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So how do you put an end to meetings that no-one wants to attend?

Here are 6 "disaster scenarios" to avoid, and our tips for replacing them with useful, effective and motivating meetings.

1. The mountain that gave birth to a mouse

The meeting was called to deal with a generic theme: for example, the new European regulations affecting our sector.

There's a lot of talk, a lot of time, and everyone has a more or less well-informed opinion, but no decisions are made and no action is taken. Key information could have been passed on in advance of the meeting, and that would have been more effective. After a while, many people wonder why they're there at all. What's more, no one really knows what the expected outcome was. And that's the problem.

Our advice:

Always set one or more concrete and precise objectives for your meeting, for example: to prepare or validate a decision, to define an action plan, to provide a progress report on a project, to inform the group of a decision, or to share internal best practices... The meeting will be a success if you and the participants have made tangible progress on your subject by the end of it.

2. The general brawl ("Settling scores at the OK Corral")

Sometimes, a subject discussed at a meeting can give rise to contradictory reactions. While the expression of different points of view is generally desirable, and often leads to the emergence of the best solutions, it can become a real burden whenit turns into a heated debate, or even head-on opposition. Poorly moderated and unfocused, the debate can drag on and on, or take on a confrontational character, with the risk of everyone sticking to their positions and tensions crystallizing, thereby rendering the meeting completely sterile...

Our advice:

Take note of objections, but don't necessarily deal with them all immediately, or react to them on the spot. If a point of agreement can't be reached quickly, don't let the debate between antagonistic positions fester, and get on with the agenda. Simply define when and in what context the subject will be decided.

3. The one-man show

Recognize it? This is the meeting in which participants are treated as mere spectators. It's conducted in a "top-down" mode in front of passive, not to say captive, listeners.

While the presenter is certainly delighted to have an audience to admire his talents or applaud his ideas, he nevertheless deprives himself of the richness of the team's contributions on his subject, or of the relevance of feedback on the project he's presenting... And that's rarely a good idea!

Our advice:

A meeting is neither a lecture nor a presentation! It's a time for collective work to which all participants have been invited to be active contributors. Invite all the relevant and/or competent people, and encourage active, balanced participation by everyone, with an objective known and understood by all. Even when it's a "presentation", allow for interaction with your audience, to encourage participants to project themselves into action, and implement the elements shared.

4. La sempiternelle ("A never-ending day")

It's the (all too) routine meeting. It always takes place at the same frequency (every month, every week...), at the same time, with the same people, and its flow is unchanging. A typical example: first the figures for the month are presented, then the objectives for the next month, and finally, a round-table discussion on current actions. The risk with this type of meeting: after a while, you don't even really know what it's for, and above all, you're bored out of your mind! As a result, it's up to the participants to come up with the best excuse to get out of it, and for those who stay, it's a real chore...

Our advice:

It's sometimes useful to schedule "regular" meetings, such as a weekly update. If this is the case, choose a short format with dynamic, highly interactive content.

In all other cases, systematically ask yourself what format and mode of facilitation will be most effective in ensuring that the meeting achieves what you want it to, and "vary the pleasures" (metaplanning workshop, brainstorming, world café... )!

5. A parenthesis that goes on forever

Sometimes, during a meeting, one of the participants will challenge the group on a situation that is specific to him or her, or the moderator will focus on a point that concerns a minority of them. If the parenthesis drags on for too long, this can have several negative effects: either the other participants intervene without being invited to do so, acting as "judges" or "arbiters" for their colleagues on a subject that is not their responsibility; or, not being concerned, they relax their attention for a long time, and good luck getting them on board again for the next part of the agenda! Not only is the individual case not dealt with properly, but it's a real waste of time for the whole group.

Our advice:

In meetings, if there are many subjects to be dealt with, adopt the following benchmark: "to be invited, each participant must be interested in at least 70% of the subjects dealt with during the meeting, and to be put on the agenda, each subject to be dealt with must concern at least 70% of the participants invited". Particular cases and subsidiary subjects raised during the meeting should be noted, to be dealt with at a later date, in an appropriate setting.

6. Absentees are always wrong

We're dealing with a subject that concerns several departments, with a direct impact on everyone's activity. However, not everyone was invited to the meeting, or the meeting was held despite the fact that some of those invited were unable to attend. As a result, no decisions can be firmly validated, or decisions will run counter to the wishes of those absent, and/or more time will be needed to report back to those absent after the meeting, in compensation. It's a double whammy for everyone!

Our advice:

Organize a meeting only if it's useful and necessary, and when it is, give yourself the means to make it effective: choose the right format, the right timing, and make sure everyone whose contribution is needed is present. When it's difficult to bring them together, opt for document sharing and online collaborative solutions to move issues forward, rather than multiple meetings and email exchanges in restricted committees.

By avoiding these 6 most common "worst-case scenarios" (we could even add others, such as "La clandestine", which is improvised by three people on a corner of a desk and disturbs everyone in the open space in the process! 😉 ), you'll restore your meetings to their true vocation: to be a space for sharing ideas and a time for effective, useful collaborative work, in which "the productivity of the whole represents more than that of the sum of the parts". And your employees will once again enjoy taking part!

Did you know that 95% of your success is linked to your state of mind? To learn how to manage your emotional charge more effectively, discover the Triad method in this webinar:

To prevent your salespeople from interpreting it in their own way, gradually moving away from it, or even completely freeing themselves from it, it is necessary to translate this sales strategy into operational directives and to effectively manage their implementation.

To achieve this, pay attention to these 4 essential points.

Build an individual sales action plan with each salesperson

Defining a clear business strategy and presenting it to your team is necessary, but not enough to ensure its effective implementation during the financial year. This is the purpose of business action plans defined at the individual level.

They are generally co-constructed by the salesperson and their manager, and reassessed or updated at regular intervals : annually, half-yearly, quarterly or monthly (we then speak of PAM, for monthly action plan).

This co-construction is the key to the commitment of each salesperson. The choice of frequency can be made according to the sales cycle of your products and services, or according to the management method adopted.

Some companies, for example, define annual action plans and then weight the objectives monthly or quarterly according to the seasonality of their activity.

Thus, a digital services company can achieve 50% of its annual turnover in a single quarter, during which the majority of its subscriptions are renewed.

Each salesperson must have an operational action plan containing the key data necessary for their daily activity, on points such as: targeting , intensity and nature of sales actions , in order to have the means to achieve the defined objectives .

