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We told you last week1a business model is not fixed in time. On the contrary, it's designed to evolve and improve: your customers change, your working methods change, your company changes, your sales people change... In short, your whole environment evolves - and so must your business model if it is to remain relevant.

 

How do I analyze my model?

If you've been following our series from the beginning, you're applying your business model to the letter in your CRM. Which also means that all the hard-earned data collected over the period is centralized and usable. 

And all you have to do is exploit this data!

 

Once you've defined your business model, you'll have been able to define the indicators you need to track in order to assess the impact of the actions you've implemented, make the appropriate adjustments and reinforce the success factors. You'll need one or more dashboards to give you a precise overview of these indicators.

 

Ideally, you should have a CRM tool that lets you customize these dashboards to bring out the analyses you need. With Koban, for example, you can customize your dashboards with the indicators you need. 

 

Daily analysis

As Kestio mentioned in the previous article, the aim is not to analyze your entire business model every day and make significant changes in the first week of implementation. 

However, we like to have a daily overview of our key performance indicators (KPIs), just in case.

These "flash figures", as we like to call them at Koban, are the right alternative. They actually represent the KPIs you decide to monitor on a daily basis: number of opportunities won, number of opportunities lost, time spent, transformation rate, opportunity costs, etc.They are calculated automatically and in real time. And very often, it's at this very moment that you're really glad you invested in a CRM (people who have experienced pivot tables will understand! ;). 

 

The little bonus in all this? You can display these flash figures right on your home page (among others), giving you a direct view of how well your business model is performing on a day-to-day basis, and enabling you to react quickly to change low-impact elements if necessary.

 

These indicators can be both common and individual, to measure the performance of each of your sales reps. This is very important as a manager. 

 

These indicators also enable you to monitor your sales model on a day-to-day basis and implement small corrective actions, before it's too late. For example, you notice that your sales rep X is way off his monthly targets. You can then set aside time with him to manage him and understand what is holding him back. 

 

Perform a more detailed analysis - The "ANALYSIS" Module

In addition to day-to-day monitoring, you can - and should - monitor and evaluate your company's sales efficiency and sales effort (in other words, your sales model). Once again, your CRM will be your best friend. 

 

Take the example of Koban and its specific analysis module. Among other things, it lets you analyze all your data by creating customized dashboards: pie charts, curves, tables, histograms... 

 

You can analyze just about anything, very easily. More comprehensive than flash figures, dashboards really enable you to bring out relevant analyses: what worked in your model / what didn't work so well / which segment generates the most sales / a summary table of the sales of each of your sales reps etc. Because just as "working hard" doesn't necessarily mean "making money", it's necessary for any company, large or small, to calculate the efficiency and profitability of its sales actions, so as to focus efforts on the best ones.

 

But remember, you don't just manage your sales activity in your CRM, but also your marketing actions to generate qualified leads for your sales reps. And this data must form an integral part of your analysis in order to identify areas for improvement and optimization: conversion rate of leads from marketing, number of leads from marketing, etc. The point is to be able to compare all sales and marketing data in order to identify areas for improvement.

 

Let's not forget that the point of all this is to evolve your business model.

 

It cannot be repeated often enough: a business model is forged over time and through feedback. It can never be set in stone. That's why it's so important to have a tool that centralizes all your data and enables you to keep a historical record, so you can compare and challenge the data with each other. That's how you'll improve your performance, and consequently your sales. 

 

Indicators not to be missed 

Of course, too many indicators kill indicators. The risk is to get lost in a pile of meaningless studies and come up with no relevant analysis. With Kestio , we've selected the indicators that you should - at the very least - be monitoring if you want to produce relevant analyses. Of course, other indicators can be added depending on your environment and organization: 

  • CUSTOMER ACQUISITION COST

This one's a must-have!

Customer acquisition cost is the average amount spent to convert a prospect into a customer. This investment can include marketing expenditure as well as the cost of the time spent by the sales rep to transform the prospect into a customer.

 

Your business model is largely based on which customer segments to focus on to generate the highest margins. But to do this, you need to take into account the cost of customer acquisition.

Indeed, if I realize that my "Gold" customers cost me almost as much money as they bring in (because I have a high acquisition cost), this may lead me to review certain elements of my business model: if, at the same time, my "Silver" customers are certainly less interesting in terms of "pure" sales, but cost me almost nothing in acquisition compared to what they bring in (thanks to a low acquisition cost), this makes them more interesting than expected...

 

What do I do? Clearly, we're tempted to switch "Gold" customers to "Silver" and vice versa. 

Don't get me wrong, your "GOLD" customers may have had a lower acquisition cost when you set up your business model, but then again, the environment changes, and so do your costs... Hence the importance of analyzing your model after a certain period of time, and taking appropriate corrective action. 

 

  • SALES EFFORT BY TARGET

This indicator enables you to optimize your sales reps' time. It enables you to judge the effort of each salesperson on a given target type. You can also make a comparison between your sales reps, to see which one allocates its effort best. This is not to "monitor" your sales reps. But it is interesting to know, for example, that sales rep A made an average of 10 physical appointments on a target, while sales rep B made 15 for the same result. 

 

Beyond that, it allows you to identify the targets on which your sales reps are devoting far too much effort for little results, and, conversely, on which you're not devoting enough effort. You can then adapt your sales model accordingly (if necessary).

 

  • SALES TRANSFORMATION RATE

The conversion rate identifies the performance of a sales person or team in converting a prospect into a customer.

You can analyze not only the overall conversion rate (i.e. of all your sales reps), but also the individual conversion rate (i.e. sales rep by sales rep). Once again, this is not to "spy" on your sales reps, but rather to identify the sources that are holding back development, so that you can take appropriate action. 

 

  • AVERAGE SHOPPING BASKET BY ACCOUNT TYPE

The average basket definesthe average amount spent by each customer. This indicator can be tracked per order, or for a given period of time, over the customer's entire lifetime. It can be used to identify which customer segment has the highest average shopping basket, for example - or, conversely, which customer segment has the lowest. 

 

  • NUMBER OF OPPORTUNITIES CREATED

The number of opportunities created is a simple indicator for monitoring the effectiveness of marketing and sales.

 

Indeed, a high number of opportunities created will reflect several things: 

  • Marketing generates a lot of qualified leads
  • And / or your sales representatives have opportunities with existing customers or via a channel other than marketing (word of mouth, customer referrals, etc.).

In short, your salespeople and marketers are in sync and doing a great job!

 

On the contrary, a low number of opportunities created will force you to analyze other indicators. In particular, where do the opportunities come from?

 

Do they come from marketing or the salespeople themselves?

As a result, you'll know on which channel you need to act to generate more opportunities. 

Once again, this list is by no means exhaustive (margin-related indicators come to mind!). These are "standard" indicators that any company can analyze to develop its business model. But there will obviously be other indicators to take into account, depending on your internal strategy and environment. 

 

Well, we've come to the end of this joint series between Koban and Kestio... We hope you've enjoyed it and, above all, that these articles have helped you! In any case, on our side we've had a lot of fun combining our skills and visions in order to offer you a complete and operational methodology. 

