Kestio

Before you make the most of your vacations, we'd like to help you prepare for your return to school in the best possible way.

 

Discover our 6 essential keys to taking stock of your summer activitiesand prepare for a successful return to work.

 

To round off this last newsletter before the summer break, KESTIO has an exceptional offer in store for you. We're offering you the chance to schedule a session with one of our CODIR members at the start of the new school year. This session will be specially designed to help you prepare for the start of the new year and address the topic of your choice.

 

Take advantage of this unique opportunity to benefit from expert advice and start the next season with confidence.

KEY No. 1: Lay the foundations for your sales strategy

It may seem obvious, but a clear sales strategy for all sales teams is a prerequisite for controlling development and achieving objectives.

 

Many managers still believe that recruiting a "good salesperson" is the solution to achieving sales performance... 

 

Unfortunately, it's not as easy as that, as other components come into play.

Are you sure you've taken them into account when drawing up your back-to-school sales strategy?

 

    • Objectives and monitoring indicators: Set clear objectives for results and define the associated measurement indicators to assess their achievement throughout the year. 📈

 

    • Means and resources: Determine the resources needed to win and retain customers, including sales channels, marketing actions and lead flows. ✅

 

    • Priority targets and effort allocation: Segment your customers and prospects according to their development potential, then allocate sales efforts appropriately to each segment. 🎯

KEY No. 2 - Organize a seminar with impact

After a well-earned vacation, the back-to-school period is the ideal opportunity to bring your teams together and strengthen cohesion within your company. Seminars play an essential role in developing corporate culture and a sense of belonging among employees.

 

Take the time to plan this event and create a memorable experience for all your employees.

KEY No. 3 - Optimize your sales productivity through automation

In a successful sales business, certain time-consuming tasks are essential, but can be optimized throughautomation

    • Be present and generate conversations
      on social networks by using automation tools to optimize prospecting on LinkedIn, detect your targets and save time by sending messages automatically.

 

    • Take advantage of an indispensable prospecting tool
      to obtain contacts and contact details by accessing millions of verified emails and phone numbers of your prospects.

 

    • Use automated scheduling software
      to easily schedule appointments with your prospects and customers, giving a third party access to your available slots.

 

    • Explore a benchmark in prospecting automation
      that lets you send email sequences to prospects, find their contact details, automate contacts and increase your appointments.

 

By discovering these automation tools, you can save precious time and significantly improve your sales productivity.

KEY No. 4 - Optimize your copywriting to generate more leads

68% of online shoppers enjoy reading content published by a company that interests them.

By working on the copywriting of your content, you can maximize the impact of your Inbound Marketing strategy. You'll attract qualified leads and build lasting relationships with your prospects. 

To effectively work on your copywriting and generate quality leads:

    • Know your target audience: Understand their needs and adapt your tone and language accordingly.

 

    • Use catchy headlines: Generate interest with punchy headlines.

 

    • Use CTAs: Guide prospects towards conversion by using clear, engaging CTAs.

 

    • Provide valuable content: Offer relevant information and demonstrate your expertise to build trust.

 

By putting these copywriting principles into practice, you will dramatically improve your ability to generate quality leads and build strong relationships with your prospects.

Key 5: Personalize your message for a relevant customer approach

As a sales professional, you know that it's essential to understand and communicate effectively with your customers. Every customer is unique, and to establish a solid relationship, it's crucial to adapt your discourse to their profile.

 

To be truly customer-focused, adopt a coaching-oriented sales approach. 

Rather than focusing solely on information gathering and product presentation, engage in constructive questioning and project yourself with the customer. Focus on generating interest and creating value.

 

To do this, you can use the DISC model, a behavioral analysis tool that identifies four basic emotional styles. Every customer has a unique combination of these styles, and by understanding their profile, you can tailor your approach to meet their specific needs . This will enable you to establish a better connection with your customers and optimize your business interactions.

35%.

Amazon generates 35% of its sales through additional sales!*

 

Cross-selling and up-selling can therefore represent a real growth lever for your company, even if you're not a web giant!

*Source: The Future of Commerce

Cross and up-selling, what are they?

Cross-selling is a sales technique in which customers are invited to buy products or services that complement those they have already purchased or are in the process of purchasing.

Without even realizing it, you're confronted with these techniques on a daily basis! "And with this?" when you buy your baguette, "En menu maxi best of?" when you order your favorite hamburger...

