Our sales system overview

Our system for managing our sales

Overview of our system “How it works”

Summarise your system, how does your system work Imagine someone asking you “How does your xxx system work”

[e.g. Our sales system is all about lead conversion, first of all we find potential customers through our Marketing (i.e. Lead generation) then convert them to actual sales of our goods and/or services..]

Critical to the success of our system is:

What critical success factors have you identified to ensure a smooth system

• [e.g. having trained people to properly deliver our value proposition to a prospective client]
• [e.g. competitive pricing of our goods and services]
• [e.g. flexible payment options]

Sales goals

Purpose

Forecast sales on a rolling twelve month projection to facilitate other budgeting processes.

identify performance targets for sales staff

Background

Goal setting is a useful motivator for sales staff.  It provides a yardstick for performance and makes sales staff accountable for their time.

For best staff morale, it should be a form of encouragement and a “game”.  It should not carry the threat of dismissal for under performance in itself.  It may help detect under performance that management and the staff member can reverse through communication and professional development.

Scope

These targets apply to all sales staff.  Supervisors set individual targets for trainees according to their stage of development.  Each office and each individual sales person will have goals for the month, quarter and year.  Without a goal being set for all aspects of your business, success will be impossible to achieve.

The sales budgets should be realistic and achievable as they form a part of the company budget process and will be used by Accounting staff in developing overall projections for the company.

Procedure

This section has been left blank for you to develop budgeting process steps for your business.

Consider:

• Sales Staff presentations
• Sales Staff Strike Rate
• Deadlines for monthly projections
• processes for identifying growth in the business to enable adequate forecasting on a rolling 12 month basis.

Enter  your goals or objectives for the next 3 years.

Quantitative goals

Qualitative goals

Budgets and Targets

Purpose

Forecast sales on a rolling twelve month projection to facilitate other budgeting processes.

identify performance targets for sales staff

Background

Goal setting is a useful motivator for sales staff.  It provides a yardstick for performance and makes sales staff accountable for their time.

For best staff morale, it should be a form of encouragement and a “game”.  It should not carry the threat of dismissal for under performance in itself.  It may help detect under performance that management and the staff member can reverse through communication and professional development.

Scope

These targets apply to all sales staff.  Supervisors set individual targets for trainees according to their stage of development.  Each office and each individual sales person will have goals for the month, quarter and year.  Without a goal being set for all aspects of your business, success will be impossible to achieve.

The sales budgets should be realistic and achievable as they form a part of the company budget process and will be used by Accounting staff in developing overall projections for the company.

Procedure

This section has been left blank for you to develop budgeting process steps for your business.

Consider:

• Sales Staff presentations
• Sales Staff Strike Rate
• Deadlines for monthly projections
• processes for identifying growth in the business to enable adequate forecasting on a rolling 12 month basis.

Weekly Sales Meeting

Purpose

• Establish reporting to and from sales staff
• Motivate sales staff

Background

For the sales team to operate as a team, members need to know what is going on in sales activity across the company.  This way they can:

• be aware of trends
• help each other by offering viewpoints, support and advice
• measure their progress towards targets
• create the best possible marketing program for the company’s products

Management needs to be aware of Sales activity and success rates so that they can:

• Help the business to develop and operate well
• Help sales team members achieve their targets
• Ensure that the company is providing the highest possible standard of service to clients
• improve the sales procedures of the company
• keep statistics of sales activities and success over time as a valuable tool for process improvement and business planning

Scope

Sales Team

Occurs every (day of the week) at (where) at (time)

Procedure

Sales Manager prepares the agenda:

• (List Agenda Items)

Closing Sales

Purpose

Identify our company’s approach to closing sales

Background

Some prospects are easy to close, some are hard, and some are impossible. A common belief held by many in sales is that is that really great sales people can close anything. This simply isn’t true. Really great sales people know how to get maximum value out of their sales time.

Scope

Sales Staff

Procedure

Understand the value that you provide

Make sure that you understand the value that a customer can get from you.

Sometimes the value is in your quality of goods. Sometimes it is in the service and attention you give as a sales person and as a company. Sometimes it is in both of these.

Whatever your value, be sure you know specific reasons why your prices are higher (if they actually are) than your competitors.

Know who your customers are

You must know who your customers are.  The easy sales come from the prospects who value what you sell and what kind of company you are.  The hard and impossible sales come from the prospects who do NOT value what you are selling and who you are.

