| Does your company need a sales turnaround? As we | | | | them amongst their prospects and amongst the deals |
| enter the new year, it's a great time for us to take a | | | | they're working on. Best in class companies do a |
| fresh look at our sales performance in our companies | | | | great job at sales opportunity management by |
| and take action to turn around those aspects that | | | | spending regular time analyzing their pipeline, analyzing |
| we're not satisfied with or which are lagging behind | | | | each customer opportunity, and prioritizing the |
| our expectations. Putting together a sales turnaround | | | | allocation of resources to make sure that those best |
| plan for your company can be done fairly quickly and | | | | opportunities can be focused on and converted into |
| fairly easily. | | | | sales. A quick way to get organized is to have a top |
| The first thing is to pull together key opinion leaders | | | | ten opportunity list for each of your sales reps, to |
| in the company, not just from sales and marketing, | | | | bring that list to every sales meeting, and to get a |
| but are from outside and other departments, such as | | | | regular update on what's being done to advance each |
| finance, operations, product development, etc. and to | | | | of the sales on those top ten accounts. Many |
| ask yourself, "What is it that we can do to improve | | | | companies fail to do this, but it's a very easy tactic |
| our sales? How can we rally the whole company | | | | that can be used in order to bring greater visibility to |
| around making those improvements? What are the | | | | the key accounts that are going to drive your |
| easiest and most rewarding opportunities that we | | | | business, and make sure that your sales reps are |
| have? What are the complacencies that have set in | | | | focusing their top attention on them. |
| to our sales team that we need to eliminate? Are | | | | A simple spreadsheet which is updated once a week |
| there territories that are underserved? Where are | | | | by your sales reps and discussed at the sales |
| our best opportunities and how are our sales teams | | | | meeting is a great way for you to do a top ten |
| aligned to capitalize on those? What is the individual | | | | account review. Have your reps focus on those ten |
| performance of each of our sales people and what | | | | accounts every week and make sure that each |
| are we doing to take corrective action with a poor | | | | week you're holding them accountable for showing |
| performers or move them out of the company if | | | | some advancement on each of those accounts, and |
| they're not capable of stepping up to our | | | | also planning what the next steps are to continue to |
| expectations." | | | | advance the sales at those companies. By maintaining |
| Now is a great time for you to start thinking about a | | | | a top ten list for each of your sales reps, you'll show |
| turnaround plan for your company's sales if they are | | | | them that it's important for you to get visibility on |
| lagging behind expectations. If your company is in a | | | | the accounts that they're working on that are going |
| rapidly expanding market and you're showing growth | | | | to drive revenue and help them to achieve their sales |
| that's slower than the market, it means that you're | | | | quotas. |
| losing market share to your competition. If your | | | | It will also get them into the mindset that they need |
| company is in a flat market but you have outstanding | | | | to be focusing their time and energy on the best |
| opportunities in segment or niches of that market, a | | | | opportunities, as opposed to just turning out the |
| sales turnaround could mean refocusing your | | | | sales activity. Lots of sales reps get overwhelmed by |
| resources on those market segments where your | | | | the volume of activity that they need to generate in |
| best opportunities are. If your company's in a | | | | order to do their jobs effectively. They get lost in |
| declining market, a sales turnaround could mean | | | | activity and start to equate activity with productivity. |
| refocusing your company on new market segments | | | | Being productive in sales means being able to quickly |
| or with new products that will allow you to boost | | | | qualify your best opportunities and focus your time |
| your opportunities and get back on the path to | | | | and attention on moving those opportunities forward. |
| growth. These are all things that you should think | | | | By using an opportunity management system, such |
| about as you think about a turnaround plan for your | | | | as the one we've suggested here, you can quickly |
| company's sales efforts. | | | | make sure that your sales reps are giving primary |
| Sales opportunity management is the key to | | | | focus to what's going to produce the sales that your |
| improving results. A lot of companies struggle with | | | | company needs in order to accelerate its revenue |
| identifying and prioritizing the best opportunities for | | | | growth. |