Make sure that this individual action plan reflects the business strategy well

This commercial action plan is the operational breakdown of the commercial strategy defined beforehand. It must therefore reflect it and transcribe it on an individual scale, taking into account the allocation of commercial efforts on your targets , whether in coverage or in commercial pressure, and the commercial organization for which you have opted.

If the sales strategy determines, for example, that 35% of the overall turnover must be achieved on segment A of the customer base and 25% on segment B, two different translations are possible in the individual action plan of one of the sales representatives:

either he will have to achieve 35% of his turnover on segment A and 25% on segment B (within the framework of an organization with a distribution of the customer portfolio by geographic zone, for example);
or he will have to achieve 100% of his turnover on segment A, with other salespeople in charge of segment B (in the case of an organization with salespeople specialized by customer segment).

Hence the importance of defining the action plan on an individual scale, in order to ensure that the concrete application of the commercial strategy will not give rise to multiple, or even divergent, interpretations!

Define precisely the activities to be carried out with your sales representatives

To avoid any risky improvisation on the part of your sales representatives, define precisely with them and for each one:

the targets on which they will work (type of accounts, meeting precise targeting criteria, or even list of named accounts, and types of contacts targeted within the accounts)
the type of commercial actions to be carried out , at each stage of the sales process (leads to be processed, calls, physical meetings, quotes or commercial proposals, follow-ups, etc.), in the front or back office
the frequency and intensity of these actions , by customer segment (for example, 8 calls and 3 annual meetings on prospects attached to customer segment A)

From a more qualitative point of view, also specify the sales methods to be implemented at each stage of the sales process (for example: company pitch, type of questions to ask in a discovery interview) and the results expected for each of them (data to be collected during a discovery meeting, elements to be validated to qualify an opportunity during a sales meeting, etc.).

Regular meetings between salespeople and their managers are essential to convey these guidelines and monitor their implementation. In particular, they help identify gaps with expectations, address difficulties encountered in the field and refine the sales tools used (call script, interview guide, standard report to be recorded in the CRM, etc.).

The frequency (monthly, quarterly, etc.) and the degree of "formality" of these follow-up meetings are to be defined according to the level of support that you deem necessary; the latter may vary depending on the management culture of the company and the level of seniority of the sales representatives, in particular.

Analyze the indicators regularly and adjust the device if necessary

As a manager, you are responsible for ensuring that the business strategy is respected and that objectives are achieved . To do this, it is important that you have a global vision of your company's business situation in real time in order to manage actions without waiting to know the final result of the financial year.

Equip yourself with the appropriate management tools , including dashboards, so that you can analyze KPIs (key performance indicators) and monitor the actions taken by your salespeople. This will allow you to identify the necessary adjustments and implement them, if necessary.

Managing your team's sales pipeline , in particular, is a key element in ensuring the reliability of future revenues . The number, value and quality of the opportunities identified, their creation date and their level of progress in the sales process are all parameters to analyze.

Similarly, if your sellers' conversion rates show significant differences on the same product range, this should alert you and prompt you to look for the cause.

Finally, sales made and turnover (in volume, in value, by type of product/service, by customer targets, etc.) are of course essential indicators of results to be measured.

Your business strategy indicates how you want to structure your development . The analysis of the steering indicators allows you to validate its deployment and adjust the operational action plans, without waiting to know the result in terms of orders taken or customer invoicing!

Respecting these 4 points of vigilance will allow you to effectively manage the deployment of your commercial strategy at the operational level and thus optimize your chances of achieving the objectives you have set for yourself.

To stay competitive and maximize your chances of converting your leads into future customers, it is important to optimize the performance of your sales assets. Find out how by watching this webinar:

Pour cela, elle doit être expliquée clairement, et traduite non seulement en objectifs chiffrés, mais également en activités et moyens concrets permettant de réaliser ces objectifs.

Voici 5 conseils pour vous assurer que votre stratégie commerciale sera pleinement appliquée sur le terrain.

Distinguez la stratégie commerciale de la stratégie globale de l’entreprise

Petit test : demandez à un dirigeant si la stratégie commerciale de son entreprise est claire pour ses équipes. Sa réponse sera sûrement un « oui » sans détours. Puis, demandez à l’un de ses commerciaux s’il sait pour quelle raison il doit réaliser 5 rendez-vous par semaine. La plupart du temps, il ne saura pas vous expliquer son objectif !

Cet écart de perception entre dirigeant et commerciaux tient souvent à un simple manque d’explication et de partage de la stratégie commerciale et du plan d’action qui en découle.

Bien sûr, il est important de présenter la stratégie globale pour donner de la perspective et relier l’action des commerciaux à la vie de l’entreprise dans son ensemble : lancement de nouveaux produits, projet de développement à l’international, objectifs de croissance… sont autant de sujets qui concernent votre équipe commerciale.

Pour autant, assurez-vous de bien la distinguer de la stratégie commerciale à proprement parler et de faire un vrai focus sur la seconde, tout en la rattachant à la première. Et surtout, faites en sorte de traiter l’ensemble des questions qui animent les commerciaux en leur donnant les éléments concrets qui leur permettront d’agir efficacement par la suite.

Faites le lien entre l’objectif de CA et les activités commerciales terrain

Pour cela, prenez le temps de faire le lien entre l’objectif de résultat commercial défini et sa traduction concrète pour les commerciaux : en objectif de résultat individuel d’abord, puis en niveau d’intensité commerciale à fournir, c’est-à-dire en nature et fréquence des activités commerciales à mettre en œuvre.

Par exemple, 1 journée par semaine consacrée à la prospection, 5 rendez-vous obtenus par journée de prospection, ou 3 rendez-vous clients réalisés par semaine…

Partagez le raisonnement qui vous a amené à fixer les objectifs commerciaux

Détaillez les étapes du processus de vente et expliquez les hypothèses qui ont été prises (nombre de leads, taux de transformation, ventes réalisés…) pour amener aux objectifs présentés. Ainsi, vous leur donnerez du sens et les points de référence.

Autre point essentiel : au-delà des chiffres et hypothèses de calcul, prenez le temps de définir les actions commerciales attendues d’un point de vue qualitatif.

Selon le contexte, par exemple, le terme générique de « rendez-vous » peut recouvrir des réalités très différentes : 30 minutes d’échange téléphonique de découverte, 1h30 d’atelier de travail en approche « vente-conseil », ou encore 45 minutes de démonstration en ligne d’une solution… Fixez les objectifs de ces actions en conséquence et définissez les compétences à mettre en œuvre pour les mener à bien.

Traduisez les « objectifs de vente produit » en « actions commerciales client »

De la même manière, n’oubliez pas de traduire les objectifs de vente par produit (généralement fixés par la Direction Marketing) en actions commerciales « orientées clients ».