 

But cross- and up-selling don't just apply to the B-to-C sector.
This sales strategy can be applied in B-to-B, whatever the sector or size of your company.

KEY No. 1 - Gathering information

After several exchanges with your customer, you often think you know him. You may even be able to find out their next vacation destination!
But in reality, your customer rarely shares more strategic information, specific to the running of their business. And it's this kind of information that's needed in a cross- and up-selling strategy.

You need to take advantage of the fact that you're already in contact with your customer to gather as much useful information as possible for your sale.

 

By gathering as much data as possible about your customer, his company and his environment, you'll be able to identify his objectives and the weaknesses that are preventing him from achieving his goal... and you'll be able to demonstrate how your new offer could solve his problems!
This information gathering will help you to create an awareness in your customer's mind: an awareness between what he's doing now and what he could be doing, and therefore an awareness of new needs!

 

To do this, you need to go further than the simple functional need expressed by your customer.
Go to the "Why?" of his action, challenge him!
You'll then be able to question the initial system imagined by your customer in order to propose a more suitable solution, and therefore sell more and bring more value!

For example, for a professional training organization:

A Sales Director who uses Excel files for his customer relationship management won't necessarily be aware that his organization could be optimized. He's happy with the current situation!
It's by asking him about his practices that you can suggest that training in a CRM tool will have a better ROI than simply training in Excel. It's the kind of thing that will raise their awareness!

 

A variety of sales techniques and marketing tools are available to help you gather as much information as possible about your contacts and get them to ask questions about their uses and needs.
Chez Kestiowe train our customers in theart of questioning, in order to raise awareness among their prospects. We also use various data enrichment tools to obtain relevant information during our exchanges.
If you'd like to find out more about these methods and tools, we 'd be delighted to hear from you !

KEY No. 2 - Added value

The second key to encouraging cross-selling and up-selling is to offer the prospect of added value that complements a service available to the customer. In other words, you need to make the ROI clear by showing the prospect of gain.

Setting the scene & example

For example, if you propose a solution that solves a major problem, such as the time wasted by a manager manually dispatching alerts, you can show how your solution can improve productivity, the process and overall results.

 

By giving concrete examples of how your solution can help solve your customer's problems, you can convince them of the importance of your offer. Continuing with our example, you can explain how the solution's settings enable alerts to be dispatched automatically to people according to certain criteria, leading to greater customer satisfaction thanks to faster processing of alerts and a better distribution of work among employees.

 

In short, the key here is to show your customer how your additional solution can add real value to their business, enabling them to accomplish something more, optimize their time and better distribute their work.

We explained how to initiate this process during the webinar on Thursday, March 16 at 2 p.m.. This d webinar focused on the techniques you need to put in place to initiate a cross- and up-selling strategy. Click on the button below to watch the webinar again.

KEY No. 3 - Personalization

Adapt your sales pitch to your customer's profile! It's important to understand that every customer is different and has specific needs. To sell effectively, it' s essential to know your customer's personality profile, so you can present your cross- and up-sell from the right angle.

 

The advantage of cross- and up-selling is that you know your customer better, you've had several meetings with them and you potentially work with them, so you need to exploit this knowledge of the profile and adapt your sales pitch by highlighting the elements that speak most to the person in front of you.

 

For example, if we use the personality styles of the DISC model, which presents 4 main emotions through a composition of colors:

 

  • D - Dominance
  • I - Influence
  • S - Stability
  • C - Compliance

 

For example, the proposal for an automated prospecting service will differ according to profile: for a blue profile, we'll focus on improving the process, for a red profile, we'll insist on better target achievement, while for a green profile, we'll emphasize a better experience for employees.

 

As well as knowing the customer's personality profile, it's important to constantly gather information to understand how they're organized, what they want to achieve, and identify gaps that your solution could fill. Commercially speaking, information is always key!

Ultimately, there are two levels to consider in order to sell effectively:

  • What do you need to do to attract the customer's attention? 
  • Once he's interested, what do we need to sway the decision?

 

Would you like to find out more about the DISC model, so you can adapt your communication to your interlocutor's profile, and better understand how he or she thinks, feels and operates? Click on the button below to view our webinar on the DISC profile.

KEY No. 4: Expert advice

7,2.

On average, it takes more than 7 meetings to make a complex sale, with no fewer than 6 different contacts !

