Archives des Stratégie

Last week, Kestio talked to you on the Koban blog about the importance of an optimised sales model to increase the efficiency and ROI of your sales actions.

But once this model has been well defined, it still needs to be translated into an appropriate tool in order to monitor the process on a daily basis. And this part may seem rather abstract to people who are not used to working with a CRM.

As you will have understood, this week we are going to talk about CRM and more specifically, how to translate your previously defined business model into a tool such as Koban.

1. A CRM tool for a segmented and usable database

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

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

A good CRM allows you to centralise your entire database on a single platform and segment it with "statuses" . The most common statuses are "customers", "prospects", "competitors" etc... The particularity of Koban, for example, is that you can customise your statuses according to your environment and your strategy, which makes your database clearer for you and your employees.

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

TAGS: on each record, it is possible to add tags to segment your database more precisely. Tags are like labels that you place "on the head" of your customers / prospects. For example, you can create a "sector of activity" or "potential" tag category. In this way, you will be able to identify all the customers whose tag is equal to "Gold" or "Bronze". This is very useful for launching highly targeted and personalisedsales and/or marketing actions.

2. A CRM tool to organise your business

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

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

Any self-respecting CRM allows you to create customisable action types according to your strategy. You can create as many as you want: task, phone call, email, physical meeting, phone meeting, video conference, demo, customer visit...

The little extra at Koban: you assign a colour to each type of action. This way, once in your agenda, you have a very visual rendering that gives you an idea of what your day will be like! Of course, you have access to the agenda of your colleagues if you need to make an appointment for them or assign them an action.

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

We all agree on one thing, the goal is to save your salespeople as much time as possible so that they can focus on the most profitable customer segments. To do this, CRM and marketing have their role to play.

Are you interested in automation?

SALES AUTOMATION

You have defined segments with high potential and others with lower stakes that you can easily identify thanks to your centralised and segmented database.

The aim is to let the sales people deal with the most interesting segments and leave the others to .... automation (or to marketing more precisely).

To do this, your CRM will allow you to set up automated scenarios (generally composed of a series of predefined emails) which aim to arouse the interest of your interlocutor, to maintain contact without pestering, and to engage in conversion.

This frees up a lot of time for sales people and above all avoids cold calls which are very often a waste of time (and therefore money). Not only do the responses arrive directly to the sales person concerned, but the results of your "prospecting" e-mails go directly to the prospect's file (when he read the e-mail, whether he clicked, etc.). So, if the user has shown enough interest, the marketing team can easily or automatically pass the lead on to a sales person, who will have the full history.

THE AUTOMATISMS OF EVERYDAY LIFE

In addition to the automated scenarios, you can set up numerous automatic processes that save time and, above all, ensure that you don't forget to follow up on calls or appointments. Yes, a salesperson's brain is very full and it can happen to forget...

To give you an example, you can put an automatic action in the salesperson's diary at the end of each meeting, such as: "send product sheet". Or you can plan recurring visits to your "Gold" customers every 4 months. The slot will be blocked in the agenda, which reduces the risk of forgetting or constantly postponing!

LEAD SCORING

Well, now we're going to move on to some more advanced features, but they're worth it! To explain very briefly, you can track your website (record visits to your site) and assign points to each page of your site.

Thus, an Internet user will visit your pages and acquire points as they browse. The objective? To judge his interest and to know if he is "mature" enough to be passed on directly to the sales force.

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

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

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

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

KESTIO and KOBANKESTIO and KOBAN are a natural fit: KESTIO supports SMEs in their business development via an online business coaching platform for executives, managers and salespeople; KOBAN helps them to effectively deploy their business strategy and actions by generating maximum ROI, via a high-performance CRM solution.

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

What if these hours were simply not used properly (at least in part)?

One of the causes to be considered is the lack of structuring of the sales chain, which can cause a loss of efficiency and sometimes significant hidden costs. We know something about this at Kestio, as we have been confronted with this problem internally, before adjusting our sales process.

This is how, and with what results.

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

This means looking for the best cost/result ratio at each stage of your sales process, to achieve an optimal return!

There are at least two reasons to do so:

The current economic context encourages optimising the return on investment of each action implemented: tense market, no "natural" growth and therefore a greater commercial effort to be made, tendency to lower sales prices and increase distribution costs... The companies that do best are those that manage to preserve their margins, and optimising marketing costs contributes directly to this!

Many companies have not yet really organised their sales function. Studies show that on average at least 40% of the time spent by sales staff is spent "doing administrative work". ¹. In other words, 40% of your sales payroll is not focused on what creates the most value, namely exchanges with prospects and customers! When you know that a salesperson is (sometimes very) expensive and that he or she is difficult to recruit and retain, it is essential that he or she focus on his or her core business...