 

And to top it all off, we've got even more surprises in store for you in the very near future, including a summary white paper and a webinar to discuss the subject with you face-to-face and answer your questions live! 

 

To find out more about CRM and to help you with your projects, find all our methods and tools here :

Choose my CRM.com

1: Missed the previous episodes? Don't panic! Treat yourself to a little catch-up session:

 

Article n°1: What is a business model and how do you build it?

Article 2: How to translate your sales strategy into a CRM tool?

Article n°3 : 3 key points for building an effective business model

Article 4: Structuring and optimizing your CRM business model

Article 5: How to deploy your business model effectively

 

KESTIO and KOBANKESTIO supports SMEs in their sales development via an online sales coaching platform for executives, managers and sales people, while KOBAN helps them to deploy their sales strategy and actions effectively, generating maximum ROI, via a high-performance CRM solution.

 

This meeting gave rise to an idea (which became a desire, and then a reality): that of combining our skills and visions to help you define and implement your business model!

Thanks to our previous articles, you now have all the keys you need to build your business model, translate it operationally into your CRM tool and apply it on a daily basis. 

 

This week, we're keeping up the momentum by discovering how to successfully structure your business model and data in your CRM. After all, a good business model can only last if it's based on accessible, relevant, reliable and usable data! Here's how to make sure it does.

 

Collect and structure data in your CRM

The trouble with data is that it can change very quickly, and you often have to enrich it to stay relevant.

Let's take a simple example: turnover in a company.

How many responses to your e-mailing have you already received of the type "having left the company, etc...". That's why updating your data is ESSENTIAL, even VITAL, to keep your business model alive.

 

COLLECTING DATA VIA CRM

We've already talked about the importance of using relevant data for the smooth running of your business model. In addition to centralizing all your available data, your CRM tool will enable you to collect very interesting data automatically.

 

Firstly, there are some data that are easily accessible and available, but which are not worth entering manually: "generic" data such as sales figures, for example, are tedious and time-consuming to enter manually. Fortunately, you can automate the reception of this type of data via connectors with external sites (such as Corporama). In this way, you can retrieve a great deal of information automatically, freeing up your sales force's time to concentrate on more "sensitive" information. 

 

In addition to receiving "external" data, you are likely to have internal company data present in other tools (customer invoicing, production tools, etc.). It may be a good idea to "bring up" some of this information in your CRM to make it accessible and usable. 

In the same way, by synchronizing your CRM with your information system, you'll be able to import the information it contains into other tools, thus avoiding all those tedious, error-prone double entries. The aim is to ensure that everyone benefits from relevant information. 

 

Secondly, a CRM tool will enable you to collect so-called "personal" data on the behavior of your customers / prospects. Thanks to the marketing part of your tool, your customers / prospects will be tracked in order to gather information automatically, enabling you to see for each contact : 

  • Site pages visited - when - and how many times
  • If he opened your quote
  • If he has read the last email the sales rep sent him
  • If it's a return visit (i.e. if a prospect comes back to your site after X amount of time) 
  • If they have opened, read or clicked on an e-mailing button 
  • Etc ...

In short, it's data that you wouldn't have been able to collect without a tool that does it automatically for you. And this data is invaluable for sales reps. It enables you to assess a contact's level of interest, its "potential", and thus refine and enrich your customer knowledge. Perhaps a "Bronze" customer who reads all your news e-mails, clicks on ALL your buttons and visits your service presentation pages deserves to be re-qualified as a "Silver" customer? Or at least, it's worth taking a closer look...

 

Finally, there's the data collected directly by your sales staff. They are an invaluable source for feeding the CRM with information you won't find anywhere else (number of machine tools installed, internal validation process...). This data is highly heterogeneous in nature , and needs to be made usable.

But, as we all know, salespeople are often very busy and (sometimes) don't take the time to enter all the data into the CRM. And yet, they are the ones who know your customers best... To alleviate this problem, you can easily add mandatory fields when a sales rep creates a new file. This is particularly useful when this data is essential to the smooth running of your sales model, and you realize after 6 months that no one has filled in this field!

 

STRUCTURING YOUR DATA WITH CRM 

Once again, having data is all well and good, but it has to be centralized, structured and usable. Without it, your business model may not last long...

Your CRM is there to do just that: centralize data on a single platform and make it accessible.

 

CRMs are full of practical tips to help you do just that. Let's take the example of Koban (in all objectivity, of course! : ))

  • You have X contacts on an account card. Perfect, but not all contacts are the same... After all, you're not going to chase up the accountant for your quote, or the marketing manager for an unpaid invoice. To avoid this kind of mishandling, our CRM displays tags above each contact that tell you whether it's the billing contact, the decision-maker etc. ..

  • In other cases, you may wish to enter information that is specific to your environment, and therefore not available as standard in your tool. Fortunately, all good CRM systems offer the option of adding custom fields or objects that you can display on your customer's file.

Let's take a very concrete example: you sell printers to your customers. Some of them have several machines in the company. It's therefore important that you have a clear and direct view of the number of machines on each of your customer files. In this case, you can create a personalized field dedicated to this information and display it in your contact sheets, to collect this data via your sales staff and make it accessible and exploitable for your future actions (marketing campaign, segmentation of your base...).

 

Structuring your business model

BUSINESS PROCESSES 

Your sales model inevitably includes sales cycle and process management. And that's just as well, because a good sales tool is there to help you generate more sales, more efficiently. 

 

In your CRM, you'll be able to implement your sales process according to the segmentation defined by the sales model (by customer type, by market, by offer...). This process, built around the stages of the sales cycle, will enable you to group together all sales opportunities of the same nature, track their progress through the sales process and easily identify the opportunities you need to prioritize (for example, by classifying them by segment: Gold, Silver and Bronze). In this way, you have a clear and direct view of all your current opportunities, with their probability of success and their level of progress. 

 

The CRM will be a real assistant for salespeople, enabling them to track all their sales activity, so they don't forget any opportunities and can focus their efforts on the best ones (defined according to your business model, of course).

INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS

 

Last but not least, communication!

 

Yes, your business model is based on data, but it also depends on how well your teams execute it.

The aim is for all your teams to work hand in hand and on the same wavelength. It's no longer acceptable for each salesperson to be the only one to know (in his or her head) the customers for whom he or she is responsible, or for salespeople and marketers not to speak the same language!

 

 

Your CRM tool will help you overcome these difficulties and improve internal communication, making it easier to execute the business model on a daily basis. 

 

 

Firstly, of course, you have a complete history of your actions / appointments / calls, etc... on your customer files, as well as a "comments" field allowing you to add notes, or specific / important points that will be accessible to all users. On vacation for two weeks?

 

A "GOLD" customer calls on you during this time? No problem, your colleague can easily take over thanks to the action history and your comments on the form!

 

But that's not all, there are plenty of other features to improve data communication within your company. The news feed, with all the important actions to keep you informed every minute of the day, the possibility of attaching documents to your forms... 

 

 

In short, your CRM tool will support the deployment of your business model by enabling you to centralize and exploit all your data, and by structuring your sales processes.

All this, of course, with a single aim in mind: to make your teams' work easier, so that they can rely on a relevant tool to monitor sales activity on a daily basis!

