Our firm worked on a diagnostic project for a generations-old company. The company has to modernize in many ways, including the documentation of the company’s processes.
To understand sustainable and profitable revenue generation, we took a close look at Sales. Two product divisions sell
wholesale to distributors who will sell to the public, one division sells a
product for business use (B to B), and two divisions sell products retail
directly to consumers. In every division, there is little depth behind
the primary salespeople.
In no division is the sales process documented. All the information is in the salespeople’s heads. They could be making
the same mistakes over and over. If a sales person leaves or gets
hit by a bus, any replacement will have to learn from scratch and the company
will lose both relationships and months of valuable selling time.
Many sales people (and old school sales managers) do not consider the time needed to invest in documenting the selling process as a worthwhile
use of resources. However, the ROI on
such an exercise is indisputable in terms of future payback for the
company. The next step for this company, whether we help them or not, is
to analyze and document the sales process for each division, then focus on
improving each sales process (and marketing to support sales) for 2011 and
beyond.
Even this limited focus on structural capital will increase value and performance while reducing risk.
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Thanks! Mary
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