5 key points for defining your sales organization

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

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

1. What's your marketing/sales mix?

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

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

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

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

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

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

 3. What skills do your salespeople need to master?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4. Will you be developing your international sales?

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

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

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

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

5. What will your performance indicators be?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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