 

To find out more about CRM and to help you with your projects, find all our methods and tools here :

Choose my CRM.com

1And for those who wish to (re-)discover the previous articles in this series, written in collaboration by KESTIO and KOBAN, click here:

Article 1: What is a business model and how do you build it?

Article 2: 3 key points for building an effective business model

 

KESTIO and KOBANKESTIO supports SMEs in their sales development via an online sales coaching platform for executives, managers and sales people, while KOBAN helps them to deploy their sales strategy and actions effectively, generating maximum ROI, via a high-performance CRM solution.

This meeting gave rise to an idea (which became a desire, and then a reality): that of combining our skills and visions to help you define and implement your business model!

Last week, Kestio spoke to you on the Koban blog about the importance of an optimized sales model for increasing the effectiveness and ROI of your sales actions.

But once you've defined this model, you still need to translate it operationally into a suitable tool for monitoring the process on a day-to-day basis. And this part of the process can seem rather abstract to people who are not used to working with a CRM.

 As you can imagine, this week we're going to be talking about CRM and, more specifically, how to translate your pre-defined business model into a tool like Koban. 

1. A CRM tool for a segmented, usable database

You've defined your customer/prospect segments very well, but now you need to be able to exploit them. To do this, you need a tool that allows you to centralize your data and then carry out a clear and precise segmentation.

That's all very well in theory, but how does it work in practice? 

  • A good CRM allows you to centralize your entire database on a single platform and segment it by "status". The most common statuses are "customers", "prospects", "competitors", etc. The special feature of Koban, for example, is that you can customize your statuses according to your environment and strategy, making your database clearer for you and your employees.

For example, you can create categories such as "hot prospects", "cold prospects", "former customers" or any other that you feel will be commercially useful. 

  • TAGS: tags can be added to each file to segment your database more precisely. Tags are like labels that you place "on the head" of your customers / prospects. For example, you could create a "business sector" or "potential" tag category. In this way, you'll be able to identify all customers whose tag is equal to "Gold" or "Bronze". Very practical for launching highly targeted and personalized sales and/or marketing actions .

2. A CRM tool to organize your business

You've got your strategy, you've got your segmented, usable database. Now it's time to take action!

Indeed, you've defined a list of actions according to your segments, the objective now is not to forget to do them...

Any self-respecting CRM allows you to create customizable action types according to your strategy. You can create as many as you like: task, phone call, e-mail, physical appointment, phone appointment, videoconference, demo, customer visit...

Koban's little extra: you assign a color to each type of action. This way, once you're in your agenda, you get a very visual rendering that gives you an idea of what your day will be like! Of course, you can also access your colleagues' diaries if you need to make an appointment for them or assign them an action.

3. A CRM tool to save time and automate low value-added actions

We all agree on one thing: the aim is to save your sales force as much time as possible, so that they can concentrate on the most profitable customer segments. To achieve this, CRM and marketing have their part to play.

Are you interested in automation? 

SALES AUTOMATION

You've defined high-potential segments and others with less at stake, which you'll be able to easily identify thanks to your centralized, segmented database.

The aim is to let sales people take care of the most interesting segments and leave the rest to .... automation (or marketing to be more precise).

To do this, your CRM will enable you to set up automated scenarios (usually consisting of a series of pre-defined e-mails) designed to arouse your contact's interest, maintain contact without pestering, and initiate conversion.

This frees up a lot of your sales reps' time, and above all avoids cold calls, which are very often a waste of time (and therefore money). Not only do responses go straight to the assigned salesperson, but the results of your "prospecting" e-mails go straight back to the prospect's file (when he/she read the e-mail, whether he/she clicked, etc.). So, if the web surfer has shown enough interest, marketing teams can easily or automatically pass the lead on to a sales rep, who will have all its history. 


EVERYDAY AUTOMATISMS

In addition to automated scenarios, you can set up a number of time-saving automations that will help you avoid forgetting reminders or appointments. Yes, a salesperson's brain is very full, and it can happen to forget... 

To give you an example, you could set up an automatic action in the salesperson's diary at the end of each appointment, such as "send product sheet". Or schedule recurring visits to your "Gold" customers every 4 months. The time slot will be blocked in the diary, reducing the risk of forgetting or constantly rescheduling! 

LEAD SCORING

Well, now we're going to move on to a little more advanced functionalities, but they're worth their weight in gold! To explain very briefly, you can track your website (record visits to your site) and award points to each page of your site.

In this way, web users visit your pages and acquire points as they browse. The aim? To gauge his or her interest and find out if he or she is "ripe" enough to be passed on directly to the sales force. 

Below a defined threshold of points, the customer will only receive e-mails via an automated marketing scenario. On the other hand, above the defined score, the web surfer will be assigned to a dedicated sales representative because he or she has shown a strong interest in your products / services!

These are just a few examples of what you can do and automate in a CRM tool like Koban. They illustrate the importance of supporting your business model with features like these to increase your profitability and productivity on a daily basis. 

To find out more about CRM and to help you with your projects, find all our methods and tools here :

Choose my CRM.com

1: And for those of you who would like to (re-)discover the first article, written by KESTIO and published on the KOBAN website, click here: What is a business model and how to build it?

 

KESTIO and KOBANKESTIO supports SMEs in their sales development via an online sales coaching platform for executives, managers and sales people, while KOBAN helps them to deploy their sales strategy and actions effectively, generating maximum ROI, via a high-performance CRM solution.

This meeting gave rise to an idea (which became a desire, and then a reality): that of combining our skills and visions to help you define and implement your business model!

And what if these hours were simply being misused (at least in part)?

One of the reasons for this is the lack of structure in the sales chain, which can lead to a loss of efficiency and sometimes significant hidden costs. At Kestio, we know all about this, as we had to face up to this problem ourselves, before making the necessary adjustments to optimize our sales process.

Here's how, and with what results.

1. What does it mean to "optimize your sales process" and why do it?

This means seeking the best cost/result ratio at every stage of your sales process, to achieve optimum performance!

There are at least 2 reasons to do so:

  • The current economic context is an incentive to optimize the return on investment of each action implemented: tight market conditions, no "natural" growth and therefore a greater sales effort to be made, a trend towards lower sales prices and higher distribution costs... The companies that do best are those that manage to preserve their margins, and optimizing marketing costs contributes directly to this!
  • Many companies still haven't really organized their sales function. Studies show that, on average, at least 40% of a salesperson's time is spent on "administrative tasks". 1. In other words, 40% of your sales payroll is not focused on what creates the most value, namely exchanges with prospects and customers! When you consider that sales people are (sometimes very) expensive, and difficult to recruit and retain, it's essential that they focus on their core business...

2. A real-life example of sales process optimization

Here's an example straight from our own experience at KESTIO, to illustrate how a seemingly innocuous activity can quickly become very costly if we don't take this approach to reducing its impact.

