Products: Sales Strategy Consulting UK 

A Sales Performance Audit looks at every aspect of the sales organisation to identify how it could be more successful in generating sales revenue & profit.

In reviewing sales activity, we utilise the Sales performance Value Chain, a methodology that identifies all factors responsible for sales performance.

We start by reviewing the sales organisation against those aspects responsible for creating sales: Customer Strategy, The Value Proposition & Sales Process.

We then review those sales management actions that create the overall environment for sales success: Mission & Strategy, People & Performance, Motivation & Development.

Our sales review is therefore comprehensive & will identify what changes are needed in all areas of sales activity & management in order to create outstanding sales performance.

We can work with our clients to understand the nature of the relationships they have with their customers in order to maximise the value of these relationships.

The various customer relationships that can exist imply different strategies from the sales organisation:

Transactional Relationships require that customers should be serviced as simply as possible at lowest cost.

Consultative Relationships require the ability to customize of the product or service in some way.

Negotiated Relationships require the ability to trade value with customers & to manage complex negotiations.

Collaborative Relationships require high level account managers to forge strategic partnerships with important customers.

The identification of the ideal relationship that should exist with various groups of customers will ensure that the sales organisation focuses its resources on areas of best opportunity & value.

Powerful Customer Value Propositions provide the ammunition the sales organisation needs to win business against competitors.

The ideal value proposition, exhibits the following key aspects: It is valuable to the customer, it is unique to the selling organisation & is difficult for competitors to copy.

Our starting point for the development of such a proposition is to analyse the organisations total product & service offering in order to identify those aspects that meet these criteria.

The Differentiator Matrix is a useful methodology that helps us to identify the most important aspects of a seller's proposition.

In reality, a number of different Customer Value Propositions can be identified that appeal to different categories of customer, but all of them ensure the selling organisation exploits the maximum value of their product & service offering.

Creating an organisation wide Sales Process, ensures that customers are approached & engaged in the most effective way to secure their business.

Such a process recognises how customers make buying decisions & specifies what the selling organisation needs to do in order to be successful at each stage of this decision making process.

The resulting process ensures that the sales organisation does the right things at the right time to manage the customer's decision making process & to remain in control during the entire sale.

The resulting sales process also provides a very powerful diagnostic tool for sales managers to evaluate sales activity & to forecast sales revenue.

Some customers are more important than others & require special attention. For such customers, the creation of Key Account Managers, using Key Account Planning Techniques is essential in maintaining the required focus & attention.

Our work with clients starts with identifying those customers that require extra focus & attention. We then develop the appropriate account planning techniques & templates required to manage key account activity.

Finally, we develop a specification of the Knowledge, Skills & Behaviours required of key account managers.

The creation of key account planning ensures that those customers responsible for providing the lion's share of revenue & profits are given the attention they deserve in order to preserve their business & to develop it into new areas.

A Training Needs Analysis is the means to identify the future training & development needs of the sales organisation.

In our work with clients, we benchmark sales activity against what we would expect to find in high performance sales organisations, particularly in terms of Knowledge, Skills & Behaviours.

Having evaluated sales performance against the above attributes, we can then create a training & development plan that develops the necessary Knowledge, Skills & Behaviours.

Field Appraisal & Coaching are important sales management activities that aim to improve all of the key ingredients of sales performance.

In our work with clients, we first identify the sales process that should be delivered by sales executives in order to clarify what aspects of sales activity need to be observed & monitored.

We then work with our client to specify the standards of performance required at each stage of this process.

Finally, we then work with sales managers to develop a coaching process template & process to help them give attention & direction to those aspects of performance that require attention.

We have worked with a number or organisations to help them refine their strategy and to move their organisation forward in the required strategic direction.

This experience has led to the development of a number of techniques designed to facilitate development of business strategy and to identify the implications for change in commercial organisations.

Our approach is based on a workshop process that creates ownership and consensus that involves the key players necessary for success.