2. A (real-life) example of business process optimisation

Here is an example from our own experience at KESTIO, to illustrate how a seemingly trivial activity can quickly become very costly if this approach is not taken to reduce its impact.

THE STARTING CONTEXT :

For some time now, Kestio has been operating with 3 sedentary salespeople in charge of handling the first appointments (qualification of needs) with our prospects.
Of their total telephone appointments, there is a rate of 'no appointments' by them of about 20% (which is a good rate, compared to averages elsewhere).
With 10 appointments scheduled per day per salesperson, this results in a potential of 30 customers per week (2 per day x 3 salespeople x 5 days per week) to be contacted again, just to set up a new appointment...
This represented (until we changed our process) 1 to 2 hours of work per week for each sales person, i.e. in total, for 3 sales people, up to 24 hours per month (or 3 working days, therefore) devoted to a task without added value!

When you know the salary cost of an experienced sales person and you calculate what this simple expense item represents annually, it makes you think...

THE SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED :

This is why we decided to set up an automated workflow system: a prospect who is absent from an appointment automatically receives an email proposing 3 new slots, and if necessary a reminder a few days later.

This system now allows us to reposition 80% of missed appointments, and the remaining 20% are called by a specialist service provider.

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

And this example is just one of many that can be acted upon to achieve positive leverage!

In order to identify all the potential areas for improvement, it is necessary to ask, for each action implemented, what is the right level of effort to be made in relation to the expected result and the potential generated.

3. How to implement such an approach in your company?

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

On this basis, you can build an effective business system, using this method:

Identify potential points of optimisation. For example: time spent by sales staff on administrative tasks.
Share best practices within the team. For example: sharing a tool that allows prospects to access in real time the slots available in the salespeople's diaries, without seeing the details of the contents of their diaries.
Define an optimised process. For example: construction of an automated workflow to follow up prospects who have not been able to keep their telephone appointments (including the use of the tool mentioned above).
Test and improve the defined process. For example: improving the wording of the standard reminder email. Note: only one element of the process is modified at a time, so that the impact of each modification can be analysed.
Generalise and disseminate the optimised process to the whole team, for implementation and feedback (continuous improvement loop).

Doing so for your entire sales process will allow you to build an optimised sales operating model and thus reduce any losses due to uncontrolled factors, ultimately improving your sales results.

Focus on high impact and easily achievable points of improvement (in short, optimise the optimisation process itself!) 😉

As you go along, you will improve the efficiency of your entire commercial chain to spend more and less, while increasing the interest of the missions entrusted to your teams!

Do you want to optimise the time of your sales staff? Thanks to this webinar, you will learn how to work on your targeting and to use adapted tools in order to multiply by 2 your number of sales meetings per month:

¹ : Une étude d’IKO System sur le temps de travail des commerciaux datant de 2013 portait même à l’époque à 59 % la part de ce temps de travail consacrée à ce qu’ils appelaient « la non-vente » !

It also has an impact on employee commitment. In a context of generational renewal of sales teams and managerial evolution, how can you ensure that you set objectives that are both ambitious and realistic, and that motivate your sales force in the long term?

Setting salespeople's objectives: a strategic issue

Let us first clear up a common misunderstanding.

No, setting individual sales targets is not just about setting the turnover that each sales person must achieve in order to be eligible for commission!

On theone hand, the criteria taken into account to evaluate their effective contribution to the company's objectives can be multiple: margin generated, percentage of sales achieved on a particular offer or target, number of new customers signed up, etc.
On theother hand, their level of commitment can also be measured by the means used to achieve it: number of new prospects identified, number of telephone or physical meetings held, number of sales proposals sent, conversion rate, etc.
Finally, the objectives can include a collective component and encourage cooperation, in addition to individual performance: conditioning of variable remuneration on the prior achievement of a collective turnover threshold, taking into account the time spent on internal projects, etc.

It is therefore a real strategic issue involving choices whose impact is not only financial, but also managerial : the commitment of employees and the way in which teams operate depend partly on it.

5 good practices for defining business objectives

1. Involve the sales team in the reflection

The pitfall that is most often observed on this subject consists of repeating the previous year's model and applying it identically, without questioning its effectiveness. It is useful to plan a consultation phase with the sales staff on the subject: take their opinion, their feedback from the system already in place and any suggestions for improvement. Present them with your own ideas for change before implementing them, in order to test their reaction to the options under consideration.

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

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

2. Define operative variable elements

As mentioned above, there are potentially many criteria that can be taken into account in setting salespeople's objectives.

Don't forget that each of these criteria will then have to be regularly monitored and will come into play in the calculation of the variable part of the sales representatives' remuneration. You will therefore have to make choices, otherwise you will be setting up a real gas factory!