THE INITIAL CONTEXT :

  •  For some time now, Kestio has been operating with 3 sedentary sales reps in charge of appointments 1 (qualification of needs) with our prospects.
  • Of all their telephone appointments, the rate of appointments "not honored" by them is around 20% (which is a good rate, compared with averages observed elsewhere).
  • With 10 appointments scheduled per day per sales rep, this means a potential of 30 customers per week (2 per day x 3 sales reps x 5 days per week) to contact again, just to set up a new appointment...
  • This represented (until we changed our process) 1 to 2 hours of work per week for each sales rep, or in total, for 3 sales reps, up to 24 hours per month (or 3 working days, therefore) devoted to a task with no added value!

When you know how much it costs to employ an experienced salesperson, and calculate what this simple expense item represents on an annual basis, it's a sobering thought... 

 

THE SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED :

That's why we decided to set up an automated workflow system: a prospect who doesn't turn up for an appointment automatically receives an email proposing 3 new slots, and if necessary a reminder a few days later.

Today, this system enables us to reposition 80% of missed appointments, while the remaining 20% are the subject of a telephone call made by a specialized service provider.

The implementation of this simple workflow has enabled us to save several thousand euros a year, while creating better working conditions for our sales staff, who now devote most of their time to doing the job they love and are good at.

And this example is just one of the many elements on which you can act to benefit from a positive leverage effect!

 

To identify all the potential areas for improvement, we need to ask ourselves, for each action implemented, what is the right level of effort to produce in relation to the expected result and the potential generated.

 

3. How can you implement such an approach within your company?

To do this, start by reviewing each stage in your sales chain (prospecting, qualification, sales proposal, closing...) by analyzing the tasks attached to them in the light of this key question: "For the same result, what is the most efficient (fastest, least expensive...) way of carrying out this task?".

 

On this basis, you will be able to build an effective business system by applying this method:

 

  1. Identify potential areas for optimization. For example: sales staff time spent on administrative tasks.
  2. Share best practices within the team. For example, sharing a tool that gives prospects real-time access to the slots available in salespeople's diaries, without having to see the detailed content of their diary.
  3. Define an optimized process. For example: build an automated workflow to follow-up with prospects who have not been able to keep their telephone appointments (using the tool mentioned above).
  4. Test and improve the defined process. For example: improve the wording of the standard reminder e-mail. Please note: only one element of the process is modified at a time, so that the impact of each modification can be analyzed.
  5. Generalize and disseminate the optimized process to the whole team, for implementation and feedback (continuous improvement loop).

Proceeding in this way for your entire sales process will enable you to build an optimized sales operating model and thus reduce any losses linked to uncontrolled factors, ultimately improving your sales results.

Focus on high-impact, easily achievable points of improvement (in short, optimize the optimization process itself!) 😉

As you go along, you'll improve the efficiency of your entire sales chain, so you can spend more and less, while increasing the interest of the tasks entrusted to your teams!

 

 

Do you want to optimize your sales force's time? In this webinar, you'll learn how to target your sales force and use the right tools to increase your number of sales meetings per month by a factor of 2:

1: An IKO System study of salespeople's working hours in 2013 put the proportion of their time spent on what they called "non-sales" at 59%!

L’impact du management sur l’efficience des équipes a suscité de nombreuses recherches. Ces dernières ont confirmé le rôle important du leadership dans l’atteinte des résultats, et son influence directe sur le niveau d’engagement des collaborateurs.1 

Dès lors, les différents « styles de management » et leurs effets induits sur la vie des équipes ont été l’objet d’une attention particulière. Cela a notamment permis la formalisation de plusieurs typologies d’attitudes managériales (nous y reviendront un peu plus bas). 

 

Comment décliner ces connaissances en applications concrètes sur le terrain, pour adopter les attitudes managériales les plus favorables à la réussite de votre équipe dans le domaine commercial ?

 

L’impact du management sur la performance commerciale

1. Définir un cadre garantissant les conditions de la performance

De façon opérationnelle, le dirigeant ou le manager commercial intervient sur de nombreux éléments qui ont un impact direct sur les résultats :

  • La définition des objectifs opérationnels : Quel chiffre d’affaire ? Sur quelles offres ? A destination de quelles cibles ? Etc…
  •  La construction du modèle d’organisation commerciale : Quelle sont les étapes du cycle de vente ? Quelle est la répartition des rôles entre les différents membres de l’équipe ? Etc…
  • Sa déclinaison en plans d’action individuels : Quel type d’actions mener ? Sur quels comptes ? Etc…
  • L’allocation des efforts et ressources : Quel temps, compétences, ressources humaines, moyens financiers ou logistiques… allouer à chaque action ou objectif ? Etc..
  • L’animation de la collaboration entre les membres de l’équipe : Quels sont les « rites » permettant les échanges collectifs ? Quel en est le rythme ? Comment, et par qui sont-ils animés ? Etc…
  • Et enfin, le pilotage et le suivi des actions commerciales : Quels indicateurs (quantitatifs et qualitatifs) de mesure de la performance adopter ? Comment les suivre et les piloter (mode d’évaluation, fréquence et modalités du suivi…) Etc…

Il crée ainsi un cadre d’action qui conditionne l’atteinte des résultats.

Au-delà de ce cadre, qui est essentiel, le manager porte également la responsabilité de créer les conditions favorables au développement de la performance de son équipe, en agissant sur ses deux principales composantes : les compétences et la motivation.

2. Manager « l’équation de la performance »

Les compétences et la motivation déterminent à la fois la performance et le degré d’autonomie des membres d’une équipe.

Dans le domaine de l’efficacité marketing et commerciale, manager une équipe c’est donc avant tout piloter ce que l’on appelle « l’Équation de la Performance », qui peut être formulée ainsi :

PERFORMANCE = Compétences x Motivation (individuelles et collectives)

 

De ce point de vue, le rôle du manager consiste à :

  • S’assurer que chaque collaborateur possède l’ensemble des compétences nécessaires à sa réussite au sein de sa fonction, ou soit en mesure de les acquérir
  • Évaluer régulièrement le niveau de motivation individuel et collectif des membres de l’équipe et l’évolution de ce dernier
  • Créer les conditions favorables à un développement durable des compétences et de la motivation, tant sur le plan individuel que collectif

L’attention portée aux deux plans (individuel et collectif) est un élément essentiel de l’équation, car les membres de l’équipe agissent en synergie, et l’efficacité globale représente plus que la somme des efficacités individuelles (dans une équipe qui fonctionne bien), tout comme (a contrario), une équipe qui dysfonctionne peut annihiler les efforts des individus les plus efficaces et motivés…

 

Comment développer un management favorisant la performance ?

 1. « Connais-toi toi-même »

Connaître les différentes typologies d’attitudes managériales permet au manager de se situer personnellement par rapport à elles, c’est-à-dire :

  •   D’identifier son « style dominant » au naturel, en d’autres termes le type de management qui correspond le mieux à sa personnalité et vers lequel il tend majoritairement
  •   De prendre conscience des autres approches possibles pour se donner des marges de choix, élargir la palette de ses outils et faire évoluer ce style, durablement ou plus ponctuellement, en réponse à des contextes, des situations ou des profils de collaborateurs spécifiques.

La typologie la plus connue est celle des 4 styles de management  (directif, persuasif, participatif et délégatif), sur laquelle la littérature abonde. On peut également citer les 4 types de leadership proposés dans l’étude de l’EDHEC Business School intitulée « La révolution du leadership », dont l’approche est complémentaire.