You will occasionally comes across a prospect that is asking for bids, and thumbs their nose at your higher prices. These are prospects who do not value what you are selling.

Through analysis of past sales to customers who have been successful with you, you can determine the traits of the prospects most likely to purchase from you.

One of the most important decisions you can make in a sales job is on where to draw the line on which prospects you won’t spend your valuable sales time with.

You need to get very clear on what is most important to your customer.  You do this by asking:

• Why are you planning to buy this (product) now  What is most important to you in a new (product) Why is this important NOW

You also need to figure out who the competition is… there is almost always someone with an inside track.  One way to do this is to inquire about similar or related purchases in the past.  Who have they bought this sort of product from in the past and why did they buy from them

Ask them if there is any reason they wouldn’t be buying from that provider this time  Have they gotten quotes from this provider

A good question in this regard is “why don’t you buy from ABC Company  They gave you good installation support last time which you said is very important to you.”

By asking them about their preferences for their past providers, you will find out if there is a real opportunity for you or if they are just gathering information to use as leverage with their current provider or to cover off a requirement for competitive evaluation.

Change the rules when possible

There is an exception to this rule.  Some prospects don’t fully know what they want, what they need, and what they value.  If you can influence their purchasing criteria, then it is worth it to try and change how they make their purchasing decision.

In the case mentioned above, it would make sense to try show how your higher quality materials could result in lower costs over time when maintenance and replacement costs are factored into a “total cost” scenario.

Often times quality products with a higher initial cost, can be shown to yield a lower total cost over time due to the costs of labour, breakdowns, etc.

The most obvious recommendation is for you to find prospects who value the reasons for your higher prices, and to stay away from the cost conscious driven prospects.

When you make this mind shift of not trying to close everyone, you will find that your sales closing ratio goes up significantly because you are selling to prospects more likely to make a purchase from you.

Discussing and Identifying Customer Requirements (agreeing Scope)

Purpose

Agree on key deliverables in the customers requirements and document them

Background

Creating and agreeing the REQUIREMENTS for a project are only part of the story (what the project is going to do – an important part!)

It’s equally important to agree what the BOUNDARIES are of any undertaking and these must show what the project is NOT going to do.

These elements are bound together and are called the Project Scope Statement which details the project objectives, end-products (deliverables), and requirements.

The Scope must be agreed with all concerned, and used to create the project plan ‘baseline’. Once agreed, the scope sets the expectations of all stake holders so they are clear about what they are going to get when the project is finished.

The last thing we want is a disagreement at project hand over about what we have or haven’t done – and what was expected.

Many projects fail – not because Requirements were not met – but because of difference of opinion about what the project was to deliver.

Most projects are triggered by some form of requirements document. These are central to success and lead to the project developing some form of functional specification against which the project outcome is designed. But not enough effort is spent getting a joint agreement on these documents, and that is where a scope planning and scope development play a key part.

“Scope creep” is seen as an industry-wide evil, instead as being viewed as the natural corollary to change control.

There is a little-known technique that beats all others hands-down for laser-focussed scope planning and development.

It’s this. At the very beginning of project planning, agree what the end-product along with the major products are to be.

