1. How to Find Out What’s Really Going on
in Your Sales Organization
February 15, 2013
Notice: This presentation is copyrighted. Quotation in whole or in part must be
accompanied by attribution to:
“ES Research Group, Inc. - www.ESResearch.com”
Dave Stein, CEO, ES Research Group
@davestei
ESResearch.com/blog

2. © 2013 – ES Research Group, Inc. 2
What We’ll Cover…
All graphics: Fotolia.com

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Sales-Related Challenges (From the CXO’s Perspective)
• Missed forecasts
• Questionable pipeline
• Low win rate against certain competitors
• Margin-killing tactical discounting
• Significant attrition among sales people
and their managers
• Low (or no) ROI on sales training, tools,
CRM, etc.
• Inconsistent messaging
• Low satisfaction rating among new
customers.

4. © 2013 – ES Research Group, Inc. 4
Where are Your Selling Challenges?
1. Individual Deal?
2. Sales Dept./Infrastructure?
3. Product/Company?
4. Systemic: External?

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Sales Superiority
1. Individual Deal?
2. Sales Dept./Infrastructure?
3. Product/Company?
4. Systemic: External?

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Sales Effectiveness as Competitive Advantage
1. Individual Deal?
2. Sales Dept./Infrastructure
3. Product/Company
4. Systemic: External

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Is the Problem the VP of Sales?
Months 1-3
On-boarding. VP learns about the company, salespeople, colleagues in
marketing, services, customers, competitors, etc. Asks a lot of questions.
Months 4-6
VP makes changes in approach, terminology, territories, business partners,
marketing materials, routine (sales meetings, forecast calls, etc.) VP may bring in
former salespeople that worked for them in the past.
Months 7-9
Little to no performance improvement. VP says that new mechanisms haven’t
“gained traction.” Or that their new reps “need a little more time.” VP suggests
that there have been changes in the market/economy/environment since they
joined. Assures executive team a little more time will do the trick.
Months 10-12
An occasional success! The heat is off for a time, until the CEO realizes that “one
big win does not a trend make.”
Months 13-16
Consultant or board member or expert is brought in to assess the
situation. Meetings, reports, discussions, back and forth.
Months 17-19
VP and CEO see the handwriting on the wall, but keep it to themselves, hoping
that the situation will magically approve.
Months 20-23
CEO covertly searches for new VP. VP covertly taps into his/her network while
updating their resume with the appropriate spin on this latest position.
Month 24
or the New Month 1
New VP of sales arrives… On-boarding… Start all over again.,
24-Month Sales VP Cycle

8. • The backbone of sales effectiveness is PROCESS.
– Sales
– Qualification
– Opportunity Management
– Account Management
– Recruitment and selection
– Lead generation
– Training and reinforcement
– Management and coaching
– Sales Performance Measurement
• Anything else is seat-of-the-pants guesswork.
Getting to the Truth

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Does Your Sales Process Map to the Customer’s?
Source: Sales Benchmark Index

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Are There Well-Defined Gates Between Stages?
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5
Customer Need Identified Explore Alternatives Validation Finalists Engagement
Us Initial Contact Discovery Engagement Proposal Closing
Who?
Acct Exec Acct Exec
Solution Engineer
Acct Exec
Solution Engineer
Acct Exec
Solution Engineer
Services Rep
Acct Exec
Sales Mgmt
Exec Mgmt
Actions,
Activities,
Events
•Contact made
•Preliminary research
•Initial qualification
•Budget confirmed
•Timeframe confirmed
•Need confirmed
•Real buyer identified
•What are they doing now?
•Further research
•Preliminary meetings
•Further qualification
•Buying criteria understood
•Initial meetings
•Requirements discussed
•Agreement on objectives
•Understand decision process
•Meeting w/ Real buyer
•Situation Assessment
•Set sales objective and strategy
•Further qualification
•Changes in buying criteria?
•Sales objective determined
•Sales strategy devised
•Competitive positioning
•Demonstrations
•Further meetings
•Introduction of your execs
•Address objections
•Exec. buy-in
•Solution design
•Further qualification
•Proposal
•Reference checking
•Internal approval
•Address objections
•Pre-test Terms
•ROI completed,
checked
•We have been
selected
•Approvals, legal, etc.
•Negotiation
•Procurement
/purchasing
•Signatures
# of Deals
Engaged
5 deals 4 deals 3 deals 1 – 2 deals 1 – 2 deals
Time to
close
6 months 5 – 3 months 3 – 2 months 1 month 0 months
Attrition
rate
20% 20% 15% 15% 0

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Major Sales Process Pitfalls
• Individual process for each rep
• Process not based on how your
customers buy
• Too complex and detailed; no
flexibility
• Too simple and high-level; too
flexible
• Sellers disregard qualification
criteria in lieu of feeling good
• Moving through process without
completing all the tasks/gates
• Not managing/coaching
salespeople to the process.

