Author Archives: Marci Reynolds

Announcing New Blog Sponsors

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Dear Readers,

I have truly enjoyed writing for and managing The Sales Operations Blog for the past three years. Thank you for your support, readership and comments.

Having said this, I would like to announce two, important changes…

1) New Blog Owners:  Two talented, sales operations experts, Thomas Barrieau and Brian Geery, will be taking the blog forward from here.

I have known Tom and Brian for years and they run a successful, sales operations consultancy, Sales Productivity Architects (SPA), based in Greater Boston, MA.  They have been contributing to the blog for several months now, with popular posts such as “Elements of a Successful Sales Plan” and “15 Questions To Ask Before Investing in Sales 2.0.”  Moving forward, you may see a guest post from me occasionally, but the majority of content will come from Tom and Brian.  You’ll also notice that the blog will soon sport a new look and enhanced features to make finding and navigating information easier.

Prior to founding SPA, Tom was an industry analyst doing research on sales productivity at IDC, worked in global sales operations at HP, and sold for a variety of prestigious companies, including Compaq and Apple.  A co-founder and veteran consultant, Brian has been helping companies improve how they sell for over 20 years, has held a number of sales leadership positions, and has had thought leadership pieces quoted in Selling Power magazine and The Wall Street Journal.  I’m confident that they will continue to produce quality content that is valuable to the blog’s readers and am happy to be leaving it in good hands.

2) Introducing Two New Blogs:  I have launched two other blogs that I hope you find interesting and relevant:

  • The Operations Blog, www.theoperationsblog.com, which focuses on content about service operations, technical support and process excellence.
  • The Social Media Diary, www.thesocialmediadiary.com, which is where I will be sharing information and tips about blogging and social media that I have learned through trial and error (sometimes the best way) and from other talented, social media professionals.

Please check them out!

Thanks again for your support and readership.  Please help me officially welcome Tom and Brian to The Sales Operations Blog!  If you’d like to drop them a line, they can be reached at tbarrieau@salesoperationsblog.com and bgeery@salesoperationsblog.com. I know they’re looking forward to making sure the blog remains a valuable resource to sales operations professionals, and I’m sure they’d be happy to hear any suggestions or comments you may have.

— Marci Reynolds

10 Fresh Ideas on Sales 2.0 And Sales Process… Thanks Focus.com

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I just attended the Focus.com webinar, “Tactics to radically improve your sales performance” and my key takeaway was/is.. there is (still) nothing radical about selling. There is no silver bullet. Great selling is about blocking, tackling and getting the sales basics right, consistently.

The five person panel included John Cousineau, President of Innovative Information Inc.,  Lars Nilsson, VP Field Operations for Arc Sight,  Tibor Shanto, VP at Renbor Sales Solutions and Howard Hodges with Inflection Point LLC. (Where were the women? Ongoing pet peeve about sales webinars.)

Here were the 10 most interesting sales ideas or insights from the webinar:

  1. Although Sales 2.0 technology can help to enable the sales team members, it is very difficult to quantify the impact with black and white statistics. Leaders often have to rely on anecdotal evidence to explain the value.
  2. If sales organizations do take advantage of new technology, e.g. lead qualification, sales compensation automation, it is critical that the salespeople only go to one place, the sales crm, to access them.
  3. Over the past 8-10 years, investment in sales and marketing systems has been increasing, while margin has been decreasing. Not a good combination.
  4. From a Management perspective, sales 2.0 tools allow you to change the conversation with your salespeople. In the past, conversations were about stats. Today, stats are readily available, so managers can shift the conversation to activities, behaviors and coaching.
  5. At the end of the day, selling is about people, customers and Sales Reps. Tools should be looked at as enablers and support mechanisms.
  6. “Look less for perfect tools – look harder for perfect practices.” John Cousineau
  7. Selling is complex. Simplifying the complexity is the key to success. A complicated, multi-step sales process flow (that looks pretty on a presentation for senior leaders) will not get you the results you want.
  8. The average salesperson does 39 different things on a regular basis. The top performers focus on eight steps, all about building relationships and closing deals. The middle to low performers focus on seven, that are all internally focused, such as counting and updating.
  9. Great selling is about conversations.. Conversations that happen frequently, effectively, at the right time, with the right decision makers.
  10. True change spurs from fresh thinking… fresh leadership. Not tools and processes.

