Isurus Sales Effectiveness Analysis Overview

Sales Effectiveness Analysis

Isurus Market Research and Consulting | www.isurusmrc.com | 617-547-2400


Why Sales Effectiveness Analysis?

Improving your sales effectiveness requires a systematic understanding of your

strengths and weaknesses across all of the factors that influence the outcome of

an individual sale; before you can improve your sales process you need to know

what is working and what is not.

Framework


Framework

Isurus’ sales effectiveness analysis framework focuses on 5 dimensions that can

be measured, managed and improved.

Barriers: Inertia Competitors External Factors

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Marketing Sales Rep Performance Offering

Corporate Field Product Pricing

Prospect

Purchase Trigger Purchase Process Decision

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Product knowledgeResponsiveness

Identifying needsQualifying deals

TrainingCompensation


1. Prospect behavior

Improving sales effectiveness requires understanding 3 key elements of prospect

behavior.


Prospect

Purchase Trigger Purchase Process Decision


Prospect behavior: Purchase trigger

Understanding what triggers the purchase process enables you to target prospects

more effectively throughout the marketing and lead generation process.

A number of factors can provide the trigger for a prospect to begin evaluating new products

and vendors, for example:

A change in management often drives a review of all systems and vendors.

The failure of an existing system makes prospects more interested in other options.

Competitive pressures may force prospects to change the way they do business and the systems they use.

Management consultants often identify specific systems or processes in need of improvement.


Prospect behavior: Purchase process

What criteria are used to create the short list?

Reputation

Initial pricing

Macro features and functionality

Basic technical infrastructure issues

How formal is the process?

Documentation

Timeline, milestones

Use of decision matrices, score sheets

Consultant assistance

Understanding the typical purchase process enables you to create more effective and targeted

corporate marketing efforts, lead generation, sales presentations, and field marketing materials.

Who are the decision makers, influencers?

Titles/functions involved

Functional roles and responsibilities

Number of decision makers

Evaluators, influencers, decision makers

How are potential vendors identified initially?

WOM, market knowledge

Trade publications

Trade shows

Analyst reports

Consultant recommendations


Offering

Specific features and functionality

Integration

Pricing

Brand perceptions

Sector experience

Confidence in the vendor’s ability to deliver

Belief the vendor understands the company’s business needs

Vendor attitude; belief the vendor truly cares

Prospect behavior: Decision

Sales effectiveness analysis provides the prospect’s viewpoint on why they selected your

company or a competitor.

Sales tools and tactics

Results of site visits, customer references

Product demonstrations

Vendor-provided ROI analysis

What drove the final decision?


2. Sales Rep Performance

Qualify opportunities Successful reps assess opportunities correctly and allocate their time to legitimate prospects, rather than those with little real likelihood of buying.

In complex purchases, sales effectiveness depends heavily on the sales rep’s performance.

Know the product Prospects expect sales and technical reps to know your product inside and out, be able to speak to how it will work in their environment and how it is different from your competitor’s product.

Connect business needs to the offering

Sales reps must understand the prospect’s business and processes, identify the problems the prospect wants solved and make the connection to your offering.

Deliver a high level of service

The level of responsiveness and attention prospects receive in the sales process influences their perception of what it would be like to work with your organization.

Receive the right kind of compensation and training

Compensation program structure can create incentives or barriers to sales force effectiveness.

Sales performance can fall short if training is inadequate, particularly when the sales force is being challenged with a new set of offerings, changing markets, or new types of buyers.

Successful sales reps:


3. Marketing: Corporate

Sales effectiveness relies heavily on corporate marketing.

Creates awareness of the company and its offerings

Shapes the market’s perception of the company

Differentiates the company and its offering from competitors

Generates sales leads

Successful corporate marketing:

Corporate marketing activities help Sales gain initial consideration, establish credibility with decision makers, and defend against competitors.


Marketing: Field

Sales effectiveness relies heavily on field marketing.

Field marketing support and materials—demos, fact sheets, case studies, ROI calculators, play books, etc.--play an important role prior to, during, and after a sales presentation.

Demonstrates the technical qualifications of the product

Provides proof points of where the product has been successful elsewhere

Enables the rep to do ROI calculations, estimate maintenance fees, etc.

Compares the product to competitors

Successful field marketing:

Field marketing materials must appeal to both prospects and to sales reps - the most carefully crafted field marketing materials do no good if the sales reps do not consider the material useful.


4. Offering: Product

Sales effectiveness depends on how prospects evaluate the product.

The degree to which the product or offering itself influences a sale varies by category and individual deal. In many cases, all of the vendors being considered meet or exceed the prospect’s needs.

Features and functionality – Not which has the most, but which best meets their specific needs

Manageability (perceived)

Integration with other products and systems

Fit with existing business processes

How it compares to what they are currently using--why is it better than the status quo

Evaluation criteria include:


Offering: Pricing

Price always factors into the decision; the key is to understand the true importance of price relative to other factors.

Initial license or purchase price

Implementation and professional services fees

Ongoing maintenance and support

Cost of upgrades

Financing options

Price dimensions include:

For most prospects, the ROI of potential solutions is not a key driver of the decision. They are skeptical of anyone’s ability—including their own—to accurately estimate the long term cost and return on any technology investment.

When prices fall within a range of tolerance (which varies by product, market, etc.), price is typically not a key factor. When prices among vendors are perceived to vary considerably, price becomes more of an issue.


5. Barriers

Understanding the common barriers to sales effectiveness enables both marketing and sales to anticipate and react more efficiently.

Your product or offering not only needs to be a better fit than your competitor’s, it must also overcome all of the barriers to switching from the status quo.

The perceived value of addressing the business issues

The pain and suffering of switching (e.g. data migration, training, downtime, integration)

Existing contracts and relationships

Preference for suite or best-of-breed solutions

Delivery preference

Common barriers include:

External issues such as the economy, market trends, mergers, regulations, etc. also affect the sales process. Products that have exceptionally long sales cycles—and which are more expensive and complex--are more likely to be effected by external issues.

Outcomes


Outcomes: benefits

Increase win rates A systematic approach to understanding why deals are won or lost increases the probability of winning each individual deal.

Improve efficiencies Allocate sales and marketing resources optimally.

Inform marketing efforts

• Where and how do prospects get information?• What are there current perceptions of your brand? Competitor brands?• What value propositions resonate with them? Why do they buy?• What are your strengths and weaknesses? Competitor’s?

Inform product development efforts

• What is the market currently buying?• What do they ask about? What do they create on their own?• What do competitors have?

The benefits of sales effectiveness analysis:

A systematic Sales Effectiveness Analysis provides benefits across the organization.


Outcomes: deliverables

Generally, companies should not expect immediate or short-term improvements—changing the sales process can take as long as the sales cycle.

For sales effectiveness analysis to be valuable, managers need to be willing and able to act on the data to make changes in the sales process.

Sales effectiveness deliverables include:

Individual reports Reports on individual deals.

Summary reports Reports that look across multiple deals to identify patterns and look across time to gauge trends and measure improvements.

What drives wins? • Statistical tools to identify key drivers of wins (and losses)• In-depth qualitative interviews explore the factors and dimensions of wins and

losses

What are the deliverables in Sales Effectiveness Analysis?

Isurus Sales Effectiveness Analysis Overview

Business

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