Procedure

• Project Objectives – what the project is to do. These should be quantified and measurements agreed. Typically the measurements will include one or more of, cost, time scale, quality, or business benefits.  You will have heard of the SMART acronym for each objective: Specific, Measurable, Accurate, Realistic and tangible, Time bound (time frame plus date).
• Deliverables (End-Products). Each should have a Product Description written. This contains descriptions of the purpose, composition, derivation, and the quality criteria for it to be acceptable to the customer.
• Requirements. This is a specific skill, almost certainly done by specialist team, the customer, users, etc. But it is the responsibility of the project manager to make sure they are captured and agreed. Requirements quantify and prioritise the wants, needs and expectations. They may also describe some aspects of functionality of the project deliverables.
• Project Boundaries. Care must be taken here. This should focus on what is to be excluded from the scope in terms of requirements, objectives, and deliverables. It’s a good idea to create a draft boundary document and circulate it for comments. Or perhaps generate the document from within a meeting with key stake holders.
• Product Acceptance Criteria. This should document the WHAT and the HOW that will be carried out as part of agreeing successful project closure. It must be the Customer/Users perspective. The actual criteria used can be taken from a wide choice of aspects, and may include elements such as ease of use, reliability, operating costs, performance data, etc.  This should also include HOW the objectives, deliverables and other outcomes of the project are to be approved.
• Constraints. All projects have constraints – often put there by humans – sometimes by the rules of physics!  A constraint is anything which impedes the project team’s work. The obvious choices may include, time, cost, quality, key milestone dates or logistics, standards, procedures, directives, compliance, legal and law, health and safety, technology, etc.  Whatever. Get them down and agreed – then plan accordingly.
• Assumptions. In a nutshell, anything you believe to be true. Do not use this section to capture a load of disguised risks (although stated assumptions may lead to generated risks). Documenting them at the start of a project helps test these assumptions and get them agreed.  Should these assumptions prove to be false at a later date, these captured statements can be used as a basis to plan and manage the way forward.
• Project Organisation. Well, as it is initially – it is likely that changes may be necessary to the roles and responsibilities assigned to individuals.
• Initial Risks. Any known risks at this time. It is helpful to include an initial risk analysis so that readers can get a ‘feel’ for each risk.
• Milestones. These may be externally dictated and/or internally created as a result of planning by the project manager. Be sure to have them represent significant points of achievement (or key decision points such as an end-stage assessment).
• Funding Limitations. This is different to cost constraints. It refers to the availability of money to finance the project, and this may have an impact on cash flow. It may state key dates when funds are available, these may be dictated by certain completion criteria, and it also state the amount of funds released at a given point.
• End Product Description. This should include the quality criteria for the product to be acceptable for the customer/user. 
• Specification Document. This is usually derived directly from the Requirements document. It is usually highly detailed and created by the specialist team along with input from the customer and users.

Product Recall

Purpose

(Sample Procedure Only)

Outline the necessary steps required to recall post despatch product.

• Determine quantity manufactured.
• Isolate pre-despatch stock and quarantine.

Background

Scope

Procedure

Case #1: In Transit, no dealer contact.

• Notify transport company.
• Have product recalled before arrival at the dealer.
• Contact Sales Manager.
• Call dealer, offer a plausible reason for delayed despatch.
• Production to remake product and have some, if not all, of the order on next day despatch.
• Notify management.

Case #2:  Delivered, requires dealer contact.

• Contact management.
• Management to decide on damage control options.
• Dealership is given a plausible reason for recall.
• Product to remake product and have some, if not all, of the order on next day despatch.

Case #3:  Product installed, requires end user contact.

• Contact management.
• Follow product complaint procedures.
• Follow warranty procedures.

Sales – List of attached files

List of attached files for this department

Create a list by:

• Click the “Hyperlink button”

• When the dialog appears click the “Existing File” radio button at top

• Browse various folders and find all the documents you want to link

• Select them individually and click “Apply linked list item” or

• multi-select and click “Apply linked list item”

List goes here

Monthly Management Meeting

Our customer relationship system overview

Our system for managing our customer relations

Overview of our system “How it works”

Summarise your system, how does your system work Imagine someone asking you “How does your xxx system work”

[e.g. We strive to develop an automated relationship with our customers where good software systems allow us to serve our clients 24 hours. We provide quick response and a strong knowledge base. Our focus is on retaining customers for the long haul. We do this by offering a subscription based product that is continually improved upon]

Critical to the success of our system is:

What critical success factors have you identified to ensure a smooth system

• [e.g. being clear about the type of relationship we wish to develop, do we want a personalised one or maybe an automated one]
• [e.g. are we more retention focused acquisition focused (ie. new sales) or boosting sales with add-on’s to existing clients focused]
• [e.g. is your relationship more with a community or group than individuals]

Customer service policy

Purpose

Ensure that our customer service is always exemplary

Background

Think about the last time you had a negative buying experience. Did an e-commerce site fail to respond to your email query Did a sales person at your neighborhood computer store fail to know the difference between a floppy drive and a hard drive Perhaps you were left on hold for an inordinate amount of time when you called a company’s telephone.

Negative buying experiences are almost always linked to shoddy customer service. Even though most businesses claim that they put people first, it’s rare to find good customer support. 

Strong customer service is a business essential.

