLC. Fritz and Colletti are considered thought leaders in the area of sales force effectiveness.
The webinar content was excellent, and I have summarized the key points below.
What Is A Sales Transformation?
Fritz and Colletti defined sales transformation as the “realignment of the sales force to focus on whom you want to do business with and how they buy”.
Sales transformation is not the same as incremental, continuous improvement or making tweaks in what the team is doing. Think big. Think changes that evolve over one year, not one quarter.
Transformational areas include opportunities, coverage, support and people.
- Opportunities: Aligning the sales force with the right customers and prospects. Selling the right products at the right prices.
- Coverage: The number of sales FTE, the sales territory size & structure and the mix of selling resources (inbound, outbound, field sales).
- Support: The training, compensation plans, systems and tools.
- People: The match (or lack of) between skills and business needs, and the hiring & selection process.
A transformational effort may touch on one or all four areas.
What Are The Drivers of Sales Transformation?
There are two categories of sales transformation drivers: external and internal.
External drivers include customer consolidation, disruptive competitors, new channels (e.g. Internet), changes in buying practices and customer experience. The 70+ webinar attendees voted on what they felt was the most important external driver right now for their businesses and “changes in buying practices” received the most votes. Many customers are moving from decentralized to centralized buying, with more involvement from the procurement department.
Internal drivers for transformation include high selling costs, new products, mergers/acquisitions, margin compression, lack of new business and mismatch of talent.
There was some webinar dialogue about how businesses, up until recently, focused most of their selling resources on retaining existing business, but now have a dire need for more new business. There are very few hybrid rep models that work, so this change in business needs often leads to a change in the selling resources and compensation plans. (Note: A hybrid rep. is a salesperson that retains and grows existing customers and generates brand new business.)
Why Sales? Where is the Root Cause Of Poor Performance?
In my experience, the sales department is often held accountable for poor sales performance even when the root cause of the problem resides elsewhere in the business. When reacting to the internal and external drivers, look at all areas of your business. Could the problem reside in your product or service value proposition? Could problems reside in the order fulfillment end?
Fritz stressed that we must take the time to evaluate all options before we “mess with the sales department”.
Who Should Lead A Sales Transformation?
Ideally, the Senior VP Sales and the Head of Sales Operations should lead the transformation efforts, with strong partners in Finance and HR.
Have you led a sales transformation effort in your organization? Please add your comments!
