Increasing the Productivity of Your Sales Force

Telemarketing and other services can be used to handle many of the routine sales functions, such as making appointments, confirming deliveries, checking orders, or following up on inquiries. Telemarketing is not a substitute for face-to-face selling, however, which is an important factor in building and maintaining customer relationships.

Many companies now align their sales and marketing resources by market sector in order to provide customers with a specialist service. For practical reasons, however, a geographical element may improve productivity and effectiveness. For example, regional direct marketing could be integrated with a local sales drive to improve business in a high potential territory.

It is nothing new for sales representatives to grumble about too much information. The solution is to ensure easy accessibility. A good overview is essential, and an effective search capability makes it easier to locate the appropriate information. Inform the sales force what is available to them, why the information is useful, and how to find it. If the information is important, the reps will use it.

When trying to improve sales force productivity, first determine how much time the sales force actually spends selling. A basic calculation appears below. Without even accounting for extended travel time, this calculation illustrates the relatively small proportion of time sales reps spend in front of customers and prospects.

Effective use of a comprehensive customer database can help to improve sales force performance. Database reports can provide a wide range of information that builds a comprehensive picture of customers and their response. Useful details can include:

• customer profile and contact information;
• customer purchasing history;
• any known problems;
• individual sales or direct marketing initiatives and the response;
• wider communications programs or promotional activity within the customer's sector;
• competitive activity on the account;
• profitability of the account.

This kind of detailed data can be leveraged to focus the sales force on the most important customers and prospects, thereby improving productivity and profitability.

A customer database can also provide information on sales performance, sales costs, and the effectiveness of support programs. This information can facilitate increased control through better allocation of resources, improved territory planning, enhanced training, and the development of other forms of support such as telephone sales. Useful data for management may include:

• individual sales representative performance;
• overall performance of the sales team;
• comparative performance of different sales channels such as field sales, telesales, distributors and agents;
• impact of marketing campaigns on performance;
• cost of sales;
• effectiveness of different call patterns.

In a geographical sales force structure, sales reps are responsible for customers in geographical sales territories. This structure has a number of limitations, however. It can be difficult to allocate consistent resources across all territories, and client service may vary from territory to territory. A geographical model does not accommodate vertical market expertise, and does not allow the sales force to develop product or market expertise.

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) can convert customer data into maps indicating the relation between customers' behavior and their location. By identifying and targeting resources to areas with the highest potential, sales force productivity and effectiveness can be greatly enhanced.

Publishing sales information on the Internet provides genuine time and cost savings. Sales staff has immediate access, 24x7, to critical inventory and pricing details. For example, if shipment data is updated nightly, reps can access current information each day on what has been shipped, to them or to their customers, and then update customers accordingly.

Because such information is immediately available, the time spent making and answering regular inquiries decreases significantly. Sales employees are thus able to increase their focus on the real job of selling. Information can be accessed and orders can be placed 24x7, increasing flexibility and productivity.

The more complex the product or service, the more difficult it is for the sales force to stay current. It is far easier to effectively support a sales force if they are equipped with laptop computers and Internet connections. Reps can use laptops to store and present information on a wide range of products and services, and this information can be updated regularly from a corporate database via the Internet.

Teleconferencing makes it easier to bring far-flung sales teams together, even at short notice. Travel time is eliminated; a teleconference requires only the time for the meeting itself. The freedom and flexibility of teleconferencing means your organization can make better use of meeting time, according to your communications needs.

Telemarketing can be used to enhance sales force performance and productivity. A telemarketing team can follow up on sales leads, qualify prospects, and set up appointments. This frees the sales force to increase face-to-face customer meetings and concentrate on top prospects. Courtesy telephone calls increase customer contact and add a personal touch to the sales process. They provide an opportunity to assist with any initial problems and offer additional products and services.

The integration of telemarketing with the sales force can significantly reduce overall sales costs, particularly if you have been relying on a traditional field sales team. The cost of keeping a sales team on the road continues to soar, and it does not always represent the most cost-effective way of reaching customers. Research indicates that more and more people prefer the telephone for doing business. With a telemarketing function, sales and marketing activities can be refocused. Identify high-cost sales and marketing tasks, and look at lower-cost alternatives based on direct marketing or telemarketing.

When undertaking an improvement program, you must first measure sales force productivity. Many companies measure performance by sales volume alone, but many other factors affect sales force productivity, including call rates, level of support, quality of information, allocation of customers, and travel time. Consider all these factors when planning improvements.

While an incentive program may result in a short-term increase in sales, it can disguise underlying problems in sales force performance. Other activities, such as increased training, better regional management, different account allocation or greater marketing support, may lead to even higher, more sustained levels of performance. An incentive should not be treated as a short-term fix. It should be integrated with other aspects of sales force management for long-term performance improvements.

Sales teams generally have a "comfort zone," and prefer to dealing with regular customers and avoid difficult prospects. This comfort zone may be inhibiting your business's growth if it means that the sales team are spending their time on the wrong people. To help them target the right prospects, use database analysis to identify buying patterns and other factors that they can use to enhance their targeting.

American Marketing Association: www.MarketingPower.com