 

But what is a complex sale?

 

A complex sale is characterized by two aspects:

 

  • The complexity of the product or service proposed, requiring a long sales cycle to clearly define the interests of the product or service for the prospect.
  • The complexity of the buying environment: a multiplicity of contacts, both in-house and with the prospect, all with a role to play in the purchasing decision. Complex sales is a real team sport!

 

But how can you assess your ability to win a complex sale?
How can you mobilize your various contacts to ensure the success of your sale?

 

Here are our 3 keys to success. 

*Source: Nomination 2021

KEY No. 1 - Identify the parts

What do a game of chess and a complex sale have in common?
In both cases, there are behavioral rules and tactics for winning the game! Each move represents a cost and must produce the desired evolution.

 

This chess analogy is at the heart of our approach to complex sales, the Chessboard Method.

In the Chessboard Method, we compare the parties involved in a complex sale to the pieces of a chess game. Knight, rook, queen, king... all have their own specificities and their own role to play!

But this account analysis exercise requires a precise methodology and tools.
Our complex sales trainingbased on the Chessboard Method, provides you with the methods you need to successfully approach your prospects.


À l’issue de cette formation, vos commerciaux seront à même de déceler les différentes parties prenantes d’une décision et de gérer les étapes de progression de leurs affaires.

 

Find out more about the Exchequer Method on our dedicated page.

KEY No. 2 - Have allies

Pour gagner une vente complexe, il est crucial d’avoir un ou plusieurs interlocuteurs intéressés par votre service ou produit. Cet allié du côté du client vous permettra d’avoir accès à des données factuelles qui vous aideront à identifier les enjeux et le contexte.

So having allies in your sales is a key factor for success

This requires identifying and understanding the interplay between the players (based on behavioral and relational aspects).

 

At Kestio, we help you define a strategy (the overall plan) and adopt a tactic (adapting to the terrain and the unexpected). To find out more, talk to one of our experts on complex sales.

KEY No. 3 - Balance the balance of power

Deux conseils cruciaux :

  • It's important to have strong self-esteem and assertiveness to strike the right balance in the relationship with the customer, without forcing or aggressing.

 

  • It's essential to have absolute certainty that your product or service brings high added value to your customers.

How do you structure such an approach and bring everyone's efforts together?


Kestio apporte une réponse à travers un webinar faisant l’analogie avec la série « Le jeu de la Dame ». En associant les règles comportementales et les méthodes d’analyse pour prendre les bonnes décisions, vous serez en capacité de surmonter tous les obstacles potentiels lors de vos ventes complexes.

You can discover our dedicated webinar via the link below.

KEY No. 4: Expert advice

Ask a manager if his company's sales strategy is clear to his staff, and he'll say "yes" without hesitation.
Now, ask one of his sales reps if he knows why he has to get his 5 appointments a week, and the answer will be far less clear!

This difference in perception reflects a challenge you are surely facing: getting your teams to adhere to your sales strategy.
Because achieving your objectives depends on your employees implementing your corporate strategy.

So how do you get your teams to understand the benefits of this strategy and get them to apply it in the field?

*Source: Forbes survey

KEY No. 1 - Translate your strategy into action

One of the most common mistakes made when discussing sales strategy with salespeople is to focus solely on the results achieved.
Why do you do this? Because you can no longer act on results! They represent only the visible part of sales activity.

We can, however, act on the various sales actions that lead to these results.
The implementation of a Sales Action Plan will enable you to define 3 essential levers for your sales activity, reflecting your strategy:


By focusing on the sales actions of your teams, you deliver two key elements to your sales force: a sense of your strategy and the concrete means to achieve your objectives.

Because it's one thing to ask your sales people to sell 5,000 copies of your flagship product... It's quite another for your teams to achieve this objective.
By detailing the stages of your sales process and associating concrete sales activities with them, you can help your staff identify their strengths and areas for improvement.


To help your teams optimize their sales efforts, we're sharing our "Go/No go" scoring chart with you.

This tool, which you can add to on a daily basis, helps you to select the opportunities with the greatest potential, thanks to different criteria based on the main stages of a sales process!