Managing By The Numbers –The Devil Is In The Details

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Sales and seThe Devil Is In The Detailsrvice operations leaders tend to love data. I actually get excited when an Operations Analyst creates a new report in Excel or Salesforce and I get to see it for the first time- can’t click on the attachment or link fast enough!  (What a geek!)

With that said, it is important to question before we act, when data and reports are involved. We must understand the critical details, to know how to use the report. The information should help direct us, but more research should follow, before we make definite conclusions.  We may uncover missing information, errors or omissions.

Here are 4 techniques all leaders must use, to effectively manage by the numbers. Additions? Please add them in the comments section.

1)    Understand The Data Details

To effectively use the data, you must understand the:

  • Data source
  • Timeline of the data
  • What the data includes or excludes
  • The exact calculation of any metrics

Ideally, all of this information should be clearly stated on the report already, but that is not always the case.

One of the most critical items on this list is – understanding the exact calculation of the metrics. Miscommunication does happen and human error can occur, so never assume, as you consume.

2) Validate The Sample SizeValidate The Sample Size | Image Courtsey Of Renjith Krishnan

We often see reports with line graphs that show a big bump up or a big drop down in results. Before acting or reacting, validate the sample size of the data.  This can often skew results in one direction.

3)  Know That One Month Is Not A Trend

I strongly believe that one month is never a trend and that we need to see at least three consecutive months of something, before we can draw conclusions.

This is especially important when looking at sales results against plan, as it is common practice to “pull in” or “push out” sales at the end of a month or quarter, to achieve the desired payouts within a designated period.

4) Combine Multiple Metrics To Paint The Entire Picture

I recently participated in a panel at The MIT Sloane Sales Conference, with the conversation focused on “using customer intelligence to drive sales revenue”. During the event, one of the audience members asked a popular question “What is the most important sales metric we should report on?”. The answer? There is never just one metric that paints the entire picture.  Leaders should consider:

  • activities and outcomes
  • leading and lagging indicators | historical and future facing
  • metrics for employees, customers and shareholders/the business

This is sometimes described as the “three legged stool” or “true north” view. Refer to my earlier blog post, “Danger, One Sales Measurement Is Never Enough“.

As leaders, we like to assume that the reports are always correct and that we understand the data- but I have seen repeatedly that this is not the case.

The devil is in the details.. and we all need to be a little devilish to effectively manage by the numbers.

5 Strategies For Building A Qualified, Twitter Following

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This is not one of those blog posts that raves, “get thousands of Twitter followers in one day”. If you are in sales, and are using Twitter to build your brand and/or get sales leads, a bunch of unqualified followers does absolutely nothing for you.  Instead, you must focus on quality and relevance, and know that a qualified Twitter following grows over time, not over night.

I have built and managed Twitter accounts for close to 10 different people/brands over the past few years and have learned from trial and error. Here are my top 5 tips for building a qualified Twitter following:

1) Optimize Your Twitter Profile For Search

Use the full 160 characters to describe you and your business, with familiar, search friendly language.

  • Prospective followers use search engines, Twitter and directories like Twellow, to search profile language. The more relevant your profile language is, the higher you will appear in search results.
  • Refer to the Google Adwords tool to identify the terms that most searchers use to describe your business. For example, you may want to put “sales guru” in your description, but “sales operations consultant” may be the phrase more prospects would use. Google Adwords will help direct you.
  • Avoid abbreviations and made up punctuation for your most important words. For example, use the phrase “sales training” not “sales trng”.  Use “sales blogger”, instead of “sales/blogger”.

2) Tweet Daily, Tweet Value

People will follow you if you consistently tweet valuable, relevant content. This means tweeting at least once per day and providing content that will appeal to your target audience.

  • It is disappointing when I read an excellent Twitter profile and then see that the user’s tweets are all about topics like food, kids or sports games. An occasional personal tweet is good, but if you are tweeting for business, the 80/20 rule prevails: 80% business, 20% or less personal content.
  • Another tweet content no-no, is consistently serving up self promoting tweets. These are the tweets that say things like “we help businesses sell more” followed by “sign up for our webinar Friday” followed by “excited about the deal we just closed with Hasbro”.  It may be counter-intuitive, but if you provide value, it will lead to business leads/revenue while blatantly promoting your business on Twitter, will actually repel business.
  • Try HootSuite or TweetDeck to schedule your tweets days or weeks ahead. Download the free apps on your mobile, to tweet from any location.

