Strategy Archives

Last week, KESTIO discussed on the Koban blog the importance of an optimized business model to increase the efficiency and ROI of your sales activities.

But after clearly defining this model, it still needs to be translated operationally into a suitable tool to track the process daily. And this part can seem quite abstract for people who aren't used to working with a CRM.

As you'll have understood, this week we're 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 actionable database

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

Theory is great, but how does it work in practice?

A good CRM allows you to centralize your entire database on a single platform and segment it initially with 'statuses'. The most common statuses are 'customers', 'prospects', 'competitors', etc. The special thing about Koban, for example, is that you can personalize your statuses according to your environment and strategy, which makes your database clearer for you and your employees.

For example, you can create the categories "hot prospects", "cold prospects", "former clients" or any other that seems commercially useful to you.

TAGS: On each record, you can add tags to segment your database more precisely. Tags are like labels you place “on the heads” of your customers/prospects. For example, you can create a tag category for “industry” or “potential.” This allows you to identify all customers whose tag is equal to “Gold” or “Bronze.” This is very useful for launching highly targeted and personalized sales and/or marketing campaigns.

2. A CRM tool to organize your activity.

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

Indeed, you have defined a list of actions based on your segments; the goal now is not to forget to do them...

Any self-respecting CRM allows you to create customizable action types based on your strategy. You can create as many as you want: task, phone call, email, in-person meeting, phone meeting, video conference, demo, client visit, etc.

The little extra at Koban: you assign a color to each type of action. This way, once in your calendar, you have a very visual rendering that gives you an idea of what your day will be like! Of course, you have access to your colleagues' calendars 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 tasks.

We all agree on one point: 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 a role to play.

Does automation resonate with you?

SALES AUTOMATION

You have defined high-potential segments and others with fewer stakes that you can easily identify using your centralized and segmented database.

The goal is to let salespeople handle the most interesting segments and leave the others to... automation (or more precisely, to marketing).

To do this, your CRM will allow you to set up automated scenarios (generally composed of a series of pre-defined emails) that aim to spark your contact's interest, maintain contact without being intrusive, and drive conversion.

This frees up a lot of time for sales representatives and, above all, avoids cold calls, which are very often a waste of time (and therefore money). Not only do the responses go directly to the assigned sales representative, but the results of your 'prospecting' emails are directly linked to the prospect's record (when they read the email, if they clicked, etc.). Thus, if the internet user has shown enough interest, the marketing teams can easily or automatically pass the lead on to a sales representative, who will have their entire history.

DAILY AUTOMATIONS

Beyond automated scenarios, you can set up numerous automations that save time and, above all, prevent you from forgetting reminders or appointments. Yes, a salesperson's brain is full, and it can happen that they forget...

For example, you can set an automatic action in the sales representatives' calendar at the end of each appointment, such as: "send product sheet". Or, schedule recurring visits to your "OR" clients every 4 months. The time slot will be blocked in the calendar, which reduces the risk of forgetting or constantly postponing!

LEAD SCORING

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

As a result, a user will visit your pages and accumulate points as they browse. The goal? To assess their interest and determine if they are "ready" to be directly passed on to the sales force.

Below a defined threshold of points, the user will only receive emails via an automated marketing scenario. On the other hand, above the defined score, the user will be assigned to a dedicated salesperson because they have shown a strong interest in your products / services!

These are just very brief examples of everything 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 learn more about CRMs and help you with your projects, find all of 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's here: What is a sales model and how do you build it?

KESTIO and KOBAN, it's a partnership that feels natural: the former supports SMEs in their commercial development through an online sales coaching platform for leaders, managers and sales representatives; the latter helps them to effectively deploy their strategy and commercial actions by generating maximum ROI, via a high-performance CRM solution.

From this meeting was born an idea (which became a desire, then a reality): to combine our skills and visions to support you in defining and implementing your business model!

What if these hours were simply misused (at least in part)?

One of the causes to consider is indeed the lack of structuring of the sales chain, which can cause a loss of efficiency and sometimes significant hidden costs. We at KESTIO know something about this, since we ourselves faced this internally before readjusting our sales process by optimizing it.