Scope

All Staff

Policy

• Commit to quality service. Everyone in the company needs to be devoted to creating a positive experience for the customer. Always try to go above and beyond customer expectations.
• Know your products. Convey an articulate and in-depth knowledge of products and services to win customer trust and confidence. Know our company’s products, services, and return policies inside and out. Try to anticipate the types of questions that customers will ask. 
• Know your customers. Try to learn everything we can about your customers in order to tailor our service approach to their needs and buying habits. Talk to customers about their experience with our company, and listen to their complaints. In this way, we can get to the root of customer dissatisfaction.
• Treat people with courtesy and respect. Remember that every time that we, our employees, and our colleagues make contact with a customer — whether it’s by email, phone, written correspondence, or a face-to-face meeting — the interaction leaves an impression with that customer. Use conciliatory phrases — “Sorry to keep you waiting,” “Thanks for your order,” “You’re welcome,” and “It’s been a pleasure helping you” — to demonstrate not only our commitment to customer satisfaction but our dedication to courtesy.
• Never argue with a customer. We know very well that the customer isn’t always right. However, it is important that we do not focus on the missteps of a particular situation; instead, concentrate on how to fix it. Research shows that 7 out of 10 customers will do business with a company again if that business resolves a complaint in their favour.
• Don’t leave customers in limbo. Repairs, call backs, and emails need to be handled with a sense of urgency. Customers want immediate resolution, and if we can give it to them, we will probably win their repeat business. Research shows that the instance of repeat business goes up to 95 percent when complaints are resolved on the spot.
• Always provide what we promise. Fail to do this and we’ll lose both credibility and customers. If  we guarantee a quote within 24 hours, get the quote out in a day or less. If and when we neglect to make good on our promise, apologise to the customer and offer some type of compensation, such as a discount or free delivery. Overall, only make promises that we are confident that we and our business can keep.
• Assume that our customers tell the truth. Even though it may appear that customers lie to manipulate a situation to their advantage, it is to our advantage to give them the benefit of the doubt. The majority of customers don’t like to complain; in fact, they’ll go out of their way — perhaps all the way to a competitor — to avoid it. If we hear unhappy rumblings from our customers, take their complaints to heart and do our best to appease their dissatisfaction.
• Focus on making customers — not on sales. Salespeople, especially those who get paid on commission, sometimes focus on the volume instead of on the quality of the sale. Remember that to keep a customer’s business is more important than to close a sale. Research shows that it costs six times more to attract a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. Moreover, happy customers are the best and most effective way to find new customers.
• Make it easy to buy. The buying experience in our store, on our Web site, or through our catalog should be as easy as possible. Eliminate unnecessary paperwork and forms, help people to find what they need, explain how products work, and do whatever else we can to facilitate transactions.

Identifying and caring for Customer Property

Purpose

• Identify accurately Customer Property
• Secure Customer Property

Background

A significant cause of customer dissatisfaction is when their property is not effectively cared for or is lost.

Procedure

(WHO) is responsible for logging customer property to the customer property register

The company has provision in its insurances for “Customers Property in Care Custody and Control” adequate to cover such property

Customer property is stored (WHERE) before being worked on and (WHERE) after being worked on pending collection

Getting feedback from customers

Purpose

Gather feedback from product users to improve the business performance.

Background

This is a key element in any customer service and continuous improvement process

Scope

All Staff

Procedure

Responsibility

Customer survey

• Manager selects list of Customers at quarterly intervals.
• Survey Letter is sent to Customers.
• Sales Staff contact to conduct survey within two weeks of letters
• Responses are discussed at Sales Meetings.

Outcome

e.g. enter your own information here

What you will need before you begin

Safety hazards awareness

Any safety hazards to be aware of – delete this section if not needed

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Steps

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Tips

Any tips learnt from previous experiences that should be passed on – delete this section if not needed

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Traps

Any traps to avoid learnt from previous experiences that should be passed on – delete this section if not needed

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Identifying root causes when things go wrong

Background

Proper root cause analysis identifies the basic source or origin of your problem. Root cause analysis is a step by step approach that leads to the identification of a fault’s first or root cause. Every system, equipment, or component failure happens for a reason.

There are specific succession of events that lead to a failure. A root cause analysis investigation follows the cause and effect path from the final failure back to the root cause.

Procedure

Add more rows as needed

Completed by

[e.g. bill]

Survey form

[e.g. Satisfaction] SCALE SURVEY

For each question below, circle the number to the right that best fits your opinion on the importance of the issue.  Use the scale above to match your opinion.