3) Follow Your Target Audience

Follow people who you want to follow you back.

  • From my experience, 20-30% of the people you follow, will automatically follow you back. Others may follow you over time, as they see you publish consistent, relevant tweet content
  •  Find your target followers using Google, Twitter Search, Twellow  (the Twitter Yellow Pages) or list sites like Twitaholic and Listorious.

 4) Compliment Prospective Followers Via Retweets, Twitter Listing and #FF

When you retweet, list or @mention someone on Follow Friday (#FF), the target Twitter users will notice you, feel good (compliment), and be more likely to follow you back.

  • If you also follow the steps 1-3 above, you should start seeing your content retweeted, your name added to Twitter lists and your Twitter handle listed on #FF. All of these things lead to other users noticing and following you. It is a vicious circle of activity.
  • Bonus Twitter List Tips
    • I recommend starting with some basic categories that align with your interests and/or areas of expertise. For example, if you are in sales, you may want to create lists called “sales superstars”, “sales training”, and “sales bloggers”.
    • When possible, use list names that make other people feel good. “Marketing Thought Leaders” is a much better list name than “Marketing”.
    • Using lists will also help you keep track of who you follow, as the number grows.

5) House Clean Your Twitter Followers

As you attract targeted followers, you will also attract some Twitter spammers that usually fall into these categories: porn, MLM, “build your wealth”, discounts and “get millions of Twitter followers”.

  • Although they pump up your follower count, displaying these users in your Twitter follower list, which is public, does not help your business brand.
  • Review your list weekly and use the block function to remove Twitter spammers. This cleans your list and sends them a message- go away!

I guarantee that if you leverage all five strategies consistently, you will build a growing, relevant Twitter following, which will help you build awareness about you and your brand, and indirectly generate sales leads and revenue for your business.

What do you think? Agree? Please add your comments…

6/14 addition: Just found a related blog post that you may like: Win Friends And Influence People On Twitter In Just 5 Seconds A Day by @tweetsmarter

4 Tips to Boost Sales Productivity in 2011

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The following post was written by a guest blogger, Joe Schembri, who is currently partnering with the University of  San Francisco on their Sales Management curriculum. Although there is no silver bullet to improve sales productivity, Joe proposes four tips to boost sales productivity in 2011.

4 Tips To Boost Sales Productivity in 2011, By Joe, Schembri

Joe Schembri, 4 Tips To Boost Sales In 2011In this economy, you are probably looking for easy and inexpensive ways to boost sales – without making swift changes to your existing sales processes. To get a step ahead of the competition you may decide to take sales training courses to help define your new strategy but unfortunately, a “quick-fix” button doesn’t exist. The good news is that there are some simple ways you can tweak your current process to encourage greater sales returns. The top four tips include:

  1. Make an Emotional Pitch
    What are you selling? A product? A service? The answer is: neither. You are selling a feeling. It is your job to pinpoint the feeling your customers are seeking from using your product or service. Then, you have to pitch to those specific emotions. Make the customer aware that you understand their exact needs; they will feel more confident in you and, in turn, show interest in your product or service. This tip should be utilized across the board – from web pages to sales presentations. Focus on the feelings that are produced by using the product, rather than the actual attributes of the product.
  2. Maintain Relationships
    No means no. Or, does it? Even if you have made your pitch and the client shows little or no interest, it does not mean they won’t eventually be interested. In sales operations staying in contact with all possible clients is key to gaining their trust and keeping the lines of communication open. Of course, don’t pester them until they file a cease and desist order against you. An easy way to follow-up is to periodically call or email with information about a new offer. Another way is to add them to your newsletter distribution list. Plus, be sure to keep a current log of contact information; carefully separate the clients who do not currently buy from you from those who do buy from you.
  3. Encourage Questions
    Be an open book. While constant questions from clients might be a bit annoying, answering those questions can actually boost your sales. Prospective clients take time to ask questions when they are highly interested in your products or services. Providing a clear answer to their questions could be a fast-track to closing the sale. In a live pitch, make sure to encourage questions throughout the presentation. Don’t forget to maintain a current FAQ page on your website. Include the most frequently asked questions and up-to-date contact information. You would be surprised at the amount of clients and prospects that check this page before directly calling you.
  4. Simplify the Process
    Time is precious. Don’t clutter your pitch with non-essential information, as you’re essentially giving the customer an opportunity to lose interest. Streamline all procedures; make buying online fast and easy. Don’t require the customer to provide unnecessary information during the ordering process. A better way to collect information is to send a follow-up message of thanks and include a short questionnaire.