C’est une chose de dire à vos commerciaux qu’ils doivent avoir vendu 10 000 exemplaires de l’un de vos produits phares dans les 6 premiers mois de l’année, ou de fixer comme objectif que l’une de vos gammes représente 40 % du CA généré… c’en est une autre d’y parvenir pour les équipes concernées.

Pour mettre toutes les chances de leur côté – et du vôtre -, assurez-vous de leur donner les moyens de réussir, en définissant le plan d’action commercial correspondant et surtout en le rattachant à ce qui fait le cœur de l’activité quotidienne de vos commerciaux : vos clients !

Définissez les cibles de clients à prospecter en priorité, décrivez leurs attentes et les points forts de votre offre au regard de ces attentes et dressez l’argumentaire commercial à développer… Bref, traduisez la « stratégie produit » en outils commerciaux opérationnels, rattachés à la réalité des clients auxquels votre équipe commerciale est confrontée.

Valorisez les moyens à la disposition de vos commerciaux pour réussir

Dans la même perspective, valorisez les ressources que vous mettez à la disposition des commerciaux pour leur permettre d’atteindre leurs objectifs : budget, temps, ressources humaines, outils…

Ces ressources peuvent être de diverses natures : achat de fichiers de prospection segmentés et qualifiés, campagnes marketing de génération de leads, nouveau site web attractif, fonctionnalités CRM performantes, session de formation de coaching commercial…

Dressez la liste de ces ressources avec deux objectifs : d’une part, les faire connaitre à vos commerciaux pour qu’ils s’en emparent activement, et d’autre part, booster leur motivation en leur montrant que l’entreprise investit pour leur donner les moyens d’atteindre les résultats visés.

Inspirez-vous des victoires de l’année précédente et capitalisez sur les réussites

Enfin, rattachez la stratégie commerciale et les objectifs des prochains mois aux victoires remportées sur l’année écoulée.

What lessons did you learn?
How are they used in the current strategy?
How can you duplicate them or draw inspiration from them to build a scalable model based on variables observed on a certain scale?

Repartir de vos précédentes réussites commerciales est une bonne façon de faire apparaître la cohérence de votre stratégie et d’établir une continuité positive. C’est aussi un moyen de valoriser la contribution de vos commerciaux et de diffuser les bonnes pratiques en interne.

Tous ces éléments favorisent une bonne appropriation de votre stratégie commerciale par vos équipes, vous garantissant ainsi une mise en œuvre effective qui lui permettra de porter ses fruits.

To go further and learn more about targeting and building a customer file, you can also watch our webinar:

Si oui, cet article devrait vous faire changer de perspective.

Le meilleur moyen de devenir le principal instigateur de votre réussite commerciale, c’est de structurer un système commercial dont l’équilibre repose principalement sur votre stratégie et sur votre organisation, pour minimiser l’impact des aléas conjoncturels sur votre activité.

Quinze années d’accompagnement des entreprises dans le développement de leur performance commerciale nous ont permis d’identifier 6 principaux leviers pour y parvenir.

Voici lesquels, et surtout, comment les activer.

1. Définissez une stratégie commerciale porteuse et structurante

Bien souvent, les entreprises structurent progressivement leur activité commerciale au cours du temps et au gré des opportunités. Si cela peut dans certains cas porter de bons résultats, ce n’est pas gage de durabilité pour votre réussite commerciale.

Le risque à procéder ainsi, c’est de se rendre trop dépendant de la conjoncture, ou du talent individuel de vos commerciaux : quid de vos résultats, si la demande baisse brusquement sur votre marché, si un nouveau concurrent se montre ultra offensif sur les prix, ou encore, si votre meilleur commercial quitte le navire ?

En tant que dirigeant et/ou responsable commercial, votre meilleur moyen de vous préserver de ces aléas est d’ agir stratégiquement sur les variables sur lesquelles vous avez la main. En particulier, sur 2 axes :

Le type d’activités commerciales menées (génération de leads, prise de rendez-vous, découverte…)
Les ressources allouées à ces actions (temps, personnes, budget)

Une stratégie commerciale d’entreprise n’est pas le fruit de plans d’actions individuels auto-définis par ses commerciaux, c’est le contraire !

Donnez une ligne directrice claire, traduisez-la en objectifs chiffrés (nombre de leads générés, nombre de rendez-vous réalisés, nombre de ventes, proportions de nouveaux clients…) et enfin, déclinez-la en plans d’action individuelsavec vos commerciaux.

2. Développez les compétences et le niveau d’engagement de vos commerciaux

Pour atteindre vos objectifs commerciaux, recruter des vendeurs compétents est un bon point de départ, mais votre rôle ne s’arrête pas là ! Les entreprises qui réussissent le mieux sont celles qui considèrent le développement des compétences et l’amélioration continue de leurs équipes commerciales comme faisant partie intégrante de leurs responsabilités managériales.

Lorsque vous recrutez un commercial, il maîtrise généralement les techniques et méthodes de vente, mais cela n’empêche qu’il a besoin d’accompagnement sur au moins deux aspects :

La connaissance de votre offre (produits/services, gammes…) et de son positionnement spécifique (prix, cibles, identité de marque…)
L’évolution constante des modes de vente (social selling, inbound marketing, vente conseil…) et des outils utilisés (CRM, applis…)

Plus vos équipes seront formées et compétentes sur ces différents plans, plus elles seront efficaces et autonomes dans la réalisation de leurs objectifs.

Un autre élément déterminant pour votre activité dépend directement de votre mode de management : le développement de l’engagement de vos collaborateurs.

Dans ce domaine, 2 points sont particulièrement importants :

Partagez régulièrement avec votre équipe la stratégie commerciale définie
Pilotez activement et effectivement sa mise en œuvre : co-définition des plans d’action individuels, suivi des indicateurs d’atteinte des objectifs, identification des points d’amélioration…

Sur ce dernier point, évitez de vous enfermer dans une posture de « contrôle » : privilégiez une approche de type « coaching », basée sur un dialogue régulier et constructifavec vos commerciaux pour les soutenir dans la réalisation de leurs objectifs. Plus efficace qu’une évaluation périodique fondée sur la seule analyse de leurs chiffres, elle est aussi beaucoup plus favorable à leur engagement vis-à-vis de votre entreprise et à leur motivation !