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

The profit-sharing system you propose must guarantee the motivation and commitment of your sales staff over the long term. For example, you can combine a result objective (achieving €500,000 in sales over the year) with a means objective (making 8 prospect appointments per week, etc.).

3. Carry out a preliminary simulation of the proposed system

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

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

the data needed to establish the variables are available (already tracked in your current monitoring system, or if not, easily/quickly accessible)
the multi-criteria and weightedcalculation is simple to carry out (not a gas factory)
the results obtained are coherent (not too great a difference with the current system)

Also check that these results are stimulating for your salespeople! Set a target of 70% to 80% of the team (at least) meeting their sales targets, and receiving satisfactory bonuses.

Discover the KESTIO webinars, where we discuss

all topics related to business performance with our experts:

Fabien Comtet, CEO

Dominique Seguin, DG

Nicolas Boissard, Marketing Director

4. Establish "fair" criteria

In order for the objectives to be perceived as "fair" and to generate lasting support, it is desirable that they be defined according to criteria that are directly dependent on the actions of the sales staff : number of appointments made, number of deals won, etc.

Exclude external factors or third party interventionsas much as possible: in the context of new business models, in particular, Marketing can intervene in all or part of the sales cycle; it should therefore be distinguished from actions directly attributable to salespeople.

Also, as far as possible, adopt a qualitative approach: sending as many commercial proposals as possible, for example, should not necessarily become an end in itself; combining it with a notion of transformation rate allows you to measure the quality of the work carried out in more detail.

Depending on the case, it may also be important to take into account certain disparities (between junior and senior sales staff, geographical territories covered, account development and pure conquest, etc.) in order to reward not only the results obtained but also the efforts made.

5. Communicate in two stages

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

Plan a two-step communication:

A collective presentation to the team, which should make it possible to explain how it works, to inform the team of the criteria taken into consideration, and to highlight the overall coherence of the system with regard to the company's objectives (financial, strategic, etc.) and the reality on the ground.
An individual discussion with each member of the sales team, to specify each one's individual objectives in detail, and to answer any questions raised.

Salespeople need to have a clear idea of the level of variable remuneration to which they are entitled, and to translate the objectives thus set into action priorities and concrete organisational elements.

Also consider how key data will be monitored (weekly reporting, CRM monitoring, etc.) and how often the results will be evaluated.

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

To go further, discover in our webinar, 4 keys to regain control in a difficult situation:

But are you sure that you have considered all the components of an effective marketing strategy when you set up your annual strategy?

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

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

Results targets and their monitoring indicators

You have set yourself performance targets (and rightly so!). This implies monitoring and steering their achievement throughout the year, to ensure that they are met. How do you do this?

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

The means

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

Priority targets, based on potential criteria

The scope of intervention of the sales teams is a key input for reflection. Segmentation of customers and prospects is a necessity. Are your customers classified according to criteria of turnover or margin generated? Is there an evaluation of their development potential over the year?

Discover the KESTIO webinars, where we discuss

all topics related to business performance with our experts:

Fabien Comtet, CEO

Dominique Seguin, DG

Nicolas Boissard, Marketing Director

The level of commercial effort to be made in each of these segments

The allocation of efforts then consists of determining the coverage and commercial pressure on these segments.

Thus, the different types of actions to be carried out in the sales process (calls, discovery visits, support visits, training visits, etc.), and the allocation of resources and sales time per action to the different segments will be adjusted. Not defining it at the strategy level means that each salesperson will decide for himself how to allocate his efforts according to his own criteria... Do you want to take this risk?

The optimal commercial organisation

The formalisation of the strategy also includes the choice of sales organisation : should teams be specialised in different segments, or should they rely on different types of staff depending on the stage of the sales process?

The customer visit has a cost, and the time spent in pre-sales impacts on commercial profitability.

This is why some companies may, for example, entrust the detection and qualification of opportunities to sedentary teams, and the phases of discovering needs up to contractualisation to a field salesperson.

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

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

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To prevent your salespeople from interpreting it in their own way, moving away from it gradually, or even ignoring it altogether, it is necessary to translate this sales strategy into operational guidelines and to monitor its implementation effectively.

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

Build an individual sales action plan with each sales person

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

They are generally co-constructed by the salesperson and his/her manager, and re-evaluated or updated at regular intervals: annually, half-yearly, quarterly or monthly (this is known as a MAP, for monthly action plan).

This co-construction is the key to the commitment of each salesperson. The choice of periodicity 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 .

For example, a digital services company may 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 with the key data necessary for his or her 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

This commercial action plan is the operational implementation of the commercial strategy defined beforehand. It must therefore reflect it and transcribe it on an individual scale, taking into account theallocation of commercial efforts to your targets, whether in terms of coverage or commercial pressure, and thecommercial organisation you have opted for.

