"Tis The Season for a Sales Audit"
Just like sports teams rely on a Playbook to map out plays and plan their strategy, you can use the 'Sales Audit' to zero in on key areas necessary for sales success in 2009.
Building a winning sales force takes more than a strong coach and great players. It also takes a solid game plan, coupled with the drive and enthusiasm of a strong team working the game plan together with the coach to train, motivate and encourage success.
In sports, for example, a great sports organization must be great in multiple key areas simultaneously. They must be excellent at offense…defense… recruiting…marketing…and connecting to their fan base in order to increase attendance. So, too, in running a sales organization, the 'Sales Audit' encompasses multiple key areas you must master to realize your team's potential and snag the big contracts.
The objective of the 'Sales Audit' is to assess together the current situation at your company as it relates to each part of your sales and marketing team both as individuals, and as a group. This will include a review of your sales and marketing people, tools, processes, clients & prospects, company positioning and tone.
We collect and analyze the data and with our recommendations produce a 'Sales Plan' in order to deliver the necessary skills, tools and processes that are wanted and needed in order to upgrade your sales and marketing organization.
Well Coach, when is a good time to conduct a 'Sales Audit?' The real answer is anytime - anytime you believe your team can use a 'tune-up' or an upgrade. Based upon our experience, the most opportune time is at the end and/or the beginning of a new fiscal year - like right now in December or January. Lucky you are reading this article NOW! You get to evaluate the things that have worked, the things that were missing, the things that are important to your company and the pieces necessary to be implemented in order to move forward to reach new levels.
The 'Sales Audit' provides you implement-able ideas on how to help make your sales and marketing teams more productive. Build a more successful sales organization. Identify and hire winners. Assess your staff capabilities. Examine organizational strengths and weaknesses. Eliminate excuses and impediments to winning.
- It’s Done in 4 Phases
o DiSCovery – we check out your company’s:
Team, Processes, Tools, Clients & Prospects,
Positioning, Tone
o Implementation and Roll Out
o Optimization
o Review and Close
Unique 4-Step Approach that is applied to the sales and marketing organization:
1. The Discovery Phase – is the "meat" of the 'Sales Audit' and its designed to provide you insights into which missed opportunities need to be optimized and how. The Discovery Phase does not require significant time and resource involvement from the organization since it is designed as an outsourced service by Sky’s The Limit.
The Discovery Phase is a low-risk, low-investment step that builds your business case for “optimizing opportunities.” We provide you with a 'Sales Plan.' This report will provide information and recommendations that answer the following questions:
- What are your key behaviors exhibited across your key business drivers (Team, Processes, Tools, Clients & Prospects, Positioning, Tone)
- What are the influences that one key business driver (Team, Processes, Tools, Clients &Prospects, Positioning, Tone) has on to another
- What opportunities are being missed in your current key business drivers (Team, Processes, Tools, Clients & Prospects, Positioning, Tone)
- What specific recommendations should be implemented to optimize each of the six areas to improve your key business drivers (Team, Processes, Tools, Clients & Prospects, Positioning, Tone)
Some of the steps necessary to complete the Discovery Phase includes:
v/ Email Questionnaire directed to key personnel in management, sales & marketing
v/ Live interviews with key personnel in management, sales marketing team
v/ Observe the sales and marketing team at their meeting and individually at their desks
v/ Contact clients and prospects
v/ Review of current CRM & sales processes
v/ Review company collateral, web-site & sales reports
v/ Administer the DiSC On-line assessments
(see more info on DiSC, http://www.skysthelimitcorp.com/solutions/disc-assessments-2.htm)
2. The Implementation & Roll-Out Phase (Phase 2) – Full Implementation & Roll-Out Phase is based upon the findings from Phase 1 above and measurement of the increases and improvements generated for each of your key business drivers. Sky’s The Limit deploys an integrated approach and is capable of leveraging your existing initiatives and infrastructure.
3. The Optimization Phase (Phase 3) – Continuous improvement on your business metrics and practice, from the individual interactions to the organization and to your clients. Designed to apply Sky’s The Limit’s integrated approach to optimize your opportunities and ensure that your improvements and enhancements generated are not temporary or decaying over time.
4. The Review & Close Phase (Phase 4) - We conduct a Status Review meeting with you to evaluate your results from implementing and integrated our recommendations into your key business drivers. The Status Review meeting will provide information that answers the following areas:
v/ The individual and the organization reactions to our recommendations
v/ The individual and the organization will be tested on our recommendations to determine the things they learned
v/ The individual and organization behavior will be evaluated and monitored to determine how they have been
impacted by our recommendations
v/ The individual and organization will review the results of their key business drivers that are contributable to our recommendations
The managers, coaches and players of championship sports teams always spend time after each season doing a post-season review to determine the things that worked, the things that were missing, determine the goals for next year, evaluate their shortcomings and strengths and finally put their game plan together for the following season. It's important as a sales leader to be constantly learning - always be learning! It's important to be evaluating and constantly looking for ways to upgrade your organization, to give your clients and team members useful tools and resources.
Just like a championship sports team, its time for you and your team to "look under the hood" and conduct your audit in order to ensure that '09 is Sky's The Limit!
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