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Determining the Quality of the Pipeline/Forecast
• What specific actions/agreements with and by customers
must take place to go from one stage to the next?
• How do you determine the likelihood of a deal closing?
• How do you determine when a deal will close?
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5
Customer Need Identified Explore Alternatives Validation Finalists Engagement
Us Initial Contact Discovery Engagement Proposal Closing
Who?
Acct Exec Acct Exec
Solution Engineer
Acct Exec
Solution Engineer
Acct Exec
Solution Engineer
Services Rep
Acct Exec
Sales Mgmt
Exec Mgmt
Actions,
Activities,
Events
•Contact made
•Preliminary research
•Initial qualification
•Budget confirmed
•Timeframe confirmed
•Need confirmed
•Real buyer identified
•What are they doing now?
•Further research
•Preliminary meetings
•Further qualification
•Buying criteria understood
•Initial meetings
•Requirements discussed
•Agreement on objectives
•Understand decision process
•Meeting w/ Real buyer
•Situation Assessment
•Set sales objective and strategy
•Further qualification
•Changes in buying criteria?
•Sales objective determined
•Sales strategy devised
•Competitive positioning
•Demonstrations
•Further meetings
•Introduction of your execs
•Address objections
• Exec. buy-in
•Solution design
•Further qualification
•Proposal
•Reference checking
•Internal approval
•Address objections
•Pre-test Terms
•ROI completed, checked
•We have been
selected
•Approvals, legal, etc.
•Negotiation
•Procurement
/purchasing
•Signatures
# of Deals
Engaged
5 deals 4 deals 3 deals 1 – 2 deals 1 – 2 deals
Time to
close
6 months 5 – 3 months 3 – 2 months 1 month 0 months
Attrition
rate
20% 20% 15% 15% 0

13. 13© 2013 – ES Research Group, Inc.
Sales Effectiveness as Competitive Advantage
1. Individual Deal
2. Sales Dept./Infrastructure?
3. Product/Company
4. Systemic: External

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Are Your Salespeople “Ahead of the Sale?”
• Objective
• Strategy
• Next steps
• Contingencies/Plan Bs
• Ahead of the plane
– bit.ly/aheadofthesale

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Nine Tough Diagnostic Questions for Critical Deals
Process Questions
Sales Planning What are the 3 next steps to advance our position in the account? How are you
going to execute them?
What are the next 3 questions you need answers to in order to take or maintain
the lead?
What are 3 things that could cause you to lose the sale today, and what are
your going to do to prevent any of them from having that effect?
Customer
Knowledge
What are our customer’s 3 most important buying criteria, where do we stand
versus our competition, and what are we going to do as a result of having this
information?
What are the 3 objections each of our contacts will likely raise (or be thinking)
and how are we going to manage them?
What 3 things will the customer request from us next and what will our response
be?
Customer Value What are 3 key financial benefits the customer will receive as a result of our
product/service?
Relationships With which 3 people in the account must you build relationships with so that
they will influence a decision in our favor. What’s your plan once you identify
those people?
Competitive
Plan
What are 3 ways each of our competitors will attempt to advance their position,
and what are you going to do about those?

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Six Imperatives (1) - Qualification
• Make sure that qualification process for sales opportunities is
objective and unemotional. At a minimum:
– What will the customer buy?
– Why will they buy?
– When will they buy it?
– How much will they pay for it?
– What might keep them from buying it from us?

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Six Imperatives (2) - Planning
• Assure yourself that an appropriate level of planning is done
for every sales opportunity.
– “Let me see your plan to win this account”
• Assessment
• Objective
• Strategy
• Tactics, actions, events, tasks, etc.

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Six Imperatives (3) - WIIFTC
• Be certain that everyone knows the answer to the question,
WIIFTC: “What’s in it for the customer?”
– Where, when, and by how much are we contributing to the
customer achieving their business plan?
– Increase revenues?
– Reduce expenses?
– Mitigate risk?

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Six Imperatives (4) – Strategic Learning
• Make learning an ongoing strategic initiative

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Six Imperatives (5) - Measurement
• Measure what’s important and that they are continually
improving
– Lagging indicators:
• Length of sales cycle
• Discounts
• Size of opportunities
• Performance by rep, manager, region, product line
• Competitive wins and losses
– Leading indicators:
• Learning outcomes: behaviors/skills
• Adherence to process
• Qualified and healthy pipeline

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Six Imperatives (6) – Talent Management
• Confirm that the company is hiring salesreps using a formal
process—not the “old boy network.”
– Will never make their number with 1/3 of salespeople unsuited
for the job and another 1/3 not “tooled.”
– By role

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Summary: Sales Superiority Can Be Yours
• It’s all about Process
– Pragmatic
– Flexible
– Compliance is measurable
– Outcome is predictable
– Basis of coaching

23. Questions?
@davestei
ESResearch.com/blog
Notice: This presentation is copyrighted. Quotation in whole or in part must be
accompanied by attribution to:
“ES Research Group, Inc. - www.ESResearch.com”