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

or he will himself have to generate 35% of his turnover from segment A and 25% from segment B (in the context of an organisation with a distribution of the client portfolio by geographical area, for example);
or he will have to achieve 100% of his turnover on segment A, with other sales representatives in charge of segment B (in the case of an organisation with sales representatives specialised by customer segment).

Hence the importance of defining the action plan at the individual level, to ensure that the concrete application of the business strategy will not give rise to multiple or even divergent interpretations!

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

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

the targets the type of accounts on which they will work (type of accounts, meeting precise targeting criteria, or even a list of named accounts, and types of interlocutors targeted within the accounts)
the type of sales actions to be carried out at each stage of the sales process (leads to be processed, calls, physical meetings, quotations or sales proposals, reminders, etc.), in the front or back office
the frequency and intensity of these actions, by customer segment (e.g. 8 calls and 3 appointments per year on prospects attached to customer segment A)

From a more qualitative point of view, also specify the sales methods In a more qualitative sense, specify the methods to be used at each stage of the sales process (e.g. company pitch, type of questions to be asked during a discovery meeting) and the expected results 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 the salespeople and their managers are essential to transmit these guidelines and monitor their implementation. These meetings are particularly useful foridentifying deviations from expectations, dealing with difficulties encountered in the field and refining 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 should be defined according to the level of support you consider necessary; this may vary according to the company's managerial culture and the level of seniority of the sales staff, in particular.

Regularly analyse the indicators and adjust the system if necessary

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

Equip yourself with the appropriate management tools, particularly dashboards, so that you can analyse the KPIs (key performance indicators) and monitor the actions taken by your sales staff. This will enable you to detect any necessary adjustments and to implement them, if necessary.

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

Similarly, if your salespeople's conversion rates show significant differences on the same product range, this should alert you to the cause.

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

Your sales strategy indicates how you want to structure your development. The analysis of the steering indicators allows you to validate its deployment and to 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 enable you to effectively manage the deployment of your commercial strategy at the operational level and thus optimise your chances of achieving the objectives you have set yourself.

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

To do this, it must be clearly explained and translated not only into quantified objectives, but also into concrete activities and means to achieve these objectives.

Here are 5 tips to ensure that your business strategy is fully implemented on the ground.

Distinguish between business strategy and overall corporate strategy

A quick test: ask a manager if his company's business strategy is clear to his staff. His answer will surely be a straightforward "yes". Then ask one of his salespeople if he knows why he has to make five appointments a week. Most of the time, they will not be able to explain their objective!

This perception gap between management and sales staff is often due to a simple lack of explanation and sharing of the sales strategy and the resulting action plan.

Of course, it is important to present the global strategy to give perspective and link the action of the sales staff to the life of the company as a whole: new product launches, international development projects, growth objectives, etc. are all subjects that concern your sales team.

However, make sure you distinguish it from the sales strategy itself and focus on the latter, while linking it to the former. And above all, make sure that you address all the questions that drive salespeople by giving them the concrete elements that will enable them to act effectively afterwards.

Make the link between the turnover target and the commercial activities in the field

To do this, take the time to make the link between the defined commercial result objective and its concrete translation for the sales staff: firstly in terms of individual result objectives, then in terms of the level of commercial intensity to be provided, i.e. in terms of the nature and frequency of the commercial activities to be carried out.

For example, 1 day per week devoted to prospecting, 5 appointments obtained per day of prospecting, or 3 client appointments made per week...

Share your reasoning for setting the business objectives

Detail the steps in thesales processand explain the assumptions that have been made (number of leads, conversion rate, sales made...) to bring about the objectives presented. In this way, you will give them meaning and reference points.

Another essential point: beyond the figures and calculation hypotheses, take the time to define the expected commercial actions from a qualitative point ofview.

Depending on the context, for example, the generic term "meeting" can cover very different realities: a 30-minute discovery telephone call, a 1.5-hour workshop in a "sales-consulting" approach, or a 45-minute online demonstration of a solution, etc. Set the objectives of these actions accordingly and define the skills to be used to carry them out successfully

Translate "product sales targets" into "customer sales actions

Similarly, don't forget to translate product sales targets (usually set by the Marketing Department) into "customer-oriented" sales actions.

It's one thing to tell your sales people that they must sell 10,000 copies of one of your flagship products in the first 6 months of the year, or to set a target for one of your ranges to account for 40% of the turnover generated... it's quite another to achieve this for the teams concerned.

To give them - and yourself - the best chance of success , make sure you give them the means to succeed, by defining the corresponding sales action plan and, above all, by linking it to what is at the heart of your salespeople's daily activity: your customers!

Define the customer targets In short, translate the "product strategy" into operational sales tools, linked to the reality of the customers your sales team is dealing with.