While these selling tactics might not be exciting or flashy, over time, they have proven to be reliable, consistent and profitable. These minor additions or changes to your selling approach will help lay the foundation for greater ROI and expansion of your client base.

About The Guest Blogger, Joe Schembri
Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, Joe Schembri has always been interested in business topics such as sales and marketing. He is currently working with the University of San Francisco by reviewing several of their certificate courses including the sales and Internet marketing programs. USF offers sales management training courses online which upon completion you can earn a Master Certificate.

How To Protect Renewal Sales With Inactivity Reporting

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Closely monitor lack of customer activity, not just activity, to drive future sales revenue. Why? Renewal dollars often represent 70% to 80% of sales budgets and quota achievement. Saving “at risk” customers before they leave, allows you to protect this revenue.

Lack of activity could demonstrate that your customer is unhappy with your product, not aware of all the product features/options and/or is testing out one of your competitor’s products.

“At risk” customer inactivity will vary by industry, product and service, but here are some examples that may apply to your business:

  • Decreasing Product Usage:

If you sell SAS and/or a product with a secure login, identify customers who used to log in on a regular basis, and are now logging in significantly less or not at all.

Ernst and Young gave an excellent example of decreasing usage in their white paper “Customer attrition: Improve the efficiency of your customer retention management”.

“Think of a bank customer. Perhaps the customer does not take the time to cancel a current account, but simply leaves the account open with the minimum amount required, and instead uses a different bank for daily transactions and savings. He or she then cancels a debit card and opens a term deposit at a different bank that offers better conditions. Little by little, the customer reduces the relationship with the first bank. This bank may not identify the problem since this customer did not deliberately express the determination to switch banks. “

  • Leftover Licenses: If you sell your customers multiple licenses for a product, identify customers who have a number of licenses that show no usage.
  • Unsubscribe Requests: Watch for customers who unsubscribe to your email, direct mail or catalogs, after being “on the list” for a good period of time.
  • Dropping Order Quantity & Dollars: For consumable products, recognize customers who begin ordering much lower quantities or fewer dollars than their previous order history.

Once you have collected the customer inactivity data there are two approaches to using it: short term to save existing customers and mid/long term to predict future at risk customers.Customer Inactivity Report | Source Idea Go

From a short term perspective, develop internal processes and exception reports to identify at risk customers, and then take action to save them. Set up special calling or visiting schedules. Identify the causes of inactivity and then implement solutions such as customer education & training, special offers etc.

Longer term, leverage your inactivity data to identify trends and then (partner with an uber talented marketing analytics guru to) build a model that can predict customers who may be “at risk” in the future.  This allows you to be proactive, not reactive, in how you work with these customers and change your sales and service approach.

How have you monitored inactivity in your organization to protect future sales? Please add your comments.

I Mixed Process Analysis and Mexican Tequila

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I just came back from a wonderful, one week vacation in Riviera Maya, Mexico, and even on vacation, the subject of “process improvement” jumped into my ahead, along with the 85 degree weather, sandy beaches, Tequila tasting and plentiful pina coladas. Once an Ops Gal, always an Ops Gal!!

There were activities I observed that demonstrated both process flops and process excellence. Here are some details about this experience and my key takeaways.

Friendly Reception – Not So Friendly

When you walk in to the lobby of this hotel, there is not an official reception desk. Instead, you walk into a rectangular room with a series of three tables to your right and three tables to your left. There are various signs.. front desk, check in, priority support and then some table shave no signs. After being on a plane for 5 hours, waiting in customs, taking a cab ride etc. you want to walk in and see something familiar.. a standard, check in process. Instead, you walk in and feel confused.

To help you, they have a man who walks around looking for confused guests, greets them and asks them to wait until someone is available. You then stand around in the center of the room waiting, as there are no chairs, and eventually are waved in to sit down at the table with the hotel employee.

Another day, we had a question for what would traditionally be the “reception” attendant. We walked in to the rectangular room, looked around, and then were waved over to a table for “priority support”. We asked our question, and then were redirected to wait for the table called “front desk”.