Here's how, and with what results.

1. What does "optimizing your sales process" mean, and why should you do it?

This involves seeking the best cost/result ratio at each stage of your sales process, to achieve optimal performance!

There are at least 2 reasons to do so:

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

Many companies have not yet truly organized their sales function. However, studies show that at least 40% of salespeople's time on average is spent on "doing administrative work"¹. In other words, 40% of your sales payroll is not focused on what creates the most value, namely interactions with prospects and customers! Considering that a salesperson is (sometimes very) expensive and difficult to recruit and retain, it is essential that they focus primarily on their core business…

2. A real-world example of sales process optimization.

Here's an example directly from our own experience at KESTIO to illustrate how a seemingly insignificant activity can quickly become very costly if you don't adopt this approach to reduce its impact.

INITIAL CONTEXT:

At KESTIO, we have been working for some time with 3 in-house sales representatives in charge of handling the first appointments (qualification of needs) with our prospects.
Across all their telephone appointments, we observe a rate of approximately 20% of 'no-shows' (which is a good rate compared to averages observed elsewhere).
With 10 appointments scheduled per day per sales representative, this results in a potential of 30 clients per week (2 per day x 3 sales representatives x 5 days per week) to contact again, solely to schedule a new appointment…
This represented (until we changed our process) 1 to 2 hours of work per week for each salesperson, which, for 3 salespeople, totaled up to 24 hours per month (or 3 working days) spent on a task with no added value!

When you know the salary cost of an experienced salesperson and calculate what this simple position represents annually, it encourages reflection...

THE SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED:

That's why we decided to implement an automated workflow system: the prospect who misses the appointment automatically receives an email offering 3 new time slots, and if necessary, a reminder a few days later.

This system now allows us to re-book 80% of missed appointments, and the remaining 20% are followed up with a phone call by a specialized provider.

Implementing this simple workflow has allowed us to save several thousand euros per year, while creating better working conditions for our sales representatives, who now spend most of their time practicing the profession they love and are skilled in.

And this example represents only one element among many others on which it is possible to act to benefit from a positive leverage effect!

To identify all potential areas for improvement, it is necessary to ask, for each action implemented, what is the appropriate level of effort to produce in relation to the expected result and the potential generated.

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

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

Based on this, you can build an effective sales system by applying this method:

Identify potential areas for optimization. For example: time spent by sales representatives on administrative tasks.
Share best practices within the team. For example: sharing a tool allowing prospects to access available slots in the salespeople's calendars in real-time, without seeing the details of their agenda.
Define an optimized process. For example: building an automated workflow to follow up with prospects who were unable to attend their phone appointment (integrating the use of the tool mentioned above).
Test and improve the defined process. For example: improve the wording of the standard follow-up email. Please note: always modify only one element of the process at a time to analyze the impact of each change.
Generalize and disseminate the optimized process to the entire team for implementation and feedback (continuous improvement loop).

Following this approach for your entire sales process will allow you to build an optimized sales operating model and thus reduce all losses related to uncontrolled factors, to ultimately improve your sales results.

Focus primarily on high-impact and easily achievable areas for improvement (in short, optimize the optimization process itself! 😉)

As you progress, you will improve the performance of your entire sales chain to spend better and less, while increasing the interest in the missions entrusted to your teams!

Want to optimize your sales team's time? In this webinar, learn how to refine your targeting and use appropriate tools to double the number of sales appointments you get per month:

¹ : An IKO System study on sales representatives' working time dating from 2013 even put the proportion of this working time spent on what they called "non-sales" at 59% at the time!

It also impacts employee engagement. In a context of generational renewal of sales teams and managerial evolution, how do you ensure that you set goals that are ambitious, realistic, and sustainably motivating for your sales forces?

Setting sales representatives' objectives: a strategic topic

Let's first clear up a fairly common misunderstanding.

No, defining individual sales targets does not only consist of setting the turnover that each of them must achieve in order to qualify for a commission!