Enhance the means available to your sales staff to succeed

In the same perspective, value the resources that you make available to salespeople to enable them to achieve their objectives: budget, time, human resources, tools, etc.

These resources can be of various kinds: purchase of segmented and qualified prospecting files, lead generation marketing campaignsnew attractive website, efficient CRM functionalities, sales coaching trainingsession...

Make a list of these resources with two objectives: on the one hand, to make them known to your sales people so that they actively take them up, and on the other hand, to boost their motivation by showing them that the company is investing to give them the means to achieve the desired results.

Build on the previous year's successes and capitalise on them

Finally, link the business strategy and objectives for the coming months to the victories of the past year.

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

Building on your previous sales successes is a good way to show the consistency of your strategy and establish positive continuity. It is also a way to value the contribution of your sales people and to spread good practice internally.

All of these elements will help your teams to take ownership of your sales strategy, ensuring that it is effectively implemented and bears fruit.

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

If so, this article should change your perspective.

The best way to become the main instigator of your commercial success is to structure a commercial system whose equilibrium is based mainly on your strategy and your organisation, so as to minimise the impact of the vagaries of the economic climate on your business.

Fifteen years of supporting companies in developing their commercial performance has enabled us to identify 6 main levers to achieve this.

Here are some of them, and more importantly, how to activate them.

1. Define a successful and structuring business strategy

Companies often structure their business activity gradually over time and according to opportunities. While this can in some cases yield good results, it is not aguarantee of sustainability for your business success.

The risk of doing this is thatyou become too dependent on the economic situation or on the individual talent of your salespeople: what happens to your results if demand in your market suddenly drops, if a new competitor is very aggressive on price, or if your best salesperson leaves the ship?

As a manager and/or sales manager, the best way to protect yourself from these hazards is to act strategically on the variables over which you have control. In particular, on 2 axes:

The type of commercial activities carried out (lead generation, appointment setting, discovery...)
The resources allocated to these actions (time, people, budget)

A company's sales strategy is not the result of individual self-defined action plans by its salespeople, it is the opposite!

Give a clear guideline, translate it into quantified objectives (number of leads generated, number of appointments made, number of sales, proportion of new customers, etc.) and finally, translate it into individual action plans withyour sales staff.

2. Develop the skills and commitment of your sales people

To achieve your sales goals, recruiting competent salespeople is a good start, but your role does not end there! The most successful companies are those that see the development of skills and continuous improvement of their sales teams as an integral part of their management responsibilities.

When you recruit a salesperson, he or she usually masters the techniques and methods of selling, but this does not prevent him or her from needing support in at least two areas:

Knowledge of your offer (products/services, ranges...) and its specific positioning (prices, targets, brand identity...)
The constant evolution of sales methods (social selling, inbound marketing, consultancy sales, etc.) and the tools used (CRM, apps, etc.)

The more trained and competent your teams are in these areas, the more effective and autonomous they will be in achieving their objectives.

Another key factor for your business is directly related to your management style: developing the commitment of your employees.

In this area, two points are particularly important:

Regularly share the definedbusiness strategy with your team
Actively and effectively steer its implementation: co-definition of individual action plans, monitoring of indicators for the achievement of objectives, identification of areas for improvement, etc.

On this last point, avoid locking yourself into a "control" posture: favour a "coaching" type approach, based on regular and constructive dialogue withyour salespeople to support them in achieving their objectives. This is more effective than a periodic evaluation based solely on the analysis of their figures, and is also much more favourable to their commitment to your company and to their motivation!

3. Identify and deploy the optimal sales process

Think continuously about the (best) ways to obtain potential customer contacts for your company and to convert these leads into actual sales. Identify and analyse the successive steps leading to a saleIdentify the best way to handle them to improve their effectiveness and lower their cost.

What interactions do you have with your prospects?
When do they occur?
What is the best way to make these interactions commercially contributing?

These questions will enable you to define the means, tools and methods to be implemented and the system offering the best return. In particular, what mix you will adopt between marketing and sales actions, or between internal resources and external providers.

A point that is far from trivial: in the field, we observe a ratio that can go from 1 to 20 between the different lead acquisition methods! Depending on the company and the mix adopted, the cost of "appointment 1" (discovery sales meeting) varies from €20 to €400, for example.

Discover the KESTIO webinars, where we discuss

all topics related to business performance with our experts:

Fabien Comtet, CEO

Dominique Seguin, DG

Nicolas Boissard, Marketing Director

4. Create a company-wide business dynamic

Make sure that all your employees feel they have a clear responsibility and role in the business development of your company.

In concrete terms, this means first of all making them aware of the impact of their work on the overall success of the company : for example, the efficiency of the logistics department has a direct impact on the number of deliveries invoiced in the month, and that of marketing on the number of leads sent to sales representatives, etc.