3. Identifiez et déployez le processus de vente optimal

Menez une réflexion permanente sur les (meilleurs) moyens d’obtenir des contacts de clients potentiels pour votre entreprise et de convertir ces leads en ventes effectives. Identifiez et analysez les étapes successives menant à une vente, afin de définir le meilleur traitement à leur appliquer pour en améliorer l’efficacité et en faire baisser le coût.

Quelles interactions avez-vous avec vos prospects ?
A quel moment interviennent-elles ?
Quel est le meilleur moyen de rendre ces interactions commercialement contributives ?

Ces questions vous permettront de définir les moyens, outils et méthodes à mettre en œuvre et le système offrant le meilleur rendement. Notamment, quel « mix » vous adopterez entre actions marketing et commerciales, ou encore entre ressources internes et prestataires externes.

Un point qui est loin d’être anodin : sur le terrain, on observe un rapport pouvant aller de 1 à 20 entre les différentes méthodes d’acquisition de leads ! En fonction des entreprises et du mix adopté, le coût de revient du « rendez-vous 1 » (entretien commercial de découverte) varie de 20 € à 400 €, par exemple.

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

4. Créez une dynamique commerciale à l’échelle de toute l’entreprise

Assurez-vous que tous vos collaborateurs se sentent investis d’une responsabilité et d’un rôle précis dans le développement commercial de votre entreprise.

Concrètement, cela consiste d’abord à les sensibiliser au sujet en leur faisant prendre conscience de l’impact de leur travail sur le succès global de l’entreprise : par exemple, l’efficacité du service logistique a une incidence directe sur le nombre de livraisons facturées dans le mois, celle du Marketing sur le nombre de leads transmis aux commerciaux…

Puis, définissez avec les différentes composantes de l’équipe (service commercial, logistique, administratif, relation client…) les actions et moyens à mettre en œuvre pour participer efficacement à la réussite commerciale de l’entreprise.

Cela peut consister à : garantir la qualité des services délivrés, optimiser des process, diffuser une image valorisante de l’entreprise auprès de ses clients…

L’essentiel est de développer et transmettre en interne une culture de type « Everybody sells ! » (tout le monde vend). N’oubliez pas de formaliser et documenter ces engagements d’équipe (charte qualité, process interne, pitch d’entreprise, bonnes pratiques de relation client…) : cela vous permettra de les diffuser efficacement, de les « ancrer » et de les faire évoluer dans le temps .

5. Utilisez les outils digitaux qui simplifieront (réellement) la vie de vos équipes

Plus que jamais, la connaissance client est au cœur de l’effort commercial et représente un précieux capital. C’est pourquoi l’apport des outils digitaux dans ce domaine peut s’avérer déterminant pour l’efficacité globale de votre système commercial.

On pense en premier lieu aux outils CRM, qui permettent l’historisation des données relatives à vos clients et prospects, et le suivi des actions des commerciaux.

Mais il peut s’agir également d’applications dédiées à l’efficacité commerciale, telles que :

les trackeurs d’email comme Tilkee ou CloseMoreDeals qui vous informent en temps réel des ouvertures et pages lues sur vos propales envoyées par email,
les outils de génération de leads, tel que Swabbl, qui exploite les contacts des membres de votre équipe sur les réseaux sociaux,
ou encore les outils de scoring d’intérêt, comme GetQuanty, qui analyse le comportement de vos visiteurs web pour les transformer en leads qualifiés.

Il faut y ajouter les réseaux sociaux et leurs extensions dédiées à la prospection, comme LinkedIn Sales Navigator et enfin, les solutions digitales de Business Intelligence, parmi lesquelles Sparklane.

L’attention des éditeurs de ces solutions se focalise depuis quelques années sur le Marketing automation, et le suivi des interactions en ligne avec vos prospects.

La tendance actuelle est donc de migrer d’une logique originelle fondée sur la « gestion des contacts » vers une orientation « génération et qualification des leads », qui représente un enjeu majeur pour vous aujourd’hui.

6. Placez vos clients au cœur de votre réussite commerciale

Enfin, dernier levier essentiel à la solidité et à la résilience de votre système commercial : faire en sorte que vos clients deviennent vos premiers ambassadeurs !

Dans ce domaine, une question doit constamment guider vos choix stratégiques et animer vos collaborateurs : « Est-ce que l’expérience que le client est en train de vivre avec notre entreprise va l’amener à nous recommander ? ».

Inspirez-vous d’entreprises passées maîtres dans l’art de rendre leur solutions « virales », comme Trello, Uber ou Sellsy. Elles travaillent systématiquement sur la question des usages de leur solution en partant des attentes de leurs cibles et mettent tout en œuvre pour satisfaire leurs clients, et inciter ces derniers à les recommander à leur propre réseau.

Grâce à « l’effet recommandation » ainsi généré, elles facilitent considérablement le travail de leurs commerciaux : la barrière de la « confiance » et de la « légitimité » étant déjà franchie auprès de leurs prospects, ils peuvent se concentrer sur l’étape de la transformation et du closing, s’économisant au passage les parties « génération et qualification des leads » et « démonstration de l’intérêt de la solution » !Un gain de temps et d’effort commercial considérable, qui représente aussi une économie financière (on en revient à notre 3 ^ème levier… ! 🙂 ).

L’activation pleine et entière des 6 leviers que nous venons d’évoquer vous permet de rester à l’initiative et de limiter l’impact des facteurs externes sur vos résultats. Elle appelle une animation continue de la part d’un dirigeant doté d’une vision globale et prenant la pleine responsabilité de ses succès comme de ses échecs. Autrement dit, vous aurez recours à un 7^èmelevier qui sera votre « baguette magique » : le leadership commercial !

Pour aller plus loin, découvrez dans notre webinar, animé par Dominique Seguin pour apprendre à Négocier zen, les clés d’une démarche raisonnée.

Designed to fit seamlessly into your day-to-day business life and support you in your development

Beyond the "recommendation" effect, developing and animating a customer community has many advantages, including being a real lever for innovation, and a highly effective substitute for customer service. Certain sectors, such as fashion and retail, have made no mistake about it.

And what if software publishers decided to take inspiration from it to boost their business?

Here's everything your customer community could do for you.

1. Make people want to choose your solution

From TripAdvisor to Trust Pilot, today it's hard to choose a product or make a purchase without first sifting through comparisons and customer reviews! The software world is no exception, with platforms such as appvizerto name but one.

The difficulty is that you have no control over what happens on these platforms...

Creating and animating your own customer community means offering your best supporters a place where they can express themselves and say all the good things they think about you.

And that's not bad. Judging by the results of a clothing brand like ASOS, for example, which observed a 45% increase in spontaneous mentions of its brand among ASOS Insiders...

