sales force effectiveness - building an army of true believe

1. Building an army of True Believers™ This whitepaper is Part 1 of a 3 Part series focused on … Making the most of your sales process August 2010 Copyright Blackdot 2010

2. Building an army of True Believers™ Introduction As business leaders, we all want to have well-defined sales processes that are followed by allof our salespeople. Imagine if they did so not for being forced to, but because they genuinelyfound it enabled them to sell more! The reality for many leaders however, is that their organisations don’t have a well definedprocess to begin with. Even in those that do, many of their people either do not follow it, orfollow it only because it is mandated. In this paper we introduce a new way of thinking about the effectiveness of anorganisation’s defined sales process and look at how high performing companies are usingprocess to drive more predictable, sustainable and profitable above-market growth. We define the three stages of the sales process that an organisation works through to winnew clients and grow existing ones as follows: 1. ‘Identify’ - targeting and segmenting the market including portfolio, territory, account and opportunity planning (but excluding marketing ‘awareness building’ activities) 2. ‘ Qualify ’ - understanding customer needs as well as exploring solutions and fit, to determine suitability to progress further in the sales process 3. ‘ Close ’ - gaining client commitment and negotiating terms and conditions, contracts, planning of product / solution / service fulfilment and on-boarding These insights have been derived from the Blackdot Benchmark which employs a rigorousempirical examination of the unique behaviours and activities of high performing salesorganisations (called the Top Quartile), sales leaders and frontline sales people as comparedto their ‘Core’ counterparts. Over the last 12 months over 6,800 sales leaders and frontlinesales people globally have participated in the Blackdot Benchmark. Insights Our research has indicated that Top Quartile sales organisations:  Grow revenues at more than 71% above their market growth rate  Have more people who adhere to the organisations defined sales process (vs the Core) Have significantly more people that view their sales process as enabling (vs the Core) We see this as compelling evidence that an enabling sales process - as perceived by frontline Sales process sales people and managers - drives superior revenue performance and represents a (adherence) drives significant source of sustainable competitive advantage for those organisations that are able performance to achieve it. © Blackdot 2010 2

3. Building an army of True Believers™ Evidence The Blackdot Benchmark asks frontline sales people and leaders to describe their adherenceto their organisation’s sales process and the extent to which they perceived this process asenabling. Our analysis identified five typical ‘tribes’ existing to varying degrees in every organisation: 5 distinctive ‘tribes’ of salesprocess adherence 1. True Believers™ - Adhere to the organisation’s sales process, AND view it as enabling have emerged 2. Compliants - Adhere to the organisation’s process, but DON’T view it as enabling 3. Mavericks - Do NOT adhere to the organisation’s sales process 4. Self Reliants - Apply their own process where the company process isn’t (perceived to be) available 5. Clueless - Do NOT adhere to any sales process Sales Process Adherence The critical insights to drawfrom this‘tribes’ analysisare that Top Quartile salesorganisations havesignificantly: Organisations who grow quicker than their market have MORE ‘True Believers™ - sales people who view  Greater adherence to a defined the sales process as enabling organisational sales process than Core Performers-78% vs.64%(Sum of True Believers ™+ Compliants scores) More True Believers™ than the Core Performers - Figure 1: Sales process adherence for all top quartile sales 62% vs. 39%. In organisations versus core organisations addition, True Believer™ scores are highly correlated with low flight risk, further supporting thenotion that an effective sales process is a fundamental part of creating anenvironment where high performers can over- achieve  Less Clueless and Self-Reliants than Core sales organisations - 13% vs. 24% Even amongst Top Quartile sales organisations though, there are absolute performance gaps.These organisations would also benefit materially from driving up their True Believer™ scores. Interestingly, high performers were evenly-distributed (in relative terms) across the TrueBeliever™, Compliant, Maverick and Self Reliant tribes which dispelled a common SalesLeader hypothesis that the bulk of their Mavericks would be high performers(whocharacteristically possess a stronger aversion to process adherance). © Blackdot 2010 3