Il est donc utile que le manager connaisse ces typologies et se soit interrogé sur sa pratique à la lumière de cette grille d’analyse.

 

Au-delà de ces références de bases, plusieurs outils peuvent l’aider dans cette perspective : le profil 4Colors (ou méthode DISC), le Feedback 360°, le coaching, les groupes de co-développement entre pairs…

 

Il doit notamment se poser ces 5 questions clés :

  • Quel style j’utilise le plus ? (le plus souvent, le plus naturellement)
  • Est-il adapté à mon équipe ?  Au contexte actuel de mon entreprise ?
  • Quels résultats produit-il ?
  • A quel niveau me permet-il de favoriser la meilleure performance des différents profils présents au sein de mon équipe ?
  • Qu’est-ce que je voudrais améliorer ?

Il n’existe aucun style de management meilleur que les autres ou plus favorable à la performance a priori et dans tous les contextes !

 

L’essentiel pour le manager est donc d’identifier les composantes de son style de management et de les évaluer constamment, en situation et au regard du contexte (objectifs, culture d’entreprise, situations rencontrées, variété des profils de ses collaborateurs…), pour agir en conscience dans un objectif d’amélioration des performances de l’ équipe.

 

2. Déployer le bon style managérial dans les 8 missions du manager

Lorsque le manager est parvenu à une meilleure connaissance de lui-même, il est en capacité d’adapter son style managérial au gré des situations, de ses interlocuteurs, et de l’évolution de leur relation dans le temps.

 

Par exemple, il pourra adopter un style directif face à un collaborateur présentant un faible niveau de compétences pour obtenir plus rapidement des résultats de sa part, et faire évoluer son attitude vers un style plus persuasif, voire participatif au fur et à mesure de l’autonomisation de ce même collaborateur dans le temps.

Ou développer un management de type participatif, voire délégatif la majeure partie du temps vis-à-vis de son équipe, mais adopter temporairement un style directif dans moment de crise nécessitant des prises de décisions rapides et un passage à l’action immédiat.

Cette connaissance de lui-même donne au manager la capacité de choisir et « doser » en conscience les compétences à activer, dans tous les aspects de sa fonction.

 

Nous les appelons, chez KESTIO, les « 8 missions du manager » :

  •     Anticiper
  •     Décider
  •     Organiser
  •     Animer
  •     Communiquer
  •     Résoudre
  •     Piloter
  •     Performer

Par exemple, sur l’axe « décider », le manager “éclairé” définira le mode de prise de décision non pas en fonction de sa seule personnalité, mais au regard des effets produits sur l’équipe : s’il observe qu’une tendance personnelle à vouloir tout contrôler a pour effet de démobiliser son équipe qui souffre de ne pouvoir prendre aucune initiative, il adaptera son fonctionnement dans l’intérêt de la performance de l’équipe.

Ou sur l’axe « communiquer », il développera plus ou moins l’écoute et le recueil d’avis auprès de son équipe ou les réunions collectives, en fonction du style de management pour lequel il a décidé d’opter et qui lui semble le plus à même d’assurer les conditions de l’efficacité.

 

Prendre du recul sur soi-même et développer son intelligence relationnelle sont donc des clés qui permettent au manager de prendre les bonnes décisions face à chaque situation et de mettre en œuvre à tout moment les dispositifs les plus favorables à la réussite individuelle et collective de son équipe.

 

Comment réorienter les efforts de ses commerciaux dans le contexte actuel ? Découvrez dans ce webinar les clés pour manager en favorisant la performance de votre équipe.

 

1 : Pour un tour d’horizon des différentes études de référence sur le sujet, voir par exemple :

Le mémoire d’expertise « La performance des équipes de travail : quel rôle de la fonction RH ? », Université Paris Dauphine, octobre 2016

https://mbarh.dauphine.fr/fileadmin/mediatheque/site/mba_rh/pdf/Travaux_anciens/MEMOIRE_MBA_RH13_performance_des_equipes_role_de_la_fonction_RH_102016.pdf

Ou encore l’étude de Paul Langevin « Quels facteurs de performance pour quels types d’équipe ? L’avis des managers », HAL (archives ouvertes), Mai 2004. https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00594005/document

Today, this lever is no longer sufficient to motivate sales staff: recruitment difficulties, high staff turnover... from now on, you need other arguments to ensure that your sales teams give their best and invest in the long term! The meaning given to their work, the possibility of taking initiatives and the opportunity to take part in a collective adventure, are today some of the elements that count in the eyes of salespeople.

 

Motivation isn't activated by pressing a button!

The question of sales reps' commitment calls for a pre-requisite tinged with humility:

"You can't motivate someone: you can simply create the right conditions for them to activate their own engines".

 

This may seem obvious, but it puts the lie to some of the rhetoric around "turnkey" solutions for generating commitment within sales teams (from mobile apps to team-building activities and incentives of all kinds).

 

Let's be clear, while these solutions can have a real ripple effect and stimulate sales team involvement in the short term, the notion of engagement appeals to the deeper drivers of individuals, and these drivers have evolved in recent years.

 

Meaning" and values increasingly important, especially among "young people

Overall, we're seeing a shift in employees' priorities, including in the commercial sector: less focused on money as an end in itself, or on attributes of power, employees today attach increasing importance to the meaning of their work and the values conveyed by the company they work for, or plan to join.

 

This is particularly true of the younger generation entering today's job market, as highlighted by the latest Universum1 study, which shows a growing attachment on the part of students to criteria linked to CSR, ethics and equality in their career choices:

"1 in 3 students think that ethics is an important subject (especially on the Business side), and 26% attach importance to the ethical principles of companies."

 

Another example is the success of the Manifeste étudiant pour un réveil écologique (Student Manifesto for an Ecological Awakening), launched by students from leading business schools including HEC, in which they declare their willingness to boycott companies that do not make a commitment to ecology, even if it means earning less.

 

Money can't buy happiness... or commitment, anyway!

While this prevalence of values and ethics in career choices needs to be nuanced (the same study shows that, beyond the rhetoric, business school students still mostly choose for their first position companies that offer high income prospects and constitute a good reference for their CVs...), it is important to bear in mind that financial criteria are no longer the only ones to count, and that the driving forces behind salespeople have become multiple.

Beyond ethics, several criteria have become essential in the career choices of sales people, including: having an immediate impact on the company, experiencing collective "professional challenges", and being autonomous in their work.

 

So how do you integrate these changing sales aspirations into your management style?

