05.09.18

Case Study: Sales Effectiveness & Improvement Analysis that Tripled New Business

by: Tony Cole, CEO of Anthony Cole Training Group

The following is a deep dive into the process and results experienced by a recent Anthony Cole Training Group client company. It involves a large financial services company, the CEO of which decided to invest the time, money and resources necessary to uncover myriad internal issues that were limiting sales and growth after analyzing the current state of the business by answering what we consider to be 19 critical questions about the sales process and overall business.

The 19 Critical Questions

1. How does sales leadership impact your sales force?
2. What are your current sales capabilities?
3. How motivated are your salespeople and how are they motivated?
4. Can you generate more new business?
5. Can you be better at reaching actual decision makers?
6. Can you shorten your sales cycle?
7. Can you sell more consultatively?
8. Can you more effectively sell value?
9. Is your value proposition consistent?
10. Can you close more sales?
11. Do your systems and processes support a high-performance sales team?
12. Can you be more consistent with your sales process?
13. How well are your sales leadership strategies aligned?
14. Do you need to change your selection criteria?
15. Can you improve ramp-up?
16. Are your sales funnel quantities and forecasts accurate?
17. Can you improve your sales culture?
18. Who can become more effective in their roles?
19. What are the short-term priorities for accelerated growth?

 
Part 1: Sales Effectiveness and Improvement Analysis That Tripled New Business

The following paper includes some of the initial findings and current outcomes (three years later) for a $1.3 billion financial institution that hired Anthony Cole Training Group in 2015. The company had multiple distant geographic locations with branches in local markets. As a non-dominant player in most markets, the client hoped to capitalize on strong brand recognition in its hometown.

Growth was consistent, but as with many organizations, it came from a few particularly successful producers. After several unsuccessful attempts to incentivize all sales personnel to be more productive by right-sizing, changing compensation, realigning territories and reassigning managers, the CEO committed to investigating the “why” so that they could understand “what” was making these few superstars so successful. The results of which would help us identify the best tactics and duplicate them for future prospects.
 
The Sales Effectiveness and Impact Analysis
The CEO, sales managers and salespeople each completed relevant survey questionnaires of the Sales Effectiveness and Impact Analysis (SEIA). The results were a 123-page document that provided insight to all systems and processes, sales managers, salespeople and management factors that contributed to the outcomes of the company.
The SEIA did not look to analyze market opportunities, competition or how the company was positioned in a given economy, rather the SEIA provided findings about the company that had the greatest potential to close the sales opportunity gap.
What follows includes a few highlights of this client’s SEIA.
 
Sales Managers: How Effective Are Sales Leaders with Their Salespeople?



There are four primary functions of sales managers — coaching, motivating, recruiting and accountability. The circle represents the percentage of appropriate skills each manager has in each function. The triangle represents the effectiveness of each manager in each area.
As you can see, overall the team is weak in the defined skills area for all four functions, but their effectiveness is quite good. There are a couple contributing factors:

• They have strong relationships.
• The people they hired are motivated and take responsibility (i.e. they don’t make excuses).
• A positive finding in recruiting is a result of the actual number of people identified as hitting their goal.

 
Salespeople: What Are Current Sales Competencies?



The chart above is a top-level graph of five sales competencies (hunting, consultative selling, qualifying, presenting and closing) of the sales team. What is important to focus on is the green space above the red area because that area represents the growth potential for the team.
Said another way, there is plenty of room to grow. Imagine the increase in sales leads (prospects) if your sales team acquired 65 percent of the skills required to be effective. Even if everything else remained the same, this represents an 18 percent improvement over 55 percent. If the team could improve closing skills from 30 percent to 33 percent, the company would see a 10 percent increase in sales.
 
Are Salespeople Motivated, and How Are They Motivated?



Ninety-four percent of this sales team is motivated to be successful in sales. A noteworthy finding is the discrepancy between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, as well as the fact that 75 percent of the team is motivated by internal factors such as:

• Hitting the goal
• Achieving a personal milestone
• Helping people

This comes into play when contemplating incentives to drive sales growth.
 
Can the Bank Generate More New Business?

 

There is some good news and some better news in this graph. The good news is that 87 percent of the team has the skills to help grow sales. The better news is that only 17 percent of the team won’t prospect and can’t prospect — this is a “will and a skill” issue.
To take advantage of the good news — the 87 percent that can sell — you must have managers who will implement sales activity tracking, sales activity data collection, sales activity business intelligence analysis and performance management discussions with salespeople. Their efforts will keep these people on track and performing to their ability.
 
Is It Possible to Shorten the Sales Cycle?



The short answer to that question is “no.” The top-line score for effective sales process is nonexistent, and the team currently lacks other necessary skills and beliefs.
The sales team, as it exists today, does not have the right sales DNA. Each salesperson must:

• Consistently execute a sales process
• Have supportive beliefs
• Be rejection-proof
• Not need to be liked

Each has serious deficits in skills:

• Loses control
• Accepts put-offs at time of close
• Is weak at qualifying
• Struggles with decision making

If your data is telling you that your sales cycle is too long, these findings explain why. Teaching a new technique won’t help until the root cause is fixed.
Look for part two of this case study in the next month’s Portfolio Weekly.
 
If this case study is interesting to you, register now for Anthony Cole Training Group’s upcoming live broadcast:
The 8 Strategies to Reach Your Company’s Sales Growth Opportunity Gap