2. Ensure the success of your next modules

Another good thing about customer communities is that they can be a veritable goldmine of inspiration and good ideas to fuel internal innovation and guide R&D investment.

Toy brand LEGO, for example, has developed a strategy via social networks and its LEGO Ideas platform to identify its future bestsellers. New models are chosen through a consultative and collaborative process, including the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine"!

Others, like Décathlon, go even further in co-designing their products with their community of customers, establishing direct collaboration between development teams and users, who sometimes propose very specific ideas for solving a technical problem or an unsatisfactory use case.

This is a field in which software publishers are generally quite at ease, as developers are often very committed to working alongside users to resolve any bugs or limitations they encounter, and to taking note of requests for improvements.

3. Test and improve your new applications

In the same vein, Société Générale has chosen to rely on its customers to create "the LAB", a community of beta-testers to optimize the operation of its mobile application.

As soon as the bank wishes to integrate a new feature into the app, the developers first put it online on the LAB. Users can then try it out for the first time and give their feedback.

They can also give their opinion on design, color, etc. The aim is to develop the solution that comes closest to the needs and expectations of its customers.

4. Nurture interest in your solution

As already mentioned, customer communities are also formidable vectors of visibility, notoriety, legitimacy and influence!

By mobilizing their customers around the design of their products, LEGO and Décathlon not only ensure that these products "meet their public" when they are released, but also create a real teasing effect for the future product, generating a strong sense of expectation around it!

Without going that far, sometimes rewarding your best customers for their loyalty or diligent use of your solution is enough to create a buzz around your brand: this is whatthe start-up Tilkee did perfectly when it sent its "Black Card" to its 100 best customers., well relayed on social networks.

5. Supporting your users

Finally, customer communities are a real asset when it comes to customer care. User forums can be more responsive than support teams, and your regular users can be the best Happiness Managers!

The most active self-help communities can come from unexpected quarters: every day, for example, over a hundred questions are answered on average four times by enthusiasts on the fishing tackle online sales site pecheurs.com!

The SNCF and BlaBlaCar community self-help chats are led by experienced users, with a proven positive impact on the transformation rates observed on their sites!

One of our customers, a manufacturer of photovoltaic panels, saw its customer community on what's app become its best support and meet with immediate success with the craftsmen who install its products : the speed and relevance of the answers provided was unrivalled when it came to solving its customers' technical difficulties. This enabled the company to quickly identify areas for improvement.

These are all approaches that can be widely applied in the software publishing sector, helping you to grow your business.

In any case, the success of a customer community depends on a few good practices and key steps:

Define an objective for your community: what should it contribute (to my company and its members)?
Define a target (What type of customer? How to identify them? Recruit them? Build loyalty?)
Choose the channel: social networks, specialized platforms...? (Which channel will be the most relevant for animating this community? Make sure that its members "live" it autonomously).
Define transparent rules (for leadership, participation/contribution)
Reward and value the most active customers (points/benefits systems, gift vouchers, highlighting, rewards, etc.).
Set up an effective internal organization to lead the community and use the feedback generated (product/service improvement, customer relations).

The examples cited in this article were largely inspired by these sources:

https://www.pellerin-formation.com/7-marques-qui-ont-su-creer-de-nouveaux-services-produits-en-impliquant-leur-communaute/

https://potion.social/fr/blog/communaute-de-clients-4-exemples-concrets/

Here are a few examples (and a comparison) of platforms dedicated to animating online communities:

https://www.feverbee.com/communityplatforms/

To go further and learn more about targeting and building a customer file, you can also watch our webinar:

¹ But these are not the only commercial merits of customer loyalty for software publishers: not only does the duration of the subscription determine the level of profitability of the service, but its effect can be literally multiplied, by relying on two proven commercial weapons: Up Selling and Cross Selling.

Sales reps: the new champions of customer loyalty

First, let's take a quick look at how the role of the salesperson has evolved since the advent of the SaaS model. As we've seen in previous articles, the role of the salesperson has evolved considerably in recent years:

Marketing and customer service (via sponsorship operations) now provide them with the bulk of leads, and even take charge of nurturing them to maturity.
But above all, their role no longer stops at the solution sales stage, and now extends far beyond!

Following on from the traditional "sales funnel", we could now add a second, inverted funnel: that of amplifying, at the customer's premises, the sales generated by subscription sales, by activating a decisive lever: development within the account itself.

In other words, salespeople have become the new champions of customer loyalty!

Or, to be more precise, the successful commercial exploitation of the solution's long-term implementation on the customer's premises, largely carried out by the Customer Success Managers with the support of the Support team. And to do this, they have two main weapons at their disposal: Cross Selling and Up Selling.

Cross Selling and Up Selling: 2 sides of the gold medal

Whatever the sector, the business model of today's software publishers is very often based on the following pricing model:

Monthly subscription cost (per user) x Number of solution users

For a publisher, there are two ways to improve sales with a customer:

1. An "Add-Ons" logic: adding new functionalities outside the initial scope

This is known as CROSS SELLING.

For example, in addition to the "standard" ticketing administration functionalities (reservations, multi-price management, ticket editing, etc.), a ticketing software publisher can offer optional modules covering additional functionalities, such as Marketing (sending SMS or emails to customers, for example) or CRM (managing and tracking customer data).

This enables it to extend the number of potential users of its solution at its customer's premises, in this case from the reception/ticketing team to the sales, marketing and even administrative teams.

2. Up Grade" logic : adding options or superior functionalities within the same scope.

This is known asUP SELLING.

In the context of a ticketing management solution, for example, the editor will offer pre-sales management via a network of external distributors, multi-channel sales management or dematerialized ticketing on cell phones... In the context of an email marketing platform, this could involve specific functionalities (automated scenario) or simply managing a larger mailing base (greater number of contacts).

This enables the publisher to increase the subscription price, and thus generate higher sales for a constant number of users.

In the first case, this means extending the scope covered by the solution.

In the latter case, the aim is to offer more advanced services (to increase the depth of the offering, so to speak) within the current scope. In both cases, this means being able to offer modules or functionalities that complement those already in place.

The challenge is to identify the strategic features that will win over customers and open the door to new markets.

And there's a strategic point to bear in mind: it's up to you to assess your ability to "step outside" your core business and respond correctly to customer requirements for less-mastered functionalities! This requires you to define and implement a suitable strategy: internalizing skills or partnering with an expert player/publisher, for example.

If this aspect is well managed, the impact of this customer capitalization on your^MRR2 and the resulting competitive advantage can prove decisive. More than ever, customer loyalty has become a business function in its own right!