 

The new levers of sales engagement

Here are several areas you can work on to encourage the commitment of your sales teams and develop your company's appeal:

  •      Work on the company's values and raison d'être: The feeling of being useful is a determining factor in the notion of commitment! And there's nothing better than defining your company's mission, giving meaning to its actions and highlighting its positive impact on society. This is what Simon Sinek calls the "Golden Circle", and corresponds to the "WHY?" in his crystal-clear diagram describing what makes one company so much more attractive and commercially successful than another.
  •   Encourage autonomy and initiative: Encouraging initiative means allowing your sales reps to participate in the decisions that concern them, and to be involved in the organization of their day-to-day work (for example, by asking them to define the means to be used to achieve their objectives). This also means letting them experiment (with a new pitch, a new e-mail sequence, the operation of a new CRM tool...) within a defined framework (objectives, time...) by trusting them and giving them the right to make mistakes.
  •   Develop "Coopetition" and the sharing of best practices: In a constantly evolving environment, the playing field is constantly changing, and the best of one moment is not necessarily the best of the next! Encouraging the sharing of best practices internally is a good way of rewarding top performers, while ensuring that not everything rests on their shoulders. To do this, you can encourage the setting up of times when a member of the sales team will train his colleagues in a tool, technique or approach that he applies with better results than the others. In this way, the team will benefit from both emulation and collaboration, and everyone will have the opportunity to make the most of their strengths.

 

A change of posture for managers

If these levers are based on values and give pride of place to collaborative logics, their activation is not necessarily a matter of idealism, nor is it "free" for companies: not only is it a factor in team commitment and stability, but the implementation of these levers is conducive to agility and innovation, and therefore ultimately to the sustainability and performance of your company.

 

However, it implies a real change of attitude, which may prove counter-intuitive for many managers: the "inherited" management styles of recent decades were largely based on a "command and control" logic.

Today, it's all about placing more value on "doing better" than "doing good", even if it sometimes takes longer to get started.

 

By shifting the role of employees from the execution of systems designed upstream and often applied in a "top-down" fashion, to that of reflection and initiative-taking, we are bringing about a major change in the role of managers. Their mission is now to build a secure and stimulating framework, to create trust and to encourage skills development.

 

Much more in a "coaching" and support mode, they question and listen to their teams, without necessarily wanting to know everything, to help them find the best solutions on their own.

 

From now on, the competence of sales managers is no longer measured by the quality of their answers, but by the quality of their questions!

 

This approach is less obvious to activate than financial leverage alone, but it also gives meaning and value to the mission of sales managers themselves!

 

Are you facing a crisis situation? Have you considered repositioning your sales activities? Watch this webinar to find out how:

 

  1. Universum 2019 annual survey on "The major career trends of Business and Engineering School students". A summary of the results can be viewed via this link: http: //www.datapressepremium.com/rmdiff/2010661/Communique_presse_V4_09042019.pdf

It also has an impact on employee commitment. Against a backdrop of generational renewal of sales teams and managerial change, how can you ensure that you set ambitious, realistic and motivating objectives for your sales force over the long term?

 

Setting sales targets: a strategic issue

Let's clear up a common misunderstanding first.

No, setting individual sales targets doesn't just mean setting the sales figures that each salesperson must achieve in order to be eligible for commission!

 

  • On the one hand, the criteria taken into account to evaluate their effective contribution to the company's objectives can be multiple: margin generated, percentage of sales achieved on a particular offer or target, number of new customers signed up...
  • On the other hand, their level of commitment can also be measured by the means used to achieve it: number of new prospects identified, number of telephone or face-to-face appointments made, number of sales proposals sent, conversion rate...
  • Lastly, objectives can include a collective component and encourage cooperation, in addition to individual performance: variable remuneration can be made conditional on prior achievement of a collective sales threshold, or working time devoted to internal projects can be taken into account...

It's a real strategic issue, involving choices whose impact is not only financial, but also managerial : employee commitment and the way teams operate partly depend on it.

 

5 best practices for defining sales objectives

1. Involve the sales team in the process

The most common pitfall in this area is to repeat the previous year's model and apply it identically, without questioning its effectiveness. It's a good idea to include a phase of consultation with sales staff on the subject: get their opinions, their feedback on the system already in place, and any suggestions they may have for improvements. Present them with your own ideas for change before implementing them, to test their reaction to the options envisaged.

Taking this feedback into account will ensure that sales reps adhere more closely to the objectives you present to them later on.

Consulting them does not mean involving them in the final decision, but it is useful to know their perception and to integrate it into your thinking, among other criteria that are part of a more global vision of the company.

2. Define operative variable elements

As we saw above, there are potentially many criteria that can be taken into account when defining sales objectives.

Don't forget that each of these criteria will then have to be regularly monitored, and will come into play in the calculation of the variable part of salespeople's remuneration. You're going to have to make some choices, otherwise you'll end up with a veritable gas factory!

Select your criteria (preferably at least 2, and no more than 4) and define their weighting according to the importance you attach to them.

The profit-sharing system you propose must guarantee the motivation and commitment of your sales staff over the long term. You could, for example, combine a performance target (sales of €500,000 for the year) with a resource target (making 8 appointments with prospects per week, etc.).

3. Perform a preliminary simulation of the proposed system

The best way to ensure that the selected criteria work and to check the overall coherence of the planned system is to test it. Discovering during the course of the year that the system is not working satisfactorily could have serious consequences for the company.

Using the figures available for year N, run simulations to check that :

  • the data needed to establish the variables is available (already tracked in your current monitoring system, or if not, easily/quickly accessible)
  • multi-criteria, weighted calculation is easy to perform (no gasworks)
  • the results obtained are consistent (no major discrepancies with the current system)

And make sure that these results are stimulating for your sales force! Set yourself a target of 70% to 80% of the team (minimum) achieving their sales targets, and receiving satisfactory bonuses.

Discover the KESTIO webinars, where we discuss

all topics related to sales performance with our experts: 

Fabien Comtet, CEO

Dominique Seguin, General Manager

Nicolas Boissard, Marketing Director

Access our webinars

 

 

 

 

 

4. Establishing "fair" criteria

To ensure that objectives are perceived as "fair" and generate lasting support, they should be defined according to criteria that depend directly on the actions of sales staff : number of appointments won, number of deals won...

As far as possible, exclude external factors or third-party intervention: in the context of new business models, in particular, marketing can intervene in all or part of the sales cycle, so it needs to be distinguished from actions directly attributable to salespeople.

As far as possible, adopt a qualitative approach: sending out as many sales proposals as possible, for example, doesn't have to be an end in itself; combining this with a notion of conversion rate allows you to measure the quality of your work more accurately.

Depending on the situation, it may also be important to take into account certain disparities (between junior and senior salespeople, geographical territories covered, account development and pure conquest, etc.) to reward not only the results achieved, but more broadly the efforts mobilized.

5. Two-step communication

Once your system has been established in a coherent, efficient and "fair" way, don't neglect the (crucial) stage of presenting it to the members of your sales team!

Plan your communication in two stages:

  • A collective presentation to the team, to explain how the system works, to inform the team of the criteria taken into consideration, and to highlight the overall coherence of the system with regard to the company's objectives (financial, strategic, etc.) and the reality on the ground.
  • A one-on-one discussion with each member of the sales team, to clarify their individual objectives in detail, and answer any questions they may have.

Sales people need to have a clear idea of the level of variable remuneration to which they are entitled, and be able to translate these objectives into action priorities and concrete organizational elements.

 

You should also specify how key data will be monitored (weekly reporting, CRM tracking, etc.) and how often results will be evaluated.

 

If the defined system meets this set of best practices, and is regularly monitored and effectively managed once implemented, you have every chance of ensuring that your sales staff are actively involved in achieving their objectives and achieving results!

 

In our webinar, discover 4 keys to regaining control in a difficult situation: 

Would you like to implement this approach to support your sales force and generate measurable ROI from your marketing actions? If so, you're probably wondering where to start... So here are 5 steps on how to create your sales tunnel, using the tools and resources already in place in your company.

 

1. Take stock of your current marketing tools

Start by taking stock of your current marketing tools and communication initiatives.

The aim is to build on what already exists, so you can roll out your new lead-generating actions as quickly as possible - and at the lowest possible cost.

 

To do this, ask yourself the following questions:

  • What communication media and marketing tools do you already use? Website, blog, emailing solution, social networking pages, YouTube channel...
  • What actions are you implementing via these channels to interact with your prospects? Publish 2 articles a month on your blog, send out a monthly newsletter, distribute 2 posts a week on social networks... Don't limit this survey to your web tools alone, and take into account all the communication actions that enable you to get in touch with new prospects. This includes your events (trade shows or conferences), for example.

  • With what results? How are these results evaluated/monitored? How do you measure the impact of your marketing actions today? On the basis of what criteria? For example: do you track the evolution of traffic on your website? On specific pages? Do you know how many prospects have contacted you via the website in the last 6 months? How many people have subscribed to your newsletter?

You can then use this data to amplify existing actions or coordinate them more effectively, with the aim of generating leads.

 

2. Define your priority objectives

Next, define a more precise objective than the very general one of "generating leads": on which offer do you want to focus your efforts?

 

Here again, avoid too broad or vague an objective: a good prospect is not someone to whom you will necessarily be able to sell all your products or services, but one to whom you have the best chance of selling at least one of them to begin with. And to design your sales tunnel, you need to define which one.

 

If your offers are diversified, you'll gradually set up several sales tunnels to cover the whole "spectrum".

Because, in webmarketing logic, you attract your prospects to you on the basis of an identified interest in a subject (which for them generally corresponds to a problem to be solved or a goal to be achieved).

 

You can define the priority offer to which your sales tunnel and marketing campaigns will be dedicated on the basis of different criteria, for example :

  • by identifying the one that's most profitable for you (to maximize your margins),
  • or the one you feel is best positioned in your market (to generate the most volume),
  • or a new offer you've just launched (to win over new customers and cross-sell to existing ones).

This choice will then guide the definition of your targets and the content to be used (or produced) to attract them to you, and then maintain the relationship with them.

 

3. Refocus on your buyer persona's expectations

A lead is an identified contact (with a name and contact details), but not just that: always ask yourself what profile a contact needs to meet to be a valid prospect.

 

 To define it, answer these questions:

  • Who are the targets for your offer? What size of company, what type of function within the company (if you're BtoB). Which age category, gender or CSP (if you're BtoC).

  • What's your ideal customer's profile (Buyer Persona)?What are their objectives, desires or problems in relation to the offer you're proposing? What obstacles are likely to complicate their purchase, and how can you help them overcome them? What are their buying habits and preferred communication channels?

  • What are its "drivers of interest"? What are their aspirations, key issues and challenges? What queries are they likely to type into search engines to answer them?

All these elements of detailed knowledge of your prospects will enable you to design the most appropriate marketing actions to attract and convince them.


Discover the KESTIO webinars, where we discuss

all topics related to sales performance with our experts: 

Fabien Comtet, CEO

Dominique Seguin, General Manager

Nicolas Boissard, Marketing Director


Access our webinars

4. Define the marketing actions to be implemented

You now have everything you need to design your "sales tunnel in the truest sense of the word!

 

In line with the priority offer defined and the "drivers of interest" of your Buyer Persona, you can: define the theme of your lead magnet - content designed to attract your prospects (EBook, self-diagnosis...) - and design your workflow, the sequence of emails that will maintain the relationship with your prospects and nurture their interest in your offer.

 

Based on the marketing tools and campaigns already in place, you can now coordinate your actions so that they converge towards the same objective, for example :

  • define the topics of your blog articles or conferences in line with the lead magnet theme and the interests of your buyer personae
  • insert a call-to-action at the bottom of these articles and at the end of your conference materials to direct your prospects to this lead magnet
  • relay these articles via your newsletter to your customer and subscriber contact base
  • promote these articles and your lead magnet via posts on social networks...

In this way, all your actions will actively contribute to creating a flow of qualified visitors to your lead magnet, to identify your prospects' contacts and achieve your objective.

This is the key point in your lead generation scenario. Next, you'll need to maintain and nurture the relationship with your prospects to support the work of your sales force.

 

5. Deploy a first scenario in agile mode

Implementing this approach is an iterative process.

 

Deploy an initial scenario on a "test and learn" basis, closely monitoring your indicators to quickly assess its effectiveness and whether you've reached your objectives.

 

Based on the results observed, constantly improve this scenario, or stop it if it's not proving effective, after identifying the points that need to be reworked: should a new lead magnet be produced? Recontact identified prospects more quickly? Offer them content that better meets their expectations? Generate more inbound traffic to lead magnets?

 

Once you've mastered your first effective sales tunnel, you'll be able to apply it to other offers and generate even more leads!

 

Adopt a tool adapted to your business and your expectations: choose a CRM... To better understand the usefulness of CRM and choose the right tool, watch this webinar:

[I] : Read again our articles on this subject:

But do you know how to leverage these tools to generate leads? To make an active contribution to your sales activity, these tools need to be combined with a webmarketing strategy, and their use thought out in a coordinated way.

Here are 3 examples of effective "sales tunnels" to generate leads with the help of your web tools.

 

[Reminder] What is a "sales tunnel"?

If you've read our article "Et si votre site web générait (enfin) des leads?", the notion of the "sales tunnel" no longer holds any secrets for you!

 

If not, here's a quick summary: 

In webmarketing, a "sales tunnel" is a "scenario" you've thought through in advance to direct your various contacts (physical or web) to key pages on your website, with a view to turning them into identified prospects.

 

 It is based on 3 key elements:

  • Attractive content for your prospects, or LEAD MAGNET
  • An entry point for identifying them, called a LANDING PAGE
  • And an email sequence designed to turn them into QUALIFIED LEADS

 

How does it generate leads?

A sales tunnel is built to provoke interactions with your potential prospects, once you have captured them and directed them to your website: a click, a visit to a key page, the submission of a form...

The aim is to transform them from "unidentified visitor" to "identified visitor" (with a name and contact), and then into a "qualified lead".

 

A "qualified lead" is a contact with whom you are in a position to initiate a commercial exchange, i.e.: in whom you have detected an interest in your offer, and for whom you have direct contact details (email + telephone).

The scenario consists of using your web tools in a strategic and coordinated way to help you validate these 2 key points.

 

3 examples of effective web "sales tunnels

Let's take the case of a (fictitious) consulting firm in the field of Customer Experience.

 

Here are 3 examples of lead-generating scenarios:

SCENARIO 1 - Self-evaluation questionnaire

This scenario is one of the quickest and least expensive to implement. Ideal for a first approach to the "sales tunnel" logic.

