The weekly report and monthly pipeline tracking tools provide the sales manager with traditional pipeline information. When used as coaching tools,
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104
The Front Office: Driving Sales and Growth
the manager, together with the sales professional, can examine the leads on a case-by-case basis. The manager might ask pointed questions, such as, “Is this a real opportunity?” and depending on the sales professional’s response, the lead might be removed from the pipeline. Alternatively, the manager might ask, “How can I help you close this lead?” and can then contribute his or her industry or intuitive knowledge to help the sales professional win the business.
TRACKING THAT IS PUBLIC. Complementing tracking that is coaching is
tracking that is public. Public tracking is primarily informational and motivational. In addition to reviewing tracking tools numbers 2 and 3, the weekly report and monthly pipeline, with the individual sales professionals, these reports should be distributed to a larger audience: the firm leadership and the entire sales organization.
We know that sales professionals and professional consultants are competitive; this public disclosure of pipeline information encourages friendly competition. Sales professionals do not want to look bad in the eyes of their peers or their leaders, thus they work competitively to bring up their numbers.
From the consultant’s perspective, if Joe in the trial services practice sees that a sales professional is working on a number of hot leads in conjunction with a competitive associate, Joe might think, “Hey, I want to work with one of those salespeople.”
Finally, in addition to serving as a motivational and forecasting tool, tracking that is public helps you, the sales manager, to promote the contributions of your organization and to justify the existence of the sales organization. Exhibit 4.6 provides a detailed key to the metrics and concepts for the activity-based sales model discussed in this section.
Sales Meetings
Communication within the sales organization and within the larger firm community is essential. Through effective communication, professionals share general knowledge, best practices, and intuitive insights. The agenda and schedule of sales meetings will be unique to a specific firm because the agenda is dependent on what the sales professionals want to cover, and the schedule will vary based on the size and development stage of your sales organization. New sales teams might require more frequent meetings, while seasoned teams might move to biweekly or monthly meetings. Learning, sharing, getting better, and practicing—this is the purpose of sales meetings. An overview of three meeting formats that will improve the communication, knowledge sharing, and productivity of your sales organization follows:
1. Weekly sales meeting: Weekly sales meetings form the core of team communication. These meetings should follow a standard format, focus
Sales Management
105
METRIC
METRIC DESCRIPTION
IN CONTROL/NOT IN CONTROL
Dials
The number of outbound calls a
In control: The sales professional
sales professional makes per week.
can make more or fewer calls.
Early in the development of a patch
or territory a sales professional is
expected to make a minimum of 100
calls per week. Some might have to
make 200 to hit their numbers.
Connects
The number of calls that actually
No control: The sales professional
connect to a live prospect. On aver-
can try to connect by calling early in
age, the number of connects will
the morning, bypassing the admin-
represent 30 percent of the dials.
istrative assistant, but really doesn’t
this statistical average can be
have much control over this metric.
applied across sales environments
Appointment
The appointment closing ratio
Control: Skill and knowledge influ-
closing ration
details the percentage of connects
ence the sales professionals’s
and booked
that should result in meetings. A
appointment closing ratio and
appointments
new sales person will be expected
number of booked appointments.
to hit an appointment close ration
of 20 percent. A more senior profes-
sional is expected to hit 30 percent.
Booked appointments details the
actual number of connects that
resulted in scheduled meetings.
No show
The number of appointments that
No control: On average, 20 percent
/cancel.
did not show or cancelled.
of booked appointments will no
show or cancel. The sales person
can try to influence this by recon-
firming, but these tactics will not
likely improve this ratio.
Appointments
The number of appointments that
No control: The sales professional
attended
were actually conducted.
might show up to attend, but the
prospect might not. Thus, the only
control the sales professional has in
his or her ability to show up.
Matter closing
The number of deals that the sales
Control: Skill and knowledge influ-
ratio
professional closes. A new sales pro-
ence the sales professional’s close
fessional would be expected to
ratio.
close 10 percent of the actual
appointments attended. A more
senior sales professional is expected
to close 30 percent.
Exhibit 4.6
Activity-Based Sales Modeling Tool
(continued)
106
The Front Office: Driving Sales and Growth
METRIC
METRIC DESCRIPTION
IN CONTROL/NOT IN CONTROL
LOEs per
The number of letters of engage-
Control: Skill, the ability to close
week and
ment (LOEs) or contracts that the
business, influences this metric with
LOEs per year
sales professional generates. This
the caveat that if the business
metric self-generates based on the
doesn’t clear conflict, the sales pro-
closing ratio and includes both con-
fessional has no chance of closing.
flict checks and LOEs to calculate a
blended number.
Minus the 30
These columns are unique to litiga-
No control.
percent settle
tion consulting.
and minus
push 10
percent
Matters per
Based on the statistics, the number
NA: This metric is a reflection of the
year
of matters or contracts that are
previous metrics.
sighed and proposals that are
implemented per year.
Revenue per
The average dollar amount of the
In control: Skill influences the sales
average
deals closed.
professional’s ability to ask for more
matter
money. Over time, sales profession-
als become more comfortable with
closing bigger deals.
Exhibit 4.6
Continued
on education and sharing, and last no longer than 60 minutes. Reach
out to the sales team to identify special topics that they would like covered at each meeting and rotate leadership of this meeting so that all sales reps have an opportunity to lead, teach, and learn.
2. National sales meeting: The national sales meeting is held once or twice a year at an off-site location. This is an opportunity to celebrate success, share best practices, sharpen everyone’s sales skills, and introduce new service lines and professionals.
3. Phone blitz: The phone blitz is a highly targeted competitive call canvassing exercise that brings the salesforce together in a friendly competition to see who can secure the most sales appointments on a given day within a set time. To encourage participation, prizes are awarded to the sales professionals who book the most qualified meetings. This competitive exercise works well as a team-building exercise and can be a training exercise if you build in pre-blitz brainstorming and debriefs at the completion of the contest. It is also a great way to launch a new service.
Sales Management
107
Selling Your Services
Sell the way people want to buy—not the way you want to sell. “Selling is a science, not an art,” notes Wendy Lea, managing partner with Chatham Group, LLC.10 According to Lea, the art aspect of selling comes in only as it relates to personal dynamics and politics, which are important, but sometimes overplayed. The science aspect of sales is that selling is a systematic, professional process. This section walks you through the process of understanding your customer and selling the way people want to buy, not the way you want to sell.
A typical sales cycle includes the phases or components shown in Exhibit 4.7.
Opportunity
Measure
Discovery
Sales
Implement
Present solution
cycle
Close
Negotiate
This is a continuous process of identifying opportunities, and then going through the sales cycle.
Exhibit 4.7
Phases of the Sales Cycle
108
The Front Office: Driving Sales and Growth
While these phases are universal to most sales cycles, your sales process is going to be unique depending on your firm, the services that you sell, and the industries that you target. The first step in successful selling is to understand your sales process.
Exercise: Mapping Your Unique Sales Process
This exercise asks and answers the question: How do we get to “closing”