Strategic Sales Review Methodology

Sales plays a pivotal role in achieving business goals. Our review methodology ensures that you have the right sales processes and metrics in place.

Introduction

Our methodology follows a simple four phase process, controlled by a light project management process:

 

Preparation and Planning
Comprehensive preparation is the key to a successful review. An initial ½ day preparation workshop is conducted to:
  • Confirm the project deliverables
  • Review planned activities and agree meeting dates and timescales
  • Agree the resources required from the client, identifying the role and names of all involved
  • Review, refine and sign off any questionnaires/data gathering documents
  • Gather data already held by the client for validation and use in the analysis phase
  • Agree the communication plan
  • Agree an action plan for the data gathering phase and allocate tasks within the team
  • Confirm focus and scope
  • Agree key objectives, deliverables and methodology
  • Identify key stakeholders
  • Organise and establish project team(s)
  • Create detailed project plan
  • Produce communication briefings
  • Set up management controls
  • Produce a “Kick Off Document” to initiate the baseline for the project
  • Initiate the strategic sales review
 
Data Gathering
The data gathering phase is usually covered in two half day workshops, one executive (strategic), one sales force (operational), to capture information at the two distinct levels:
Executive Workshop
  • Identify key business drivers
  • Understand business objectives and priorities
  • Capture key sales performance indicators
  • Overview business and sales performance
  • Discuss major challenges
Sales management and force
  • Capture current motivational issues
  • Spot skills/competence gaps and mismatches
  • Plot current sales processes
  • Identify bottlenecks and problems
  • Unpack other issues
  • Understand expectations
  • Harvest improvement ideas
  • Uncover sales performance information problems and opportunities
Key/Critical Sales Questions for the data gathering phase

The following questions provide a good idea of the overall picture we like to paint during data gathering. Making sure that we have covered the situation from the four viewpoints enables the analysis results to lead to more beneficial recommendations.

Analysis
All the data gathered in the previous phase is analysed in depth to draw conclusions and lay out a structure for presenting recommendations in the fourth phase.
Activity
Executive Input Analysis
  • Business strategy and goals impact on sales department
  • Consensus
  • Diversity
Sales Operations Analysis
  • Current metrics – alignment with and value to the business
  • Sales people performance – management and force
  • Process gaps and mismatches
  • Skills/competences gaps and mismatches
  • Problems, root causes and opportunities
  • Potential improvements
Sales Revenue and Cost Analysis
  • Confirmation of current selling costs
  • Potential sales revenue increases, cost savings and value add
  • Business case and ROI
Performance Metrics
  • Whole organisation
    - customer focus – looking inward, looking outward
    - workforce’s customer involvement
    - service differentiation
    - dependence on large customers
    - partnering
  • Sales force
    - turnover, retention and absence
    - competencies and training
    - attitude, engagement and productivity
    - compensation
    - recruitment 
  • Customer relationships
    - satisfaction, retention and loyalty
    - strategic:non-strategic ratios
    - senior executive involvement
    - peer-to-peer relationships
    - service levels
    - process simplification through technology
The project team works on the review of findings jointly with the client to ensure understanding and agreement.
 
Findings & Recommendations
Review Workshop
The strategic sales review culminates with a workshop where the deliverables are discussed and agreed, in preparation for implementation of the recommended way forward.
Report
A findings and recommendations paper is then produced, describing key findings, recommended next steps and the way forward.
Way Forward
A master file is provided comprising all the detailed findings, consolidated data analysis and deliverables.
The next stage is to implement the recommended training and development programme, together with agreed follow up coaching and mentoring, process improvement project(s) and any other accepted recommendations.
 

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