Download scoring table

KEY No. 2 - Make the most of your resources

Today's customer expectations have changed dramatically when it comes to sales. Influenced by changes in technology and buying habits, customers are increasingly demanding, with expectations that include :

  • A personalized experience: salespeople must identify unique needs and add value to them.
  • Real-time communication : customers want to be able to communicate with sales staff quickly and efficiently.
  • Transparency : salespeople must be transparent about the products and services they sell, including prices and conditions.
  • In-depth knowledge: salespeople need to have in-depth knowledge of the products and services they sell, including the pros and cons.

With this in mind, it ' s important for salespeople to adapt to these new expectations to maintain their relevance and competitiveness in the marketplace. Make the most of the resources you make available to your sales force, so that they can apply your sales strategy in the field.

Make a list of these resources with two objectives in mind: on the one hand, to make your sales reps aware of them so that they take them on board, and on the other, to boost their motivation by showing them that the company is investing to give them the means to achieve the results they're aiming for.

Some examples of resources :


At Kestio, our digital learning team offers interactive and engaging training modules to meet the personalized expectations of our customers. If you're still not sure, discover a video presenting our approach.

And if you're interested, you can talk to one of our digital learning experts! 


Talk to an expert in
digital learning

KEY No. 3 - Work on your mindset

The mindset of sales teams plays a key role in achieving their objectives. A positive attitude can lead to successful negotiations and satisfied customers.

The manager's role will be to give a positive impetus to his team, by celebrating successes and offering positive perspectives for the future. This can be achieved by asking the team for their victories of the week, sharing new ideas that have worked, empathizing with team members and seeking out the unspoken.

Relate the sales strategy and objectives for the coming months to the victories achieved over the past year, by asking yourself the following questions:

  • 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?




Webinar - What motivational levers to adopt for each
each employee?

KEY No. 4: Expert advice


50% of sales time is spent
on customers with no potential

This figure reflects a real problem of alignment between a company's sales strategy and the actions of its sales people.

 

So how do you build a sales action plan tailored to your strategy AND your teams?

KEY No. 1: Where do we start from?

As an executive, director or manager, you often think you know your business inside out, and don't need to draw up a balance sheet to define your future sales action plan. But this is a mistake!

 

Taking stock of your organization is an essential step in ensuring that your plan is consistent with your company's resources and performance.
We therefore strongly advise you to carry out this introspection phase before defining your plan's targets, actions and sales cycle!

 

If the inimitable " SWOT " method bores you, discover the " SpeedBoat " method!

Using the image of a boat, you identify your organization's objectives, resources, motivations and obstacles:

Our advice: carry out this exercise with your teams to develop your collective intelligence and get your staff on board!

 

But this price of hindsight can prove complex for people inside the company.
The presence of an outside eye helps to frame this retrospective and reveals new elements for analysis!

 

That's why at Kestio we begin our support by carrying out a diagnosis of your sales organization .
In direct collaboration with you, your Kestio expert has provided your practices through various interviews, questionnaires and data analysis.


The result: the identification of your sources of growth and your areas for improvement, and the development of a personalized program to activate these levers!

KEY No. 2: How do we get there?

A "Business Flow" is a tree structure that can be used both collectively and individually, to link and compare the implementation of your actions. In other words, it's the route to your goal!

What's new? 

 

This simple yet powerful tool allows you to define your main objective, which will be divided between the development and retention of active customers and the development of new customers.

For active customers, it will be interesting to focus on :

 

    - Income from current projects

    - New projects

 

For new customers "Business Flow will enable you to make assumptions about the number of leads from the various acquisition channels (to be adapted according to the channels you use):

 

    - Online inbound leads    

    - Prescriber leads

    - Inbound network leads

- Incoming recommendations

- Inbound lead generation campaigns

Why use this tool?

KEY No. 3: expert advice

Et vous, êtes-vous « accro » à vos meilleurs commerciaux ?

De quoi parle-t-on quand on évoque la menace d’une « trop forte dépendance à ses meilleurs commerciaux » ?

Il ne s’agit pas ici d’addiction (malgré ce titre de paragraphe un peu provocateur !) mais bien de la notion de dépendance au sens premier, définie comme « un rapport de liaison étroite entre quelque chose et ce qui le conditionne ». 

En d’autres termes :

Vous pouvez (et devez !) vous considérer comme dépendant de vos meilleurs commerciaux si un faible nombre de membres de votre équipe commerciale représente à lui seul une part vitale de votre chiffre d’affaire.