1 : Read our article on this subject:

Defining the right business model: a major challenge for software publishers!

2: For "Monthly Reccurring Revenue".

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:

Now mature, lead generation and digital selling tools (websites, social networks, sales automation...) have proven their effectiveness, but have also begun to show their limits, as evidenced by the " Content Shock " debate that is stirring up the Web Marketing sphere.

Now that these sales methods have become the norm, only those who have mastered the art of using them stand a chance of succeeding.

And if that thought makes you - and many others - break out in a cold sweat, here are a few tips on how to come out of the online lead generation arena alive.

1. Review your weapons

As we've already mentioned, Marketing is now involved in most stages of thesales funnel (read our article on thesales organization of software publishers).

In other words, you'd better make sure you have a killer marketing strategy, if you want your prospects to choose YOUR SaaS software solution over your neighbor's (and on the web, ALL your competitors are your neighbors!).

The first step in your preparation as a " lead generation gladiator" is therefore to review the weapons you already possess, to get an idea of your chances of survival and to "upgrade" them:

What tools and channels do you already use: website, social networks, email campaigns...?
How are they used: how often? with what content?
What volume of visitors or subscribers do they generate?
With what impact, in terms of sales?

The more you know about your weaknesses, the more likely you are to correct them.

2. Refine your positioning and know your target

Once this initial diagnosis of your Web marketing tools has been carried out, it's essential to start with your competitors and your targets in order to use them as effectively as possible: to use your weapons wisely, there's nothing like knowing who you're dealing with...

What are the characteristics of your online market, its opportunities and risks?
Who are your main competitors, and what are their web marketing and sales strategies?
Which customers do you want to attract and convince as a priority, via your lead generation tools?

This last point should be seen in relation to your "Gold, Silver and Bronze" targets, defined when building yoursales model. And because you're dealing with Marketing logic and approach here, you're going to convert these generic targets (type of company, sales volume...) into "Buyer Personae", endowed with human and personalized traits. ¹

3. Develop a warrior strategy

Once you know which Buyer Personae you're addressing, everything becomes clearer: how you're going to talk to them, via which channels, and above all: to tell them what!

Address their concerns, show them what problems you're going to solve for them and what it's going to do for them - in short, let them know what they're going to gain from YOUR solution. In this way, you'll first create trust, then the desire to work with you.

Sound a little too simple? You're right.

There's no point in "talking into your prospects' ears" if they never leave you their number to call them back!

An effective Web marketing strategy is based on a very precise scenario, which enables you first toATTRACT visitors related to your target, then to CONVERT them into identified and qualified prospects - i.e. those whose contact details you have and whose interest in your services you have nurtured - and finally, to SELL them your solution!

For your scenarios to produce results, you must first have a clear vision of these points:

Where will you direct the flow of your visitors (your site's "contact" page, "demo request" landing page, etc.)?
How do your visitors move from one channel (web or not) to another?
How do you identify their level of interest in your solution?

This is what will enable you to define the content strategy that meets your objectives: in other words, to plan the production and distribution of your " lead magnets " (attractive content encouraging visitors to leave their contact details) and the accompanying " call-to-actions ": download a data sheet or white paper, carry out an online diagnosis, request a demo...

4. Don't leave the outcome to chance

Deploying an Inbound Marketing strategy strategy requires working in agile mode (we'll come back to this shortly), but it can't be managed "by instinct" - quite the contrary!

To be effective, lead generation using Web marketing tools must be guided by precise objectives and based on careful monitoring of pre-defined indicators.

In line with your sales funnel, define quantified objectives and the corresponding KPIs.

For example (in simplified mode):

QUANTIFIED TARGET OF:

Generated traffic

Volume of visitors identified

Number of leads sent to sales reps

Sales generated

KPI:

Number of unique visitors to the site

Number of contacts generated via contact field

Number of qualified leads obtained

Cumulative sales from referred leads

It is essential to monitor these figures using dedicated management tools (SEO tools, dashboards...).

And to do this, to "score your leads": each time a stage is reached in the qualification of a contact (identification, obtaining a telephone number...), a new "score" is assigned to it, which brings it closer to the transmission of the lead to the sales team.

Scoring is also based on "rich information" relating to the profile and behavior of your visitors (function, centers of interest, degree of autonomy in the purchasing decision...) that you will have obtained via online interactions and recorded, in a CRM tool for example.

5. Learn from your defeats and savour your victories

There's no denying it: deploying a lead generation strategy from start to finish, from definition to implementation, is a long and sometimes tricky process. This is particularly true when it comes to automating processes and interfacing the various tools used (CRM, marketing automation solutions, SEO tools, etc.).

That's why you need to start small, allow yourself to implement actions progressively, and roll out your scenarios iteratively.

You can start by testing "short" loops with a limited amount of content: 1 lead magnet, 2 articles and 1 infographic (or video) to feed your first mail series, for example. This allows you to "get the hang of" content production and distribution tools, test processes in agile mode and generate your first identified leads.

The first victories fuel motivation and always bring their share of instructive mistakes.

Depending on your resources - and provided you haven't overlooked the need to evaluate your tools, define your personas and formalize your objectives - it may be more effective to start simply and build up gradually, rather than setting up a gas factory or starting immediately with expensive tools that will have to be amortized.

The Gladiator who wins the fight isn't always the one who had the best weapons at the start: more often than not, it's the one who knows his opponent well and uses his own weapons to best effect once in the arena!

1. In marketing, a persona is an imaginary character representing a target group or segment. It usually has a first name and social and psychological characteristics. For example: Sabrina, 40, 2 children, urban, senior executive, closely follows fashion, takes the metro, goes trail running...etc. Personae are used, among other things, to develop website content and optimize customer customer customerThey were also originally used to design the product and service offering itself.

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:

That's why sales people devote a lot of time and energy to them, with success rates that are unfortunately often very low.

So, what are the secrets behind the success of publishers who win tenders?

1. They maintain a privileged relationship with their key accounts

The first key to success in responding to invitations to tender is to initiate and maintain a quality relationship with your key account prospects.

If you've been working - as we hope you have! - on your business modelyou know who your gold, silver and bronze customers are. And you've thought about allocating your sales resources (work time and account assignments) according to this ranking, i.e. giving priority to your gold, then silver, and finally bronze targets. From then on, your sales people began to identify the key contacts within these accounts and to establish lasting relationships with them.

The aim is to create and establish trust, so as to gather valuable information about the company's internal organization and current strategic issues.