Then, define with the various components of the team (sales, logistics, administration, customer relations, etc.) the actions and means to be implemented to participate effectively in the company's commercial success.

This can consist of: guaranteeing the quality of the services delivered, optimising processes, disseminating a positive image of the company to its customers, etc.

The key is to develop and transmit an "Everybody sells! "culture ( everyone sells). Don't forget to formalise and document these team commitments (quality charter, internal process, company pitch, good customer relations practices, etc.): this will enable you to disseminate them effectively, to "anchor" them and to make them evolve over time.

5. Use digital tools that will (really) simplify the life of your teams

More than ever, customer knowledge is at the heart of the commercial effort and represents a valuable asset . This is why the contribution of digital tools in this area can be decisive for the overall efficiency of your sales system.

The first thing that comes to mind is CRM tools , which allow you to keep track of data relating to your customers and prospects, and to monitor the actions of sales staff.

But it can also be applications dedicated to business efficiency, such as :

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,
or interest scoring tools, such as GetQuantywhich analyses the behaviour of your web visitors to turn them into qualified leads.

To this must be added social networks and their extensions dedicated to prospecting, such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator and finally, digital Business Intelligence solutions, including Sparklane.

The attention of the editors of these solutions has been focused for a few years on marketing automation, and the follow-up of online interactions with your prospects.

The current trend is therefore to move from an original logic based on "contact management" to a "lead generation and qualification" orientation, which is a major challenge for you today.

6. Put your customers at the heart of your business success

Finally, the last essential lever for the solidity and resilience of your commercial system: make your customers your first ambassadors!

In this area, one question must constantly guide your strategic choices and animate your employees: "Will the experience that the customer is having with our company lead him to recommend us? ».

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.

Thanks to the "recommendation effect" thus generated, they considerably facilitate the work of their sales representatives: the barrier of "trust" and "legitimacy" having already been crossed with their prospects, they can concentrate on the transformation and closing stage, saving themselves the "lead generation and qualification" and "demonstration of the interest of the solution" parts in the process! This saves a considerable amount of time and sales effort, which also represents financial savings (we're back to our third lever...! 🙂 ).

The full and complete activation of the six levers we have just mentioned allows you to remain in charge and to limit the impact of external factors on your results. It requires continuous leadership from a leader with a global vision who takes full responsibility for both success and failure. In other words, you will need a 7^thlever that will be your "magic wand": commercial leadership!

To go further, discover in our webinar, hosted by Dominique Seguin, the keys to a reasoned approachto negotiation.

Pensée pour s’intégrer parfaitement dans votre quotidien d’entrepreneur et vous accompagner dans votre développement

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 people, the new champions of customer loyalty

Let's first take a quick look at how the role of the salesperson has changed since the advent of the SaaS model. As we have seen in our previous articles, the role of the salesperson has changed considerably in recent years:

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

As an extension of the traditional "sales funnel", we could now add a second, inverted funnel: that of the amplification, at the customer's premises, of the turnover generated by the sale of the subscription, via the activation of a decisive lever: the development within the account itself.

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

Or, more precisely, the successful commercial exploitation of the work done to perpetuate the solution at 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: the two sides of the gold medal

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

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

For a publisher, there are therefore two levers for improving the turnover achieved with a customer:

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

This is called CROSS SELLING.

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

This allows 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 functionality within the same scope.

This is calledUP SELLING.

To remain in the context of a ticketing management solution, the editor will propose, for example, the management of pre-sales via a network of external distributors, the multi-channel management of sales or the edition of dematerialised tickets on mobile phones... In the context of an email marketing platform, it could be a question of specific functionalities (automated scenario) or simply to manage a larger sending base (higher number of contacts)

This allows the publisher to increase the price of the subscription, and thus to generate a higher turnover with a constant number of users.

In the first case, it is therefore a question of extending the scope covered by the solution.

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

The challenge is to identify the strategic functionalities that will appeal to customers and open the door to new markets.

And a point of vigilance, on a strategic level: you must carefully assess your ability to "get out" of your core business and to respond correctly to the client's requirements for less mastered functionalities! This requires you to define and implement an appropriate strategy: internalisation of skills or partnership with an expert player/publisher, for example.

If this aspect is well managed, the impact of this customer capitalisation on your MRR2and the resulting competitive advantage can be decisive. More than ever, customer loyalty has therefore become a business function in its own right!

1: See our article on this subject:

Defining the right business model: the big challenge for software publishers!

2: For "Monthly Reccurring Revenue".

Adopt a tool adapted to your activity and your expectations: choose the CRM... In order to better understand the usefulness of the latter and to choose an adapted CRM, watch this webinar:

This is why sales people spend a lot of time and energy on them, with unfortunately very low success rates in most cases.