La question à vous poser est donc : y a-t-il parmi mes commerciaux un ou plusieurs membres dont le départ ou l’invalidité mettrait directement et dangereusement à mal la rentabilité de mon entreprise ?

Si la réponse est oui, vous avez tout intérêt à faire évoluer la situation (et à lire la suite de cet article !) pour rester maître de votre réussite commerciale !

 

Les dangers de la dépendance envers quelques commerciaux

Dans la pratique, il est courant d’observer des écarts de résultat entre les membres d’une équipe commerciale.

Lorsqu’on évalue la performance des commerciaux (uniquement) sur la base du chiffre d’affaire généré, voici le type de répartition que l’on observe le plus souvent :

    •  5 à 10 % de commerciaux « sur-performants », dont les résultats se situent très nettement au-dessus de la moyenne de l’équipe
    •  80 à 90 % de commerciaux « dans la moyenne » des résultats attendus et de ceux réalisés par leurs collègues
    •  5 à 10 % de commerciaux en « sous-performance » par rapport aux autres (à l’instant T ou plus durablement)

La situation commence à s’avérer inquiétante, lorsque la catégorie des « sur-performers » porte à elle seule 30 à 40% de votre chiffre d’affaires.

 

Vous entrez alors en zone de risques :

    •  Risque économique, d’abord : en cas de défaillance de leur part, la pérennité de votre entreprise peut être dangereusement mise à mal.
    •  Risque RH, ensuite : crainte de perdre l’un de ces précieux « piliers », difficulté à retrouver quelqu’un « d’aussi bon » en cas de départ, et sentiment d’inégalité (concurrence, jalousies…) au sein de l’équipe.

 

Alors, comment éviter d’aboutir à ce type de situation, ou en sortir si vous vous y trouvez actuellement ?

 

 

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

 

 

Talents individuels et efficacité collective

 

          1. DÉFINIR « DES POSTES » AU SEIN DE L’ÉQUIPE COMMERCIALE

Vous pensez que tous vos commerciaux ne peuvent pas être des performers, et vous vous êtes résignés à cette idée ?

Et si ce n’était en définitive qu’une question de point de vue ?

C’est vrai, vos commerciaux ne performent pas tous, tout le temps, sur tous les plans et dans tous les contextes, mais en réalité ce sont TOUS de potentiels performers :  dans certains domaines et sous certaines conditions… qu’il faudra découvrir pour permettre à leurs points forts de s’exprimer et de se développer.

Définissez un process commercial bien segmenté dont l’efficacité ne reposera pas sur la maîtrise de l’ensemble des étapes par quelques individus particulièrement talentueux.

Concentrez-vous plutôt sur la maîtrise d’une à deux étapes bien définies par chacun d’entre eux.

Vous pourrez alors les affecter prioritairement – voire exclusivement – aux phases de votre process de vente sur lesquelles ils excellent : nourrir le fichier prospects, générer des leads, qualifier les opportunités, construire les propositions commerciales…

En bref, et pour employer une métaphore footbalistique : pour faire gagner l’équipe, mieux vaut distinguer les défenseurs des attaquants, et éviter de cantonner votre avant-centre dans les cages en lui demandant d’arrêter les buts adverses (il risque d’en souffrir… et le résultat du match, de s’en ressentir) !

 

          2. JOUER COLLECTIF

Cette répartition claire et précise des rôles individuels permet in fine de viser la plus grande efficacité collective.

Le découpage des tâches et l’affectation des rôles en fonction des talents et affinités vous assurent un haut niveau d’efficience à chaque étape et le meilleur résultat global au final, là où auparavant, chaque commercial devait maîtriser l’ensemble de la chaîne et se trouvait fortement pénalisé par les étapes pour lesquelles il avait moins d’aisance.

Pour que cette stratégie porte ses fruits, cependant, l’ensemble doit fonctionner de façon fluide et cohérente, ce qui suppose de travailler sur l’esprit d’équipe !

Diffusez une culture de la réussite collective en favorisant la confiance, le partage de bonnes pratiques, le « mentorat » entre collaborateurs, la solidarité dans l’action, et la communication interne.

Évitez de survaloriser un membre de l’équipe pour ses résultat individuels en oubliant les autres : non seulement cela pourrait nuire à l’équilibre général de l’équipe (en favorisant les jalousies et tensions), mais cela pourrait aussi générer d’autres effets pervers, comme l’amener à se recentrer son sur son intérêt individuel, ou le rendre plus « vulnérable » aux difficultés futures.