Firstly, the criteria considered 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, etc.
Secondly, their level of engagement can also be measured by the resources used to achieve it: number of new prospects identified, number of telephone or in-person appointments made, number of sales proposals sent, conversion rate, etc.
Lastly, objectives can include a collective component and promote cooperation, in addition to individual performance: conditioning variable compensation on achieving a collective revenue threshold beforehand, taking into account the working time spent on internal projects, etc.

It is therefore a real strategic issue involving choices whose impact is not only financial but also managerial: employee engagement and team operating methods partially depend on it.

5 best practices for defining sales objectives

1. Involve the sales team in the reflection

The most common pitfall on this subject is reusing the previous year's model and applying it identically, without questioning its effectiveness. It is useful to plan a consultation phase with the sales team on the subject: get their opinion, their feedback from the field regarding the system already in place, and any suggestions for improvement they may have. Present your own ideas for development before implementing them, in order to test their reaction to the options being considered.

Taking these feedbacks into account ensures greater buy-in from sales representatives to the objectives you will present to them later.

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 relate to a more global vision of the company.

2. Define operating variable elements.

As we saw earlier, there are potentially many criteria that can be considered in defining sales objectives.

Remember that each of these criteria must then be regularly monitored and will factor into the calculation of the sales team's variable compensation. You will therefore have to make choices, otherwise you risk creating a complex and unmanageable system!

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

The incentive system you propose must guarantee the motivation and engagement of your sales representatives over time. For example, you can combine a results objective (achieve €500,000 in sales during the year) with a means objective (schedule 8 prospect appointments per week, etc.).

3. Perform a preliminary simulation of the planned system

The best way to ensure the operational aspect of the selected criteria and to verify the overall consistency of the planned system is to test it. Realizing during the year that the system is not working satisfactorily could have serious consequences for the company.

Based on the figures available for year N, perform simulations to verify that:

the data necessary for establishing the variables are available (already tracked in your current tracking system, or if not, easily / quickly accessible)
the calculation of multi-criteria and weighted factors is simple to perform (not a complex process)
The results obtained are consistent (no significant deviation from the current system).

Also, verify that these results are motivating for your sales representatives! Aim for 70% to 80% of the team (at a minimum) to achieve their sales targets and receive satisfactory bonuses.

Discover KESTIO webinars, where we discuss

All topics related to sales performance with our experts:

Fabien Comtet, CEO

Dominique Seguin, CEO

Nicolas Boissard, Marketing Director

4. Establish 'fair' criteria

For objectives to be perceived as "fair" and generate lasting commitment, they should be defined based on criteria that directly depend on the actions of the sales representatives: number of appointments secured, deals won, etc.

Exclude external factors or third-party interventions as much as possible: within the framework of new business models, in particular, Marketing can intervene on all or part of the stages of the sales cycle; it will therefore be necessary to distinguish it from the actions directly attributable to sales representatives.

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

Depending on the situation, it may also be important to consider certain disparities (between junior and senior sales representatives, geographical territories covered, account development and pure acquisition, etc.) to reward not only the results obtained but more broadly the efforts mobilized.

5. Communicate in two stages

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

Plan your communication in two stages:

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

Sales representatives should be able to get a clear idea of the variable compensation they can expect, and translate the objectives thus set into action priorities and concrete organizational elements.

Also, remember to specify how key data will be tracked (weekly reporting, CRM tracking, etc.) and how often the results will be evaluated.

If the defined system adheres to these best practices and is regularly monitored and effectively managed once implemented, you maximize the chances that your sales representatives will actively commit to 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 you've considered all the components of an effective sales strategy when establishing your annual strategy?

Does it include all the components of the "go to market" strategy for your product or service offering, meaning a coherent guideline that aligns: objectives, resources, allocated resources, and the resulting operational organization?

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

Results objectives and their monitoring indicators

Have you set performance goals (and you've done well!)? This implies monitoring and managing their achievement throughout the year to ensure you reach them. How?

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

The resources

Closely linked to the targeted customer or prospect segments, the resources dedicated to acquisition and retention are also a key element to define precisely: preferred sales channels and revenue streams expected per channel, marketing and communication resources deployed, lead flow expected to reach the level of commercial activity defined with regard to the final objectives.