The hotel was trying to be different and by making the reception experience unique, and likely more personal. Instead, they created a confusing process and had to hire additional staff members to guide customers through it.

Key Takeaway: Continually observe your processes for defects. (In this case, it’s confused and annoyed customers- and the incremental process steps of the greeter and desk changes.) On paper or in a conference room, you may not identify all of the problems. By watching what happens first hand, you will see process defects first hand and can take action.

Entertainment Staff – Using The Fun And Different To Sell The Activities

Like many nice hotels, this resort had a dedicated entertainment crew that led scheduled activities every day and evening. The six person team was a pleasure to watch because they had mastered the entertainment experience.

About 10 minutes prior to each activity, designated members of the crew surveyed guests around the pool to solicit participation. They did not simply say “pool volleyball at noon”. Instead, they made jokes, they appealed to egos, they made silly poses and they played up the elements of competition. Everyone on the entertainment staff had a nickname and something unique about them, and they used that to generate interest (e.g. one staff member was very tall and thin.. he was called the “toasted breadstick”. )

You could tell that the jokes, phrases and actions had been time tested, and practiced weekly on the new bunch of guests.

Did this work? Heck yeah! Every event was packed and while it went on, you could hear and see lots of laughter and teamwork among staff and guests.

Several days my husband and I walked down the public beach and peered into the other hotels. A few blocks down we observed the opposite entertainment staff experience. A lone employee was on the beach yelling out “beach soccer, beach soccer” and the beach was completely empty.

Key Takeaway: Like Zappos has proven, business does not have to be boring (check their email reminders). Humor, enthusiasm and the right verbiage can/will engage your customers…. Using “off the shelf”, standard business fare can deflate interest in your product or service.

Social Media – Alive And Well In Mexico

“If you like what you see, tell others, put that in your guest survey and make comments on Trip Advisor. If you don’t like what you see (finger over lips) shhhh.”. We heard this phrase from the entertainment staff, the entertainment (rock bands, an Elvis impersonator) and service providers (company they hire to do snorkel trips). They added humor to the “shhhhh”, but the message was clear- only share the good news.

Throughout the trip, I spoke with at least 5 guests who had used Trip Advisor to research hotels. We heard from hotel management that they read Trip Advisor every day, throughout the day.

No big aha here…. Just found it interesting how sharing the travel experience online, good or bad, has become part of what hotels and every staff member thinks about- all the time. Nothing is private- everything is public.

Please share your comments and additional process observations from when you have traveled.

Train and Forget: A Costly Proposition

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By Véronique Anxolabehere, Guest Blogger

When it comes to sales training, there’s an age old quote from Albert Einstein that often comes to mind, “The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” While the interpretation of what he meant by this statement may vary, what I take away from his sentiment is that conventional or formal training is only one small element of learning.

So why does this matter for sales professionals?

Having a sales team lacking sales training or knowledge hurts everyone. Sales professionals on the front lines are put in a position where they struggle to communicate the value proposition or competitive differentiation and thus fail to reach their sales goals. Organizations therefore fail to reach sales goals, thus impacting a company’s bottom line. And customers lose because they waste time speaking to sales representatives who can’t answer their questions or help them come to a buying decision.

In fact, an IDC Executive Advisory Group report found more than 50 percent of salespeople are ill-prepared for meetings with prospects and 47 percent of buyers are dissatisfied with the quality and value of information from IT vendors.

The reality is that many sales training programs today are ineffective and/or outdated.

  • A prime example: the intensive, multi-day training event. I’m assuming if you’re a sales professional reading this blog, you know what I’m talking about – sitting in a conference room for back-to-back meetings trying to absorb the latest tools, tips and tricks to help you be a more effective salesperson without taking you out of commission for too long.
  • But these cramming sessions without any reinforcement after the fact are not an effective way to learn. In fact, studies show that 50 percent of learning content is lost within five weeks. Worse yet, 84 percent of what is initially learned is lost within 90 days.

Furthermore, the dynamic of the workplace is changing. Most studies show that 80 percent of what we learn is through informal learning. And Web 2.0 tools we use every day such as Facebook, Twitter, Google and Instant Messenger are making it easier for people to work together and share information. This coupled with the increasingly global nature of business is making collaboration even more necessary and prominent than any other point in history.