Le meilleur d’un jour n’est pas forcément celui du lendemain, et il est préférable de valoriser les réussites, les initiatives positives et les efforts (individuels et collectifs) que les personnes.

 

          3. FAIRE EN SORTE QUE CHACUN SE SENTE UN CHAMPION

L’intérêt d’une telle organisation caractérisée par des rôles individuels clairs au sein d’une tactique de jeu collective efficace, quand elle « fonctionne à plein », c’est de permettre à chacun de se sentir un champion.

Cela suppose d’adopter un nouveau point de vue sur la notion même de « performance » et de changer de perspective sur ce qu’elle recouvre : si l’on considère que le chiffre d’affaire directement généré n’est pas la seule façon de créer de la valeur pour l’entreprise (alimenter un fichier de prospects qualifiés est essentiel à la réussite des étapes suivantes du process de vente, et ce fichier en tant que tel représente un véritable capital pour l’entreprise, par exemple), alors le chiffre de vente n’est plus le seul axe de performance à évaluer. Et ceux qui produisent d’autres formes de valeur que celle-ci peuvent également prendre place au « tableau d’honneur » !

Cela amène en définitive les managers commerciaux à remplacer la survalorisation des « Performers » individuels par la recherche des profils que l’on appelle les « A Players »

Ces derniers sont caractérisés par leur capacité à :

    •      Percevoir les opportunités et les saisir
    •      Accepter de se remettre en question
    •      Faire preuve d’humilité et avoir conscience de l’aspect éphémère des succès
    •      Trouver en eux-mêmes leurs ressources et s’auto-motiver
    •      Transmettre aux autres, partager et « jouer collectif »

 

Bref, là où auparavant vous étiez focalisé sur les chiffres réalisés par vos commerciaux, accordez aujourd’hui une grande partie de votre attention à leur état d’esprit.

Ainsi, la charge globale sera plus équitablement répartie entre tous les membres de l’équipage, et le navire sera beaucoup moins soumis aux aléas individuels !

 

To find out more about the use of specialized tools, discover this webinar on optimizing the return on your commercial assets:

And the results speak for themselves: in the space of just a few months, we've managed to save our sales staff 50% of their working time! Time they can now devote solely to selling, freed at last from less interesting tasks. The benefits for the company are threefold: optimized payroll costs, increased sales and improved sales motivation. Would you also like to optimize your sales force's working time?

 

Here are 3 key steps to help you and your customers save precious time.

 

STEP 1: Define your objectives

First and foremost, it's important to define the objective you want to achieve by optimizing your sales force's working time. This will have a direct impact on the choice of levers to activate: stage of the sales cycle concerned, nature of the tasks to be "lightened", new processing mode adopted for these tasks...

Generally speaking, optimizing salespeople's working hours is one of 3 objectives:

 

"DOING AS MUCH WITH LESS":

For example, you find yourself having to manage a constant workload with fewer sales people, following the unexpected departure of a member of your sales team.

The other members of the team then have to divide up the absent salesperson's customer portfolio among themselves, and the corresponding workload. To prevent them from pushing these new accounts into the background, or neglecting their existing customers for lack of time, it is necessary to relieve them of some of their daily tasks.

 

"DOING MORE WITH LESS:

You want your sales people to be able to devote time to a new strategic priority, alongside their usual activities.

For example, your company is launching a brand new offer on which you are betting heavily. You want your sales people to "pull out all the stops" on this offer, and on the targets it is aimed at. However, their other activities have not disappeared, so they'll have to find a way of freeing up time on their usual schedule...

 

"DO BETTER WITH LESS:

You've identified that you're regularly losing opportunities because your sales people are spread too thin, and you want them to stay as focused as possible on their core business and your customers.

You may have realized, for example, that your sales reps were spending up to 50% of their time on non-sales tasks (searching for data to enrich their contact file, following up on missed appointments, sending follow-up emails, updating the CRM...).

Not only do these tasks take up a lot of their time (time they don't spend selling), but they also cost you a lot of time, even though many of these tasks don't require the skills of a salesperson!

Once you've clarified your main objective, it's time to move on to step two and identify the priority optimization points that will enable you to achieve it. 

 

 

STEP 2: Identify areas for optimization

To identify the most effective ways of optimizing your sales staff's working time , it's essential to take stock of their daily tasks.