Priority targets, based on potential criteria

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

Discover KESTIO webinars, where we discuss

All topics related to sales performance with our experts:

Fabien Comtet, CEO

Dominique Seguin, CEO

Nicolas Boissard, Marketing Director

The level of commercial effort to be applied to each of these segments

Effort allocation then involves determining the coverage and sales pressure on these segments.

Therefore, the various types of actions to be carried out in the sales process (calls, discovery meetings, presentations, training, etc.) and the allocation of resources and sales time per action across different segments will be adjusted. Failure to define this at the strategy level means that each salesperson will decide how to allocate their efforts according to their own criteria. Are you willing to take that risk?

The optimal sales organization

Formalizing the strategy also involves making choices about sales organization: should teams be specialized in different segments, or should we rely on different types of employees depending on the stage of the sales process?

Client visits have a cost, and the time spent on pre-sales impacts commercial profitability.

This is why some companies might, for example, entrust lead detection and opportunity qualification to inside sales teams, while assigning the needs discovery phases through to contractualization to field sales representatives.

If all the points raised have been addressed when you defined YOUR sales strategy, you have laid a solid foundation and created the right conditions from the start to give yourself the best chance of success. The next step is to break down this sales strategy into operational action plans and effectively manage them to ensure that the objectives are achieved.

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

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To prevent your sales representatives from interpreting it in their own way, gradually deviating from it, or even completely disregarding it, it is necessary to translate this commercial strategy into operational directives and effectively manage its implementation.

To achieve this, be vigilant on these 4 essential points.

Develop an individual commercial action plan with each salesperson

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

They are generally co-constructed by the salesperson and their manager, and re-evaluated or updated on a regular basis: annually, semi-annually, quarterly, or monthly (this is then referred to as a MAP, for monthly action plan).

This co-creation is the key to engagement for each salesperson. The frequency can be chosen based on the sales cycle of your products and services, or according to the management style adopted.

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

For example, a digital services company can generate 50% of its annual revenue in a single four-month period, during which the majority of its subscriptions are renewed.

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

Ensure that this individual action plan accurately reflects the business strategy.

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

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

either they must generate 35% of their revenue from segment A and 25% from segment B themselves (within an organization that distributes the client portfolio by geographic area, for example);
or they must generate 100% of their revenue from segment A, with other sales representatives responsible for segment B (in the case of an organization with sales representatives specialized by client segments).

Hence the importance of defining the action plan at the individual level, to ensure that the concrete application of the commercial strategy does not lead to multiple, or even divergent, interpretations!

Clearly define the activities to be carried out with your sales representatives

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

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

From a more qualitative point of view, also specify the sales methods to be implemented at each stage of the sales process (for example: company pitch, type of questions to ask in a discovery 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 check-ins between salespeople and their manager are essential to communicate these guidelines and monitor their implementation. They allow to identify discrepancies with what is expected, to address difficulties encountered in the field, and to refine the sales tools used (call script, interview guide, standard report to be saved in the CRM, etc.).

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

Regularly analyze the indicators and adjust the system if necessary

As a leader, you are responsible for adhering to the sales strategy and achieving objectives. To do this, it is important to have a global vision of your company's sales situation in real-time so you can manage actions without waiting to know the final result of the fiscal year.

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

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

Similarly, if the conversion rates of your salespeople show significant differences for the same product range, this should alert you and prompt you to investigate the cause.

Finally, sales achieved and revenue (in volume, value, by type of products/services, by customer targets, etc.) are, of course, essential performance indicators to measure.

Your sales strategy indicates how you want to structure your development. Analyzing key performance indicators allows you to validate its deployment and adjust operational action plans, without waiting to know the result in terms of orders taken or customer billing!

Adhering to these 4 key considerations will allow you to effectively manage the deployment of your sales strategy at the operational level, thereby optimizing your chances of achieving your set objectives.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Valorisez les moyens à la disposition de vos commerciaux pour réussir

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

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

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

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

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

What lessons have you learned from it?
How are these leveraged in the current strategy?
How can you duplicate them or draw inspiration from them to build a scalable model from the variables observed on a certain scale?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Voici lesquels, et surtout, comment les activer.

1. Définissez une stratégie commerciale porteuse et structurante

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dans ce domaine, 2 points sont particulièrement importants :

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

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

3. Identifiez et déployez le processus de vente optimal

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

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

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

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

Discover KESTIO webinars, where we discuss

All topics related to sales performance with our experts:

Fabien Comtet, CEO

Dominique Seguin, CEO

Nicolas Boissard, Marketing Director

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6. Placez vos clients au cœur de votre réussite commerciale

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

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

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

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

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

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

Designed to integrate perfectly into your daily life as an entrepreneur and support you in your development

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

Sales representatives, the new champions of customer loyalty

Let's first quickly revisit the evolution of the sales role since the advent of the SaaS model. As we've seen in our previous articles, the function of salespeople has considerably evolved in recent years:

Marketing and customer service (via sponsorship operations) now provide them with the majority of leads, and even nurture them to bring them to maturity.
Above all, their role no longer stops at the point of sale of the solution, and now extends far beyond!

Extending the traditional 'sales funnel', we could now add a second, inverted funnel: that of amplifying, at the customer's end, the revenue generated by the sale of the subscription, by activating a key lever: development within the account itself.

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

Or more precisely, the effective commercial use of the work done to ensure the solution's long-term success with the client, largely carried out by Customer Success Managers with the support of the Support team. To achieve this, they have two main tools at their disposal: Cross-Selling and Up-Selling.

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

Regardless of the sector, the business model of software vendors is now very often based on the following pricing method:

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

For a publisher, there are therefore two levers to improve the revenue generated with a client:

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

Then we will talk about CROSS SELLING.

For example, a ticketing software publisher can offer, beyond the "standard" ticketing administration functionalities (reservations, multi-rate management, ticket issuing, etc.), optional modules covering ancillary functionalities, such as Marketing (sending SMS or emails to customers, for example) or CRM (management and tracking of customer data).

This allows them to expand the number of potential users of their solution at their client's site, here from the reception/ticketing team to the teams: sales, marketing, and even administrative.

2. An "Upgrade" type of logic : adding options or superior functionalities within the same scope.

Then we will talk about UP SELLING.

To stay within the context of a ticketing management solution, the publisher will offer, for example, the management of pre-sales via a network of external distributors, multi-channel sales management, or the issuing of dematerialized tickets on mobile devices. In the context of a marketing emailing platform, this could involve specific functionalities (automated scenario) or simply managing a larger sending base (higher number of contacts).

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

In the first case, it is therefore about extending the scope covered by the solution.

In the second case, it involves offering more advanced services (increasing the depth of the offer, in a way) within the current scope. In both cases, this requires the ability to offer modules or functionalities that complement those already in place.

With a strong focus on identifying strategic functionalities that will resonate with customers and open doors to new markets.

A point of vigilance, strategically: it's up to you to properly assess your ability to 'step outside' your core business and correctly meet customer requirements for less familiar functionalities! This requires defining and implementing an appropriate strategy: internalizing skills or partnering with an expert player/publisher, for example.

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

1: Read our article on this topic:

Define the right business model : the great challenge for software vendors !

2 : For "Monthly Recurring Revenue"

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

This is why sales representatives dedicate a lot of time and energy to them, with unfortunately very low success rates, most of the time.

So, what are the secrets to success for publishers who win their calls for tenders?

1. They maintain a privileged relationship with their Key Accounts

The primary key to success in maximizing your chances in your responses to calls for tenders is to initiate and then continuously maintain a quality relationship with your key account prospects.

If you have worked – as we hope! – on your sales model, you know who your gold, silver, and bronze clients are. And you have considered the allocation of your sales resources (distribution of working time and assignment of accounts) based on this classification, that is, by prioritizing your gold targets, then silver, and finally bronze. As a result, your sales representatives have begun to identify the key contacts within these accounts and establish lasting relationships with them.

Objective: to create and establish trust in order to gather valuable information about the internal organization and the strategic issues of the moment for the company.

Marketing can effectively support them in this task by producing « tailor-made » content to nurture a personalized relationship in a logic of « value creation » with their contacts (articles or infographics corresponding to their centers of interest, for example).

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

2. They Know the 'Playing Field' of the Call for Tenders Perfectly

It is this long-term relationship of trust that allows sales representatives to work on another key point to improve their conversion rate with major accounts: account mapping. This is one of the key elements of Method 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 uncontrolled external factors, as Caroline Jurado, CEO and founder of the start-up Linkky, points out in her testimonial about our collaboration.

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

These elements of detailed prospect knowledge allow you to understand their expectations (conscious or unconscious...) and target the offers that best suit them.

And also, as we will see later, to construct the discourse to which they will be most receptive.

This is a step that should not be overlooked, with one key point to keep in mind: account mapping is never static. It evolves not only over time and with internal changes, but also differs for each deal. It should therefore be reconsidered for each new call for tenders: the sales director may have been your best internal advocate when implementing a CRM solution, but may turn out to be a staunch opponent when implementing new marketing tools, if the latter calls into question the working habits of their team, for example!

3. They ensure they always stay one step ahead.

Another determining factor in any major account sale, but even more so when it takes place within the framework of a call for tenders: having privileged and priority access to information!

Since the legal framework for calls for tenders is extremely regulated, once the consultation has been launched, many constraints restrict the actions of salespeople: a single, imposed contact person, a duty of confidentiality regarding the other companies consulted and their positioning, a prohibition on directly contacting decision-makers, extreme formalism in the call for proposals and responses, etc.

In fact, the only effective way to influence the outcome of a call for tenders by refining the relevance of your commercial response is before its official publication!

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

Those who understand this devote a lot of attention and energy to points 1 and 2 mentioned above, especially for this reason. If a relationship of trust exists and if exchanges are regular, there is a good chance that you will hear about a consultation while it is still only at the project stage... However, it is at this moment - and only at this moment! - that you will be able to obtain key information from the various internal contacts most familiar with the file.

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

If you have integrated the first 3 points into your sales methods and your sales organization, then you have tools that will allow you to differentiate yourself from your competitors: you have an idea of the planned budget, the internal organizational constraints impacting the project's execution, the key stakeholders and their expectations, and the arguments of the internal project "opponents," etc.

And from then on, you are able to "play your cards" in the best possible way and determine in a relevant way: the offers and services to highlight, the type of support to offer the client, your price positioning, and more generally, your sales tactics for this deal.

Last point – and not least –:

you are able to construct the discourse that will be effective with your interlocutors.

Presenting an offer that matches the client's expectations has certainly allowed you to pass the pre-selection stage. That's good. But it's useless if you're not the best afterwards, at the oral presentation stage!

It is during this final stage, which determines the ultimate outcome of the consultation, that the sales approach, patiently developed from the beginning, becomes fully meaningful and bears fruit: the detailed knowledge of the account and its key contacts that your sales representatives have acquired over the preceding months will allow you to develop an original narrative around your solutions and to focus on the points that will resonate most with your contacts.

Knowing their personal challenges, you can even afford to turn your contacts into « allies » during your presentation by inviting them to express themselves, give their opinion, and « co-build » 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 choosing options and getting them to envision the rest of the project with you?

In any case, this is an approach that has enabled many of our clients to significantly improve their conversion rates and the amount of business won!

Time is a valuable resource, and your sales representatives are short on it. In this webinar, KESTIO explains how to save them 50% of their time:

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

Don't know where to start? KESTIO guides you with the 5 key questions you need to ask yourself at this stage.

1. What will be your marketing and sales mix?

The distribution of roles between marketing and sales is an issue to be addressed carefully and well in advance: with the development of SaaS offerings and the increasing digitalization of sales methods (Inbound Marketing, Social Selling, Sales Automation, etc.), the share of resources allocated to marketing is constantly increasing (the 1 to 2 ratio between marketing and sales is reversing).

It is absolutely necessary to have a clear vision of the stages of your sales funnel and to differentiate between those that fall under marketing and those that fall under the action of your sales representatives.

2. Should You Prioritize Inside Sales Representatives or Field Sales Representatives?

This is an essential aspect of your sales organization, and it depends primarily on the nature of your offer and its distribution method.

If you sell perpetual licenses with maintenance subscriptions, you will most likely opt for a partner network capable of managing the installation and follow-up. And in this case, you will mainly need field sales representatives to meet them, supported.

And in many cases, you will have to manage the cohabitation of these 2 models and determine all the more precisely the account allocation criteria and the allocation of sales forces that results between your inside and field sales representatives.

3. What skills should your sales representatives master?

It is also useful to ask yourself about the skills that your sales representatives will need to master. In direct connection with the first two points mentioned, but also depending on the profile of your customers, you will thus determine the sales methods, techniques and tools to implement.

According to the latest EY-Syntech study, the two main clients of software publishers in France today are the banking and industrial sectors. If this is your case, your sales representatives must be well-versed in "Key Account" sales methods, such as the Chessboard Method, and complex sales.

The public sector ranks 3^rd in this classification. If it is one of your priority targets, your sales team should focus on mastering the tender process and the associated sales techniques.

In a predominantly digital sales model, the role of salespeople is very different: with qualified contacts identified and nurtured upstream by marketing, "Inside Sales" essentially has the role of refining the qualification of needs, guiding the client in the choice of options, creating ambassadors for the solution within the client's organization, or even mapping out the decision-making powers.

Customer loyalty is also becoming increasingly important. We are also seeing the emergence of new sales roles, such as Customer Success Managers (CSMs), who are responsible for ensuring the quality of the Customer Experience.

In any case, a consultative sales approach – based on demonstrating the ROI of your solutions – is beneficial in your sector to showcase the value you bring.

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

4. Are you planning to expand your sales internationally?

Another key consideration for organizing your sales force is the proportion of revenue generated internationally and the strategic importance of international clients to your company.

While French publishers still generate a very large majority of their sales domestically², the share of overall revenue generated outside of France continues to increase, particularly driven by SMEs and start-ups resolutely focused on international markets from their inception, such as Criteo or Allegorithmic, for example.

A point that significantly impacts the sales organization to adopt for these companies: once the strategic geographic areas have been identified, you can determine whether your dedicated sales force operates from within France or directly on-site. Consider all the resulting factors: whether or not to establish a physical, relocated branch, the country's social and commercial legislation, and the opportunity to favor an English-speaking 'master version' of your solutions over a French-speaking one.

And from the point of view of your sales organization stricto sensu: adapting your promise and sales arguments into several languages and according to local cultures, the need to homogenize sales processes, sharing information between potential subsidiaries, deploying a CRM internationally, implementing cross-border management and steering...

5. What will your performance indicators be?

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

- The effectiveness of managing your sales activity
- Calculating the compensation of your sales representatives (a sensitive subject, to say the least!).
- The type of sales management adopted

And therefore, more generally: achieving the objectives that you have set for yourself! The current evolution of sales methods is reflected in the choice of KPIs present in the reporting.

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

1. The distribution of revenue by type of sales: licenses, SaaS subscriptions, or support/maintenance (on average today, almost 1/3 for each!)
2. New orders recorded: the « booking »
3. The evolution of monthly recurring revenue, or MRR
4. The revenue per country
5. The « churn rate » or attrition rate (contract non-renewal rate)

It is noted that two of them (MRR and churn rate) are directly correlated to the development of SaaS. In this new model, reducing and maintaining churn between 0 and 1% becomes a goal to achieve in order to ensure the profitability of the system as a whole.

Considering that customer acquisition costs are 5 to 25 times higher (depending on the sector) than the cost of customer retention... this indeed encourages paying particular attention to customer loyalty and the commercial levers that support it!

Booking remains essential, as evidenced by the choice of this criterion as the basis for calculating variable compensation for sales representatives by 34% of software vendors (compared to 26% for revenue generated).

Addressing these 5 key questions will allow you to define the best sales organization with regard to your objectives and the strategy defined upstream. And to have a clear vision on how you will manage it and ensure its effectiveness over time!