Marketing can effectively support them in this task, by producing "made-to-measure" content to nurture a personalized relationship that logically "adds value" with their interlocutors (articles or infographics corresponding to their centers of interest, for example).

It's also a good way to keep on top of their minds and make sure you're "on their radar" when they choose which companies to consult for a new project!

2. They know the bidding "playing field" inside out

It's this long-term relationship of trust that enables sales reps to work on another decisive point in improving their conversion rate with key account customers: account "mapping". This is one of the key elements of the Méthode de ¹, and an essential point if you want to control your sales process and stop making your sales results depend mainly on "luck" or uncontrolled external factors, as Caroline Jurado, CEO and founder of start-up Linkky, points out in her testimonial about our collaboration.

Internal organization, influencers and decision-makers within the account, apparent and invisible relationships, specific or collective internal issues, priority objectives, sector constraints and market context...

All these elements of detailed knowledge of a prospect enable us to identify his or her expectations (whether conscious or not...) and target the offers that best correspond to them.

And also, as we'll see later, to build the discourse to which he'll be most sensitive.

A step not to be neglected, with one point to bear in mind: the mapping of an account is never "fixed". Not only does it evolve over time in line with internal movements, but it also differs for each deal. The sales manager may have been your best in-house promoter when it came to implementing a CRM solution, but may turn out to be a fierce opponent when it comes to implementing new marketing tools, if the latter challenge his team's working habits, for example!

3. They make sure they're always one step ahead

Another decisive factor in any key account sale, but even more so when it's part of a call for tenders: having privileged, priority access to information!

The legal framework for calls for tender is highly regulated, and once the consultation has been launched, many constraints are imposed on sales staff: a single contact person, a duty of confidentiality regarding other companies consulted and their position, a ban on direct contact with decision-makers, extreme formalism in the call for proposals and responses...

In fact, the only effective way to influence the outcome of an invitation to tender by refining the relevance of your commercial response is upstream of its official publication!

Bear in mind that if you discover the invitation to tender on the day you receive it in your mailbox, you're already at a serious disadvantage, as you have very few commercial levers on which to act, and not the most pleasing ones (price...).

Those who have understood this devote a great deal of attention and energy to points 1 and 2 above, not least for this reason. If there's a relationship of trust and regular exchanges, chances are you'll hear about a consultation while it's still in the project stage... And it's then - and only then! - that you'll be able to obtain key information from the various internal contacts most familiar with the matter.

4. They know how to make a difference...

If you have integrated the first 3 points into your sales methods and sales organization, then you have the tools you need to differentiate yourself from your competitors: you have an idea of the budget envisaged, the internal organizational constraints impacting the project, the key contacts and their expectations, the arguments of internal "opponents" to the project...

From then on, you'll be able to "play your cards right" and determine the right offers and services to highlight, the type of support to offer the customer, your price positioning, and more generally, your sales tactics for this business.

Last but not least:

you'll be able to put together a speech that will hit the bull's-eye with your contacts.

The presentation of an offer in line with the customer's expectations has certainly enabled you to get past the pre-selection stage. That's a good thing. But it's no use if you're not the best at the oral presentation!

It's during this final stage, the one that determines the final outcome of the consultation, that the sales approach patiently put in place from the outset takes on its full meaning and bears fruit: the detailed knowledge of the account and its key contacts that your sales people have acquired over the preceding months will enable you to develop an original discourse around your solutions andfocus the spotlight on the points that will resonate most with your contacts.

Armed with your knowledge of their personal issues, you can even allow yourself the luxury of making your interlocutors "allies" during your presentation, by inviting them to express themselves, give their opinions and "co-construct" the choice of solution with you during your presentation.

What better way to make them want to work with you than to involve them in the choice of options and get them to plan the next stage of the project with you?

In any case, it's an approach that has enabled many of our customers to considerably improve their transformation rates and the amount of business they win!

Time is a precious resource. Are your salespeople short of it? In this webinar, Kestio explains how to save them 50% of their time:

Now it's time to put your strategy into action, and translate it into effective field practices to achieve your goals.

Not sure where to start? KESTIO guides you through the 5 key questions you need to ask yourself at this stage.

1. What's your marketing/sales mix?

The division of roles between marketing and sales is an issue that needs to be dealt with carefully and at an early stage: with the development of SaaS offerings and the increasing digitalization of sales methods (Inbound Marketing, Social Selling, Sales Automation...), the proportion of resources allocated to marketing is currently increasing (the 1:2 ratio between marketing and sales is being reversed).

It's absolutely essential that you have a clear vision of the stages in your sales funnel, and that you differentiate between those that are the responsibility of marketing and those that are the responsibility of your sales people.

2. Should you give preference to sedentary or field salespeople?

This is an essential part of your sales organization, and depends above all on the nature of your offer and its distribution method.

If you sell perpetual licenses with maintenance subscriptions, you'll most likely opt for a network of partners capable of managing installation and follow-up. And in this case, you'll mostly need field sales staff to go out and meet them.

And in many cases, you'll have to manage the cohabitation of these 2 models and determine all the more precisely the criteria for account allocation and the resulting allocation of sales forces between your field and office-based sales representatives.

3. What skills do your salespeople need to master?

It's also worth asking yourself what skills your salespeople will need to master. In direct relation to the first two points above, but also according to your customers' profiles, you'll be able to determine the sales methods, techniques and tools you'll need to implement.

According to the latest EY-Syntech study, the two main customers for software publishers in France today are the banking sector and industry. If this is your case, your sales people need to be well versed in "key account" sales methods, such as the "Méthode de l'Echiquier", and in complex sales.

The public sector comes^3rd in this ranking. If this is one of your priority targets, your sales force will need to focus all its efforts on mastering the tendering process and the sales techniques that go with it.

In a predominantly digital sales model, the role of salespeople is very different: as qualified contacts are identified and "nurtured" upstream by marketing, the role of Inside Sales is essentially to refine the qualification of needs, guide the customer in the choice of options, create ambassadors for the solution at the customer's premises, and map out decision-making powers.

Customer loyalty is also becoming increasingly important. We are therefore also seeing the emergence of new sales functions, such as Customer Success Managers (CSMs), dedicated to ensuring the quality of the Customer Experience.

In any case, a consultative sales approach - logically demonstrating the ROI of your solutions - is an interesting way of demonstrating your added value in your sector.

These are all factors to bear in mind when implementing an HR plan (recruitment, training, etc.) in line with your sales strategy.

4. Will you be developing your international sales?

Another decisive factor in theorganization of your sales force is the proportion of sales generated internationally, and whether or not international customers are strategic for your company.