So what are the secrets of success for publishers who win their tenders?

1. They have a privileged relationship with their key accounts

The first key to success in responding to calls for tenders is to initiate and maintain a quality relationship with your key account prospects.

If you have worked - 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 (time allocation and account assignment) according to this ranking, i.e. by prioritising 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 long-term relationships with them.

Objective: to create and establish trust in order to gather valuable information on the internal organisation and the current strategic issues for the company.

Marketing can effectively support them in this task, by producing "tailor-made" content to nurture a personalised "value-added" relationship with their interlocutors (articles or infographics corresponding to their interests, for example).

It's also a good way to stay top of mind and ensure that you are "on their radar" when they choose which companies to consult for a new project!

2. They are familiar with the "playing field" of the tender

It is this long-term relationship of trust that enables sales representatives to work on another decisive point for improving their conversion rate with key accounts: the "mapping" of the account. This is one of the key elements of the Method of ¹, and an essential point when you want to control your sales process and stop making your sales results depend mainly on the "luck" factor or on external factors that are not under control, as Caroline Jurado, CEO and founder of the start-up Linkky, points out in her testimony about our collaboration.

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

These are all elements of detailed knowledge of a prospect that make it possible to identify his or her expectations (whether conscious or not) and to target the offers that best correspond to them.

And also, as we shall see later, to construct the discourse to which he will be most sensitive.

This is a step that should not be neglected, with one point to bear in mind: the mapping of an account is never "fixed ". It evolves not only over time and according to internal movements, but also differs for each case. It should therefore be reconsidered for each new call for tenders: the sales director may have been your best internal promoter when a CRM solution was set up, but may turn out to be a fierce opponent when new marketing tools are implemented, if the latter calls into question the working habits of his team, for example!

3. They make sure they are always one step ahead

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

The legal framework for calls for tender is extremely regulated, and once the consultation has been launched, many constraints "restrict" the action of sales representatives: a single contact person is imposed, a duty of confidentiality concerning the other companies consulted and their position, a ban on contacting the decision-makers directly, extreme formalism of the call for proposals and responses, etc.

In fact, the only effective way to influence the outcome of a tender by refining the relevance of your commercial response is before it is officially published!

Consider that if you discover the call for tenders the day you receive it in your mailbox, you are already at a serious disadvantage, because you have very few commercial levers to act on, and they are not the most pleasing ones (price...).

Those who understand this devote a lot of attention and energy to points 1 and 2 above, partly because of this. If there is a relationship of trust and regular communication, chances are you will hear about a consultation when it is still in the planning stage. - that you will be able to get key information from the various internal contacts who are most familiar with the issue.

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

If you have integrated the first three points into your sales methods and your commercial organisation, then you have the tools that will enable you to differentiate yourself from your competitors: you have an idea of the budget envisaged, the internal organisational constraints that will have an impact on the project's implementation, the key contacts and their expectations, the arguments of the project's internal "opponents

From then on, you will be able to "play your cards right" and determine in a relevant way: the offers and services to put forward, the type of support to offer the customer, your price positioning, and more generally, your commercial tactics for this business.

Last but not least:

you are able to construct the speech that will strike a chord with your interlocutors.

Presenting an offer that matches the client's expectations has certainly enabled you to get past the pre-selection stage. This is good. But it's no use if you're not the best afterwards at the oral presentation stage!

It is during this last stage, the one that decides the final result of the consultation, that the sales approach patiently put in place from the beginning takes on its full meaning and bears fruit: the detailed knowledge of the account and its key contacts that your sales representatives have acquired over the previous months will enable you to develop an original discourse around your solutions and todirect the spotlight towards the points that will resonate most with your contacts.

Armed with your knowledge of their personal issues, you may even have the luxury of making your interlocutors "allies" during your presentation, by inviting them to express themselves, to give their opinions and to "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 to get them to plan the rest of the project with you?

It is an approach that has enabled many of our clients to significantly improve their conversion rates and the amount of business they win!

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

It is now time for you to take action and translate this great strategy into effective field practices to achieve your goals.

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

1. What will be your mix between marketing and sales?

The distribution of roles between marketing and sales is an issue that needs to be addressed carefully and at an early stage: with the development of SaaS offers and the increasing digitalisation of sales methods (Inbound Marketing, Social Selling, Sales Automation, etc.), the share of resources allocated to marketing is currently increasing (the ratio of 1 to 2 between marketing and sales is being reversed).

It is absolutely necessary that you have a clear vision of the stages of your sales funnel and that you differentiate between those that are marketing-related and those that are the responsibility of your sales staff.

