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Laying Initial Process Operating Foundation
In formally establishing a process
foundation for operating the salesforce thereon, the salesforce's most strategically
leveraging pipeline is usually selected to upgrade first. This
may be the primary volume business channel. Or, it may be one that supports the salesforce's
strategic move into:
- significantly larger sales opportunities;
-
a new level of product solution;
- a new vertical market;
- areas of
more sophisticated or entrenched competitors;
- combining two
salesforces together as a result of reorg, merger or acquisition;
- swat teams focused on a specific segment mission; etc.
Each
company's situation will have its individual solution
requirements, including perhaps a phased regional pilot/rollout
approach. The initial mapping work session group normally consists of 8-15
specifically selected salespeople/managers and their key technical sales support personnel.
Laying a formal process operating foundation typically
includes these
core building blocks as a minimum:
Process Operating Foundation Work Sessions
Managers' Team Planning (1 day)
 | Common understanding of purpose,
vision, and goals of upgrading fitness |
| Process/pipeline and participants
selection for mapping |
| Manager role, responsibilities, team
rules |
| Common process-based: coaching, forecasting,
call planning, account
reviewing, proactive pipeline management |
| Progress milestones plan for 1st 30
days |
| Sales process/pipeline automation
design & tools |
Sales Process/Pipeline/Team Rules
Mapping (2 days)
| Buying decision making and
consultative selling principles |
| Target customer relationship quality
and level |
| Best practices process, tools,
resources mapping |
| Opportunity quality specs and rating |
| Pipeline calibration and flow metrics |
| Execution leverage points and bottleneck
constraints |
| Team operating and forecasting rules |
| Pipeline Loading/automation set up |
Managers' Team Progress Workshops (½
day @ 30 &
60 days post-mapping)
| Assess implementation progress to
milestones |
| Review progress reducing sales process
bottlenecks |
| Identify gaps, issues, and causes |
| Discuss experiences, problems,
methods, Sales & Manager
team rules |
| Prioritize and solve implementation
issues as a team |
| Plan individual/team actions with progress milestones for next 30
days |
Process Operating Foundation Support Services
Managers Coaching Support (post
Mapping)
| Unlimited process &
implementation coaching via telephone and email for
one-on-one or team conference call support |
| Ongoing immediate addressing of each
manager's issues/concerns |
| Maintain initiative momentum with
individual managers between progress workshops |
| Independent objective view and
feedback over
initiative's ongoing progress &
communication of issues |
Process/Pipeline Automation Support (pre/post
Mapping)
| Adapt sales software to properly
support most effective process execution, productivity &
predictability improvement over time |
| User interface design |
| Functionality specifications |
| Performance data capture and
integrity |
| Business Rules required |
| Performance measurement algorithms |
| Graphics &
reporting for:
 | proactively managing
performance |
| proactively improving
performance |
|
| Available
process/pipeline tools |
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. . Advanced Improvement
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