  • LEAD MAGNET: Self-diagnosis

A potential prospect visits the company's website and reads a blog post, for example: "3 inspiring Customer Experience companies". A Call-To-Action(CTA) at the bottom of the article invites them to carry out an online self-diagnosis on the subject. For example, "Evaluate the quality of your company's Customer Experience".

  • LANDING PAGE : Questionnaire page

The interested visitor clicks on the CTA, which takes them to an online questionnaire. (You can start by creating your own web questionnaires with a free tool like Google Form).

To take part in the questionnaire, you need to fill in the following mandatory fields to receive the results: Name + Email address, and optional fields: Position + Company + Phone number. (Don't forget the mandatory RGPD mentions )

 

  • EMAIL SEQUENCE: Summary of results

2 days after taking part in the self-diagnosis, the company emails the participant a summary of the results, together with a proposal for a telephone meeting to discuss the results and, for example, define a short-term improvement plan.

 

  • LEAD QUALIFICATION: Appointment scheduling

 If the participant accepts the proposal for a telephone appointment, they become a "qualified lead" and their contact details are forwarded to a sales representative!

 

SCENARIO 2 - Thematic Ebook

This scenario, which takes a little longer to implement, enables you togradually establish a relationship with an identified new contact and build the company's legitimacy in his or her eyes. 


Discover the KESTIO webinars, where we discuss

all topics related to sales performance with our experts: 

Fabien Comtet, CEO

Dominique Seguin, General Manager

Nicolas Boissard, Marketing Director


Access our webinars

 

  • LEAD MAGNET : EBook

A campaign Linkedin Ads campaign on the Linkedin profiles of the "Customer Experience Directors" of targeted companies generates a flow of qualified visitors towards an Ebook with attractive content for this target.

For example, a 15-page dossier on "Customer Experience Champions".

 

  • LANDING PAGE : Download page

Interested visitors are redirected to a dedicated page, featuring a download form with mandatory fields to receive the link to the Ebook: Name + Email address, and optional fields: Job + Company + Phone number. (Not forgetting the mandatory RGPD mentions). 

  • EMAIL SEQUENCE: Self-diagnosis

 Email 1 - Sent to people who have downloaded the Ebook

An initial email sent 2 days later invites them to carry out an online self-diagnosis of their company's Customer Experience.

The participant chooses between 2 options:

Option 1 

Receive a summary of the results by email

Option 2 

Be contacted by telephone for a personalized review of your results

 

Email 2 - Sent to respondents to the online questionnaire

A second email is sent 2 days later, containing :

Option 1 

a summary of the results in pdf format, with a "Call-to-Action" (CTA) prompting you to book a free consultation.

Option 2

A proposed appointment for the results feedback interview, at the end of which the summary will be sent to the customer.

 

  • LEAD QUALIFICATION: Appointment scheduling

If the participant validates the proposal for a telephone appointment, he becomes a "qualified lead" and his contact details are forwarded to a sales representative.

 

SCENARIO 3 - Conference support

As this 3rd example illustrates, a web-based lead generation scenario can also include one (or more) physical contact point(s)!

 

  • LEAD MAGNET: Conference support

The company's CEO hosts a conference on "The new challenges of the Customer Experience".

At the end of his talk, he invites participants to download his lecture material.

 

  • LANDING PAGE : Download page

 The conference support download page includes a form to fill in to receive the support, with mandatory fields: Name + Email address, and optional fields: Position + Company + Phone number.

  • EMAIL SEQUENCE: Satisfaction questionnaire

 Email 1 - Sent D+2 to people who have downloaded the media

An initial message invites them to complete an online satisfaction questionnaire about the conference.

At the end of the questionnaire, respondents can ask to be called back by an expert to define their Customer Experience priorities.

 

Email 2 - Sent on D+2 to respondents to the questionnaire

 If the respondent has not asked to be called back at the end of the questionnaire, a new email is sent 2 days later, again offering a personalized interview.

 

  • LEAD QUALIFICATION: Appointment scheduling

If the participant validates the phone appointment proposal (in step 1 or step 2 of the email sequence), he becomes a "qualified lead" and his details are forwarded to a sales representative.

Each of these 3 scenarios enabled the company to identify new contacts via its website, and to transform some of them into qualified leads that it passed on to its sales force!

What's more, the chances of converting these prospects are multiplied, because :

  • They already know the company,
  • The company has acquired a certain legitimacy in their eyes
  • Sales reps have precise information on their profile (obtained via the form, questionnaire and interview).

Many variations of these scenarios are possible, depending on your business sector, your offers, the profile of your prospects and the marketing tools you have at your disposal. Start by deploying a1st scenario in "test & learn" mode to generate your first leads. You can then apply these scenarios to each of your offers and build on them!

 

To develop your company's communication tools, think Webinar!

Webinars can be used to showcase attractive content and enhance the company's activity.

However, it does require a few rules: in this webinar learn how to organize a webinar that generates more participants and leads.

But are you sure you've taken all the components of an effective sales strategy into account when you draw up your annual strategy?

Does it include all the "go to market" components of your product or service offering, i.e. a coherent guideline that aligns objectives, means, allocated resources and the resulting operational organization?

A reminder of the key points that will ensure you have defined an efficient sales strategy and give you every chance of achieving your objectives.

 

Results targets and monitoring indicators

You've set yourself performance targets (and rightly so!). This means you need to monitor and control their achievement throughout the year, to make sure you reach them. How can you do this?

By defining the associated measurement indicators, and therefore the corresponding KPIs for evaluating them: "Outputs" indicators for the expected results, and "Inputs" indicators for the activities required to achieve them.

 

Resources 

Closely linked to the customer or prospect segments targeted, the resources devoted to winning over and retaining customers are also a key element to be precisely defined: preferred sales channels and expected revenue flow per channel, marketing and communication resources deployed, expected lead flow to achieve the level of sales activity defined in relation to the final objectives.

 

Priority targets, based on potential criteria

The sales team's scope of intervention is a key input. Segmenting your customers and prospects is a must. Are your customers classified according to sales or margin criteria? Is there an assessment of their development potential over the year?


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Nicolas Boissard, Marketing Director


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The level of sales effort required for each of these segments

Efforts are then allocated by determining the coverage and sales pressure on these segments.

In this way, the different types of action to be taken in the sales process (calls, discovery visits, support visits, training visits...), and the allocation of resources and sales time per action to the different segments will be adjusted. Not defining it at strategy level means that each sales rep will decide how to allocate his or her efforts according to his or her own criteria... Are you willing to take that risk?

 

Optimal sales organization

The formalization of strategy also includes sales organization choices : should teams specialize in different segments, or rather rely on different types of collaborators depending on the stage of the sales process?

 

Customer visits cost money, and time spent in pre-sales has an impact on sales profitability.

This is why some companies, for example, entrust the detection and qualification of opportunities to sedentary teams, and the discovery of needs through to contractualization to a field salesperson.

 

If all the points raised have been addressed when you define YOUR sales strategy, you've laid a sound foundation and created the right conditions at the outset to give yourself the best chance of success. The next step is to translate this sales strategy into operational action plans, and to manage these effectively to ensure that objectives are met.

 

 

To stay competitive and maximize your chances of converting leads into future customers, it's important to optimize the return on your sales assets. Find out how in this webinar...

 

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