There are several possible methods for carrying out this census:

  • Start with a typical salesperson's working day and write down each task performed during the day.
  • Start from the key stages of the sales cycle (lead generation, prospecting, discovery, closing...) and list all the operations linked to them.

Once you've drawn up your list (as exhaustive as possible), you can evaluate the optimization potential of each activity.

This evaluation is based on 4 criteria:

  •   Average task duration (short / medium / long)
  •   Its usual frequency (daily / weekly / monthly)
  •   Estimated complexity (low / medium / high)
  •   The salesperson's "added value" in its realization (low/medium/high)

For example, the task can be assigned an "optimization potential" rating of 1 to 3 for each of these criteria, to obtain an overall score, as in the example below: 

 

potential_to_optimize_commercial_stain

 

The greater the duration and frequency of a task, the greater your interest in optimizing the time spent on it, as this will have a greater impact on your sales force's overall working time.

But don't stop at just these two criteria: the degree of complexity of a task and the added value provided by the sales person in carrying it out should also be taken into account. The higher these two values are, the more difficult the task will be to delegate or automate. As a result, it will be less of a priority in your optimization process.

In our example, three tasks stand out as having strong potential for optimization: prospect file qualification, making an appointment with a prospect following a missed first appointment, and sending follow-up emails after an appointment.

With your priority areas for optimization defined, all that's left to do is "define" how you can reduce the time spent by sales reps on each of these tasks. This is the subject of step 3.

 

STEP 3: Optimize the sales process

Regardless of the areas for optimization identified, there are generally several ways in which you can optimize the time spent by your sales force on these tasks.

They essentially fall into 3 categories:

 

INTERNAL REORGANIZATION :

In this case, it's a matter of distributing certain tasks differently internally - most often following a logic of "specialization" - to aim for maximum efficiency.

A purely administrative task, such as entering salespeople's travel expenses, for example, can be reassigned to the administrative team. Or the entry of customer information in the CRM system can be entrusted to the sales team.

 

OUTSOURCING :

You can also choose tooutsource certain tasks (preferably the most time-consuming and those for which salespeople add the least value).

This is the case for the qualification of contact files, for example. There are many companies specializing in the collection and enrichment of qualified data for prospecting files.

 

AUTOMATION :

Finally, you can also automate certain tasks, or even certain stages in the sales process. Where possible, this is often the most efficient and least costly option, since it requires no human resources once implemented.

Various tools can be used for this purpose, depending on the task to be automated: tools linked to salespeople's diaries to facilitate appointment scheduling, to their mailboxes to set up automated workflows, to their social networking accounts to automate the publication of posts on Linkedin / Facebook or Twitter, for example.

But CRM remains the king in this respect, as it generally combines all these possibilities and options in a single tool, and also enables centralized monitoring of these different actions.

 

 

 

In our case, it was a mix of these three options (depending on the tasks to be optimized) that enabled us to achieve the enviable result of 50% of our sales staff's working time being reallocated to sales!

You can read more about our internal optimization process in the article "Optimizing your sales process: stop paying your sales reps not to sell!" previously published on this blog. You can use it as inspiration to save your sales reps time and optimize your sales efficiency. So, when do you start?

 

Is optimization your watchword? Then find out in this webinar how to maximize your sales force's performance by saving them 50% of their time:

 

 

Faced with this situation, some employers end up resigning themselves and abandoning their recruitment project, or choosing profiles that don't fully meet their expectations. However, there are alternatives to recruiting a new sales representative, and they may even prove more profitable for your company. Here's how.

1. Improve the sales efficiency of your current team

Did you know that the average conversion rate for salespeople in the BtoB sector is around 10%? In other words, 90% of a salesperson's working time is spent on business destined to be lost!

The good news is that it's entirely possible tosignificantly improve this result, as we prove every day in the field.

Aiming for an average success rate of 30% on sales proposals is quite realistic, even in BtoB, and a desirable minimum.

If your sales force is not at this level today, there's no need to recruit new ones to stimulate your growth: you already have plenty of room for improvement with the same human resources (and therefore salary costs)!

We generally manage to significantly improve our customers' success rates by supporting their sales teams in their progress, particularly in 2 areas: the quality of targeting and the quality of the sales actions carried out with their prospects.

The advantage of such an approach is that it not onlyincreases your sales, but also, and above all,optimizes your profitability, which would not necessarily have been possible with new recruitment.