2. Should you favour sedentary salespeople or field salespeople?

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

If you sell perpetual licences with maintenance subscriptions, you will most likely opt for a network of partners who can manage the installation and follow-up. And in this case, you will mostly need field sales people to go and meet them, supported.

And in many cases, you will have to manage the cohabitation of these two models and determine all the more precisely the criteria for assigning accounts and the resulting allocation of sales forces between your field and office-based sales staff.

3. What skills will your salespeople need to master?

It is also useful to ask yourself what skills your salespeople will need to master. In direct relation to the first two points mentioned, but also according to the profile of your customers, you will thus determine the sales methods, techniques and tools to be used.

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

The public sector comes^3rd in this ranking. If it is one of your priority targets, it is the mastery of the tendering process and the sales techniques that go with it that should concentrate all the efforts of your sales staff.

In a predominantly digital sales model, the position of sales representatives 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, to guide the customer in the choice of options, to create ambassadors for the solution within the customer's company, and to map out the decision-making powers.

Customer loyalty is also becoming more important. We are therefore also seeing the emergence of new business functions, such as Customer Success Managers (CSMs), designed to ensure the quality of the Customer Experience.

In any case, a consultative sales approach - logically demonstrating the ROI of your solutions - is interesting in your sector to show your value contribution.

These are all elements to keep in mind in order to implement an HR plan (recruitment, training plan, etc.) in line with your business strategy.

4. Will you develop your international sales?

Another decisive subject for theorganisation of your sales force is the share of turnover achieved internationally and the strategic nature or otherwise of the international clientele for your company.

Although French publishers still generate the vast majority of their sales in France2 , the share of total turnover generated outside France is constantly increasing, particularly under the impetus of SMEs and start-ups that have been resolutely international from the outset, such as Criteo or Allegorithmic, for example.

This point has an impact on thesales organisation to be adopted for these companies: once the strategic geographical areas have been targeted, you can determine whether your dedicated sales force will operate from France or directly on site, and consider all the resulting points: whether or not it is necessary to set up a physical branch office, the country's social and commercial legislation, the advisability of favouring an English-speaking rather than a French-speaking "master version" of your solutions, etc.

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

5. What will your performance indicators be?

The last crucial point for your sales organisation 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 commercial activity
- Calculating the remuneration of your sales staff (a sensitive subject if ever there was one!)
- The type of commercial management adopted

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

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

1. The distribution of turnover by type of sales : licences, Saas subscriptions or support/maintenance (on average today, almost 1/3 for each!)
2. New orders booked: booking
3. The evolution of monthly recurring revenue (MRR)
4. Turnover by country
5. The churn rate or attrition rate (rate of non-renewal of contracts)

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

When you know 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 commercial levers that support it!

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

Scanning all of these 5 key questions will therefore enable you to define the best sales organisation in terms of your objectives and the strategy defined beforehand. And to have a clear vision of how you are going to manage it and ensure its effectiveness over time!

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

1. A CRM tool for a segmented and usable database

2. A CRM tool to organise your business

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

SALES AUTOMATION

THE AUTOMATISMS OF EVERYDAY LIFE

LEAD SCORING

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

2. A (real-life) example of business process optimisation

THE STARTING CONTEXT :

THE SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED :

3. How to implement such an approach in your company?

Setting salespeople's objectives: a strategic issue

5 good practices for defining business objectives

1. Involve the sales team in the reflection

2. Define operative variable elements

3. Carry out a preliminary simulation of the proposed system

4. Establish "fair" criteria

5. Communicate in two stages

Results targets and their monitoring indicators

The means

Priority targets, based on potential criteria

The level of commercial effort to be made in each of these segments

The optimal commercial organisation

Build an individual sales action plan with each sales person

Make sure that this individual action plan reflects the business strategy

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

Regularly analyse the indicators and adjust the system if necessary

Distinguish between business strategy and overall corporate strategy

Make the link between the turnover target and the commercial activities in the field

Share your reasoning for setting the business objectives

Translate "product sales targets" into "customer sales actions

Enhance the means available to your sales staff to succeed

Build on the previous year's successes and capitalise on them

1. Define a successful and structuring business strategy

2. Develop the skills and commitment of your sales people

3. Identify and deploy the optimal sales process

4. Create a company-wide business dynamic

5. Use digital tools that will (really) simplify the life of your teams

6. Put your customers at the heart of your business success

Sales people, the new champions of customer loyalty

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

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

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

1. They have a privileged relationship with their key accounts

2. They are familiar with the "playing field" of the tender

3. They make sure they are always one step ahead

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

Last but not least:

1. What will be your mix between marketing and sales?

2. Should you favour sedentary salespeople or field salespeople?

3. What skills will your salespeople need to master?

4. Will you develop your international sales?

5. What will your performance indicators be?

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