4. Building an army of True Believers™ The Fundamental Question For any business leader looking to ensure that their organisation’s sales process actuallyenables their sales people to sell more, the fundamental question to resolve is … How do webuild ourselves a team of True Believers™? Five Steps to Drive Up Your True Believer™ Scores (and Grow your Revenues) The True Believer™ data highlights the dual challenge leaders face in building an enablingprocess and then getting the frontline to buy in to it. Our work with many leadingorganisations to address this challenge has indicated five key ways to drive up your TrueBeliever™ Scores. 1. Ensure your Sales Process is aligned to your Strategic Priorities - a fit for purpose Is your salesprocess ‘fit for process will be geared towards driving client acquisition and/or growth that’s aligned to your core sales strategy and the way you measure and reward your sales people. If (as aSales Leader) you can’t articulate what products / solutions are the priority, acrossselected distribution channels to target client segments, verticals and geographicregions; then your sales process will inevitably be less efficient than it should be.Ensuring your process drives both organizational and individual performance is key. purpose’? 2. Don’t Confuse Ineffectiveness with Poor Implementation - be aware that sales Have expectations been well people’s discontent with the defined sales process often stems from the fact that it:  Is poorly documented, communicated and understood Is inconsistently applied understood &implemented?  Has been ineffectively implemented or introduced High performing sales leaders ensure that the core disciplines are understood andclearly mandated. 3. Ensure your Leaders are on Board - unsurprisingly, Maverick and Compliant leaders What proportionof your leaders are True Believers TM ? drive Maverick and Compliant behaviour in their corresponding frontline team. The single most direct means of driving up your True Believer™ score is to shift the mindsetand behaviours of your Maverick and Compliant leaders. Common challenges to addressare the sales leaders or managers who want to believe they’re different, think theyalready have a team of high performers, or only see the value in a ‘loosely’-defined salesprocess. Whilst it’s critical to understand divergent perspectives amongst the salesleadership group; ultimately, you cannot effectively manage a large sales force byexception. You have to manage by the ‘rule’ that is the defined organisation wide process. © Blackdot 2010 4

5. Building an army of True Believers™ 4. Understand Maverick and Compliant perspectives - the three key reasons why Do you know why the Mavericks & Maverick and Compliant sales people in Core companies reported that the organisation’s sales process was inhibiting were that it: 1. Creates distractions and involves low value tasks (36%) Compliants don’t believe? 2. Does not assist with opportunity identification (22%) 3. Is not supported by useful tools and technology (20%) Process improvement initiatives targeting these key areas can yield significant resultsand are the subject of our Second paper in this series titled ‘Lost Revenue & Lost Talent - the True Cost of Non-Sales Activity’. 5. Use High Performing Mavericks as the Litmus Test - understand what your high performers are doing and leverage internal best practices when executing process Are high performer bestpractices evident improvement initiatives. If high performing Mavericks don’t see the value in convertingto become True Believers™, then you do not have the optimal process. Ultimately, in your defined sales process? visible high performer support and demonstrated success with the improved salesprocess creates a virtuous cycle that further lifts process adoption and behaviour changeacross the core and low performers. © Blackdot 2010 5