2. Opt for a more segmented sales organization

Here's what we see most often with our customers, in terms of sales organization: the sales person multitasks and takes charge of the entire sales chain, from lead generation to closing, including making appointments, discovering needs, drawing up the sales proposal and follow-up.

This organization has several disadvantages:

  • On the one hand, multi-skilling can lead to a certain amount of "scattering" between the various tasks, and therefore a loss of efficiency.
  • On the other hand, it's rare to find sales profiles who master all these tasks well, so this complicates the search for the ideal candidate.
  • Finally, not all these tasks offer the same level of interest in the eyes of a "seasoned" salesperson, which can encourage talent volatility.

Formalizing and segmenting the sales process by breaking it down into different phases, then distributing these phases among several people according to their skills and aptitudes, often proves much more effective.

This generally results in considerable productivity gains, with each person concentrating on a single type of task, for which they will gradually gain in experience, speed and efficiency.

We generally recommend dividing the sales process into at least four phases (e.g. identifying prospects, making appointments, conducting interviews and drawing up the sales proposal), then assigning each of these phases to a team member, with no more than two phases per person.

In some cases, this type of organization can "spare" you the need for additional recruitment, thanks to the productivity gains achieved. At the very least, it simplifies your recruitment process, by limiting the range of skills required for each position.

 

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

 

3. Use substitute or replacement sales forces

Another alternative to recruiting multi-skilled salaried sales staff is to use an outsourced sales force: a company specialized in telephone prospecting, for example, or a freelance business developer.

The use of external sales forces has several advantages: it costs less than permanent recruitment, can be terminated more easily, and is generally accompanied by a commitment to results.

It also offers greater flexibility: external sales representatives can be employed on a permanent or ad hoc basis, on a part-time basis, as back-up during busy periods, or dedicated to a particular target...

Compared with a permanent contract, this represents financial savings and controlled risk-taking.

Another advantage of this formula is that outsourced tasks are generally the least complex (contact file generation, telephone prospecting, etc.), allowing the permanent sales team to concentrate on "higher added value" tasks.

Be careful, however: to be effective, the use of an outsourced sales force must :

  • Focus on a clearly defined perimeter and follow an established, internally controlled process
  • Regular monitoring of key performance indicators via CRM or ad hoc dashboards
  • Use sales tools designed and validated in-house: salesbook, standard emails, references and sales pitch by target, etc.).

It requires a well-documented sales cycle, but also a certain agility to ensure a smooth handover between external and internal sales teams.

For one of our customers, this strategy enabled us to optimize the management of a highly seasonal business, by reducing the number of permanent hires initially envisaged from 5 to 2, to achieve a higher target!

4. Retain your existing sales force!

The three alternative solutions we have just presented are designed to meet the needs of business development, which motivates a large proportion of sales recruitment projects. However, another part of these recruitment projects is linked to the sometimes high turnover observed in these positions.

With companies' demand for experienced sales profiles far outstripping supply, market conditions are conducive to talent volatility: 38% of salespeople have received job offers without having actively sought them out, according to a Stepstone study on sales employment.3

To build loyalty among your sales staff in general, and the best among them in particular, it's essential to promote the sales function as such.

Remuneration is obviously an important lever, but here too, competition is fierce: sales salaries are 57% higher than the average salary in France, according to a study by Uptoo4...

If you want to stand out from the crowd, make sure that your sales staff have an interesting and stimulating day-to-day working environment: a high-quality working environment and conditions, high-performance tools, a clear and relevant sales action plan, a management style that encourages personal progress, opportunities for internal development, and recognition for initiative and success... These are all elements that count in the eyes of your staff and encourage their long-term commitment!

By working on some or all of these 4 areas, you can considerably reduce the number of sales recruits your company needs, while effectively meeting your growth and sales development objectives.

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:

1: According to ManPowerGroup's 2018 Talent Shortage Survey: http: //www.manpowergroup.fr/penurie-talents-recrutement-2018/

2 : Source ParisJob : https://www.parisjob.com/actualites/commercial-chiffres-paris.htmls://www.parisjob.com/actualites/commercial-chiffres-paris.html

3: Quoted by France Info: https: //www.francetvinfo.fr/replay-radio/c-est-mon-boulot/la-grande-penurie-de-commerciaux_1766077.html

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 :

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 :

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!