As a result, there’s an immediate need for a paradigm shift in the way sales organizations approach training methods. Companies can no longer just focus on the old ways of formal training (I’m guessing Einstein would back me up here). For learners to acquire and retain knowledge and skills, they need immediate access to context-relevant sources of informal learning in addition to formal training sessions. This is where “social learning” comes in.

The theory of social learning, which contends that learning occurs through four main stages of imitation (i.e. close contact, imitation of superiors, understanding of concepts and role model behavior) is not new. However, its application in today’s workplace is.

The advent of social networks and Web 2.0 technologies are changing the ways in which workers gain information and learn from superiors and peers. A social learning approach embraces both formal learning as well as the Web 2.0 tools that facilitate informal learning, and allows for sales professionals to not only retain information longer, but also ensure the organization is able to deliver training at a faster rate not possible through traditional learning programs alone.

By adopting social learning and allowing sales professionals to access what they need, when they need it and through the method that works best for them, organizations are able to on-board, educate, and develop their sales team members more efficiently and easily. And this ultimately leads to better sales and happier customers.

I’d be interested in hearing from you – how much of what makes you a successful sales person is based on informal vs. formal learning? What would make your sales training process more effective for you?  (Please add your comments to this blog post.)

Author Bio

Veronique Anxolabehere, Guest BloggerVéronique Anxolabehere is Director of Marketing for the Saba People Learning division. With her strong international experience with start-up and Fortune 500 companies, and over twenty years in product management and marketing of Information technologies and applications, she helps organizations increase their competitive edge by improving the management of data, optimizing communication, and sharing knowledge and expertise. Veronique can be reached at vanxolabehere@saba.com.

6 Factors To Determine If Your Sales Results Are Good Enough

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Did you know that achieving 200% of sales quota could be bad?

Yes; if the quotas were not set correctly, if sales are declining vs. growing in that territory, if all your business was compiled from renewal dollars, if the cost of sales is higher than the revenue….etc.

Whether the discussion is about sales quotas, customer satisfaction or employee productivity, we must consistently ask ourselves – “Are these results good enough?” And, “How do I know?”

To understand whether you or your organization is doing well, you must consider a variety of factors, that when put together, tell the complete story. Here are 6 to consider:

1) Compare Results Versus Prior Period

Compare your results versus the prior period and calculate the improvement. This could include a month/month, quarter over quarter and year over year review.

It is critical to compare apples to apples, i.e. the same territory of zipcodes, the same set of customers and/or the same type of sales revenue (new, add-on, repeat).

Also, a wise woman once said that a one month improvement or blip does not make a trend. Look for sustained improvement, m/m, qtr/qtr and year over year.

2) Compare Results With Others Like You

Compare your results with another salesperson or territory of similar size and difficulty. Compare your results with the average of employees doing a similar job, for a similar product or service.

This is not an apples to apples view, but can provide good directional information. If results are significantly different, find out why.

3) Compare Results Versus The Sales Opportunity

Ideally, your organization designed their sales territories, calculated sales quotas and determined department goals, based on the sales opportunity available.

Determining the opportunity is a combination of art and science, and includes activities such as a market analysis, competitive analysis and sales productivity review. If your quotas are set based on the sales opportunity and you continually capture more and more of it, the results may going in the right direction!

4) Compare Results Versus The Competition

Many companies post key results or trends in their quarterly earnings releases or annual reports. Your competitors may also participate in surveys or studies. Seek out this information and compare their trends with yours.

Important: Just because you are better than your competitors, does not mean that you are good enough. i.e. they may totally suck and you may be one point higher. This should be one indicator, among a list of indicators.

5) Compare Results Versus Best In Class

Whether you find this information online, purchase a study or gather the data from an industry expert or consultant, compare your actuals with “like”, best in class organizations. This will illustrate where you rank and how much farther you have to go to be good enough.

6) Consider Costs, Margin, ROI

If your results are incredible, but your company lost money in the process, does something need to change? Maybe…

Regardless of the task, you should know what the output costs are. In some cases, you will want to make money or margin, in other cases you will want to break even, and in some cases a loss may be expected (e.g. cost of brand new business). This cost, ROI discussion should be part of your strategy and planning process.

To understand whether you or your organization is “good enough”, you must consider a variety of factors, that when put together, tell the complete story. What other factors should be considered? What did I miss? Please add your comments.