6. Building an army of True Believers™ CASE STUDY - Global Freight Company One global freight company that Blackdot partnered with has usedseveral of the above Five Steps to Drive Up Their True Believer™Scores to attain a significant improvement in its sales effectiveness. Figure 2 illustrates the Blackdot Benchmark True Believer™ data for2009 which reveals:  Unusually high Compliant and low Maverick and Self Reliant scores indicating the presence of a defined, universal sales process that’s ultimately perceived as ineffective by a significant number of sales people and leaders  No Clueless sales people indicating that no one is working without a defined sales plan Figure 2: 2009 Sales Process Adherence for Australia & NZ Division  Sales Leader True Believer™ scores that were higher than the Frontlines indicating a loss of buy-in to the organisations sales process as it cascaded through the levels Over the last 12 months, this firm has re-designed its defined salesprocess based on Benchmark data and high performer feedback to:  Systematically reduce the amount of low-value adding, non- sales activity and servicing done by all frontline sales staff  Streamline key ‘opportunity identification’ processes, including the: - Introduction of a more systematic approach to prioritising ‘prospects and suspects’ across territoriesand major account portfolios - Reinvigoration of company-wide territory and major account opportunity planning process & toolkit - Evolution of more targeted marketing-driven lead generation campaigns  Centrally assist sales staff with bid and proposal templates and tools in support of a more customer needs focused ‘solution selling’ methodology In 2010, this organisation re-tested using the Blackdot Benchmarkand Figure 3 illustrates the Blackdot Benchmark True Believer™ datafor 2010 which reveals:  Overall uplift in total True Believer™ scores from 53% to 66% Overall uplift in Sales Leaders’ True Believer™ scores from 68% to 81% More importantly over the 2009-10 period, this lift in saleseffectiveness has enabled the company to grow revenues by 10.2%and achieve net real growth of 2.43 times the broader market. Figure 3: 2010 Sales Process Adherence for Australia & NZ © Blackdot 2010 6

7. Building an army of True Believers™ Conclusion The True Believer™ concept represents a new way of thinking about the effectiveness of anorganisation’s sales process. The empirical data and insights generated from Blackdot Benchmark clients clearlydemonstrate: 1. Process drives sales performance. 2. Compliance with a defined sales process is simply is not enough 3. Compliance must be accompanied by a belief amongst the leaders and frontline that the process will actually enable them to sell more Only then will you produce a critical mass of True Believers™ capable of deliveringpredictable, sustainable and profitable above-market growth for your organisation. Click here to find out how your organisation can produce a critical mass of True Believers™. Upcoming White Papers in this Series White Paper #2: Lost revenue and lost talent - the true cost of non-sales activity Do you know how much time your sales people actually spend selling? On average, high performing sales organisations, sacrifice 33% of core selling time to non-sales activity each week. In this paper we introduce new empirical research which indicates the true cost toorganisations in terms of lost revenue from under-utilised capacity and highlight how highperforming sales organisations have successfully addressed this challenge to eliminate low-yielding non-sales activity. White Paper #3: The Sales Process - What does good actually look like? In our third and final white paper in the series, we re-visit the sales process. If, as we have seen, it is so important to have an army of True BelieversTM who follow yourorganisation’s sales process and view it as enabling, then what then does a ‘good’ salesprocess actually look like? © Blackdot 2010 7

8. Building an army of True Believers™ About Blackdot & the Blackdot Benchmark Established in 2001, Blackdot is a niche management consultancy that partners leadingorganisations to better enable them to acquire, grow & retain customers … more profitably. Our vision is to be the global leader of sales force effectiveness benchmarking andperformance improvement. The Blackdot BenchmarkTM is our online diagnostic tool that quantifies what a high-performing sales organisation, leader and Representative actually looks like. To date, morethan 6,800 sales leaders and frontline sales people from across 11 industries and 19countries have contributed to our growing database of world leading insights. About the Author Marty Nicholas marty.nicholas@theblackdot.com.au As Managing Director, Marty is charged with leading the business anddriving Blackdot’s strategy & growth agenda. He is ‘hands-on’ inproject design & delivery and works extensively with clients:  In the design & execution of organic growth strategies  To drive large scale change or transformation projects across the Sales, Service & Marketing functions Marty established Blackdot in 2001 following an eight year history in management consulting. He has an Honours degree in Science (Psychology) from the University of NewSouth Wales and between 1988 and 1991, Marty coxed the Australian Men’s Under 18 and 23 Rowing Eight. Contact For more information on how Blackdot can help your organisation build a team of TrueBelieversTM, or to find out more about how you can become accredited in administering theBlackdotBenchmarkTM, clickhere for Sales Force Effectiveness consultationor call us on (+61 2) 8246 7300. Received this from a colleague? Signup for free to receive future White Papers and Blackdotthought leadership insights. © Blackdot 2010 8