While French software publishers still generate the vast majority of their sales in ^France2, the proportion of total sales generated outside France continues to grow, driven in particular by SMEs and start-ups that have been resolutely international from the outset, such as Criteo and Allegorithmic.

Once you've identified your strategic geographical areas, you'll be able to determine whether your dedicated sales force will operate from France or directly on site, and consider all the issues involved: whether or not you need to set up a physical office in another country, the country's social and commercial legislation, whether you should opt for an English-language "master version" of your solutions rather than a French-language one...

And from the point of view of your sales organization in the strict sense of the term: adapting your promise and sales pitches to different languages and local cultures,standardizing sales processes, sharing information between any subsidiaries, deploying an international CRM, setting up cross-border management and control...

5. What will your performance indicators be?

The last crucial point for your sales organization is its management, and therefore the monitoring and analysis of results. The choice of key performance indicators and their analysis depend on :

- Efficient management of your sales activity
- Calculating your sales force's remuneration (a sensitive subject if ever there was one!)
- The type of sales management adopted

And therefore, more globally: the achievement of the objectives you've set for yourself! The current evolution in sales methods is reflected in the choice of KPIs used in reporting.

Today, the 5 main indicators tracked by software publishers are :

1. Breakdown of sales by type : licenses, SaaS subscriptions or support/maintenance (on average today, almost 1/3 each!).
2. Booking new orders
3. Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) evolution
4. Sales by country
5. Churn rate (rate of non-renewal of contracts)

Two of these (MRR and churn rate) are directly correlated with the development of SaaS. In this new model, in fact, reducing and maintaining churn between 0 and 1% becomes an objective to be achieved to ensure the profitability of the system as a whole.

When you consider that customer acquisition costs are 5 to 25 times higher (depending on the sector) than the cost of customer loyalty...this is a good reason to pay particular attention to customer loyalty and the sales levers that support it!

Nevertheless, booking remains essential, as evidenced by the fact that 34% of software publishers choose this criterion as the basis for calculating variable remuneration for sales staff (compared with 26% for sales generated).

Scanning all these 5 key questions will enable you to define the best sales organization in line with your objectives and the strategy defined upstream. And to have a clear vision of how you're going to manage it and ensure its effectiveness over time!

Identifying the different stages leading up to a sale, and defining the best internal organization to achieve it, raises many questions. And it's all the more difficult for software publishers, whose business model is currently undergoing unprecedented change.

From "On Premise" to "Saas": after the technological leap, make the commercial leap

Defining a company's business model is a bit like designing a car's engine: if you neglect this step, you can give it all the fuel in the world later on, but it's not likely to make any headway or win any races!

In other words, to place your solution at the top of the "EY-Syntech Top 250" and before recruiting an armada of sales people ready to do battle, make sure you know exactly what they'll have to do, and in what order!

This is no mean feat in the specific context of software publishers...

While the advent of the Cloud was primarily a technological challenge with a strong business impact (developing or migrating solutions to SaaS mode), this was far from its only impact.

The gradual shift from the "On Premise" model (based on the sale of a license, often accompanied by a subscription to a maintenance service) to the "Saas" model (based on monthly subscriptions) has profoundly changed the economics of companies in this sector.

The impact on their cash flow has been enormous: where previously they could count on substantial cash inflows at the time of sale, and then count on a long-term "annuity" thanks to maintenance and updates, they now have to wait 3 to 4 years for a SaaS solution sold on a subscription basis to generate sales equivalent to those of its "On Premise" version!

The time it takes to bring a solution to market and make it profitable is not at all the same as it used to be! Especially as the R&D costs of this transition must also be covered.

A new business model has thus been established. But publishers have not always taken the full measure of the changes this will entail in terms of sales... And here too, the change of direction represents a real challenge.

What is the best sales organization for a software publisher today?

Of course, not all vendors are equal when it comes to integrating the cloud into their offerings, or to the maturity of the commercial transition that accompanies it. It's hard to compare the situation of new entrants "born in the cloud", who are betting everything on their technological lead, with that of historic players who have taken the transition in their stride...

What is certain is that, even if on-premise sales still dominate to this day (as a proportion of total sales generated by the sector in France), the trend towards SaaS is strong and irreversible.

And you can't sell a subscription to a SaaS solution in the same way as licensed software: the characteristics (technical, usage...) of the product sold are not the same, and neither are the sales pitches. Pricing structures are totally different. The focus gradually shifts from acquisition to customer loyalty. And online demos are changing the relationship with the buyer.

The digitization of sales methods has gone hand in hand with the digitization of the product offering, and not only in the world of software publishers^.1We have gradually witnessed the emergence of sales models in which (inbound) marketing and sales automation play a key role. Paradoxically, however, software publishers are not necessarily the most advanced on this subject... The famous "shoemaker in a bad shoe" syndrome!

With a few rare exceptions (Cloud pure players), the transition is gradual and the model mixed (both in terms of the solutions sold and the sales methods themselves), even constantly evolving. With all the risks and uncertainties this entails...

Software publishers are therefore faced with the need to rethink their business model on a case-by-case basis. To do so, they need to answer a number of questions, including :

- Which offers should we focus our sales efforts on (Saas, Licenses, Maintenance...)?

Defining priority customer targets, in particular, is a point to which it pays to devote a great deal of attention. Contrary to the intuitive approach you might first take (assigning "Gold" status to those customers who have generated the highest sales to date), a methodical, structured approach aims to cross-reference several criteria (company size, sales generated, projects detected...) to determine the development potential each customer represents for you, and the probability you have of selling your products and services to them in the future. And to rank your targets on the basis of these criteria.

By taking the time to define a "Gold, Silver and Bronze" customer typology, you'll gain enormously in terms of sales prospecting efficiency, improved conversion rate of business pursued, and therefore, ultimately, sales generated... At the same time, this work will form the basis for a clear and coherent distribution of the prospect and customer portfolio between your different sales representatives.

This in-depth process needs to be structured and methodical, to ensure that the right choices are made. Ideally, you should also be able to test these choices and go back and forth between the field and decision-making.

C’est ce que la solution KESTIO Live vous propose : une approche complète sur l’ensemble des axes de réflexion, une méthodologie structurée pour éviter les « trous dans la raquette » et un accompagnement dans la durée pour mettre en œuvre la stratégie définie et la faire évoluer au plus près de vos besoins et objectifs.

Once you've done that, setting up an effective sales organization becomes much easier (as you'll discover in our next article). And your car can take the start of the race with the best chances!

To find out more about the concept of social selling and the various communication tools available, watch this webinar: