How can I qualify the right accounts for my large/strategic/global account segment?

Many companies face the challenge of understanding which customers and prospects should be part of the strategic, national or global account organization.  Determining how to choose and, or qualify the customers and prospects is important for a variety of reasons.  Strategic customers usually have lesser margins than other segments, typically receive a greater level of service, and some of the best talent in the organization will be dedicated to these customers.

Often times customers and, or prospects become part of the large accounts program simply because of the size of the organization, existing revenue, because there are multiple geographic locations needing representation, or for any number of reasons.  Because of the lack of discipline used to qualify these customers, many times the large account organization has too many customers which creates a number of issues for the organization.  The sales and support teams get stretched too thin and do not have the time to spend on the best customers and opportunities.  Constant battles erupt with the financial organization on the cost of sales to support seemingly price only customers.  And some of the customers do not recognize the underlying value proposition or the sales team is to busy to understand how to map the customer needs to the value proposition.  The very best customers may be vulnerable to the competition because the team doesn't have the time necessary to continue to evolve the relationship.

Because I've personally encountered this issue at a number of companies across industry sectors, I've created a simple tool to help companies define what a key account is and qualify existing and future accounts.  Simply put the tool is a large/strategic account qualifying filter (see example below).  To build a filter follow these steps.

1. Create and prioritize a list of customer buying attributes.  
2. Narrow the list to less than seven.
3. Define each attribute.
4. For each attribute, determine varying levels of alignment to your definition versus a scale of say 1 - 5.  Using centralized procurement as an example (1. there is no centralized buying and 5. all buying decisions are centralized).
5. Provide an importance weighting for each attribute.

Once done, test a few existing customers (some of your best, worst, and mediocre) using a different number of attributes and different weighting until you believe you've landed on the correct filter.  If your so inclined you can Then, have a few other people use the filter and send you their results.  Tabulate the results, have a meeting with the pilot team and revise the filter.

Finally, determine the right policy and procedures (governance) of the tool and process.  Who owns the tool and process, what score is necessary to "pass", is there a process for exceptions, how often should the tool be updated and accounts re-scored, how should we train the organization, etc.).  And finally how do we transition existing accounts to a different service model to free up capacity for the most valued accounts?

Select the link below to download the sample.
Filter Sample

Selling Through the "In Box"

I know I'm not the only chief sales and marketing executive that's "sat on the other side of the table" and experienced both excellent, and not so good sales and marketing pitches.  My hope has always been that my own sales and marketing teams were aligned with the former, but the chill in my bones tells me otherwise.

Excellent or needing improvement, one nuance many sales people  miss is how to get their proposal to the top of the customer's "in box."  For example, I remember calling on a major financial institution with one of our company's sales people just after the economy went into a free fall.  I recall the customer vividly as she pointed out her dilemma.  "Look" she said, "I used to be responsible for leading the department.  I've now also taken responsibility for managing some suppliers directly.  It's been tragic here, we've had to lay off 25% of our department; so we're all pitching in and just holding things together thankful to still have a job. While I love the ideas in your proposal; and believe they're a great fit, I just don't have the time to build the business case. Instead, I'd like to talk to you about how you can reduce your price so I don't have to take you out to bid."

Suddenly our company's sales person went from pitching an idea to grow the business to defending the current program and price.  Naturally, the sales person began to panic and list all the benefits of our current program with the customer, all the progress that had been made, etc.

When the rep came up for air, I politely inserted myself and began to ask the customer some questions about how she was feeling and coping with all the change.  The customer shared a lot about how stressed she was and how on edge her department was, and how all she knew was that she wanted to find a way to meet the company's objectives to cut costs and save jobs.  I then shared my experience sitting on her side of the table. I told the customer I totally understood her perspective.  I told her I to had an in box full of all the things my boss wanted done, the staff wanted done, customers wanted done, vendors wanted done, and that somewhere in there were some good ideas that I wanted to pursue.   The customer interrupted me and said, "You forgot about my husband, my kid's sports team, the school, etc."  At which point we all started laughing.

Then I told her that I thought we could help.  I asked her to take us through the processes being created and monitored by the company to save money.  I asked her what was expected, by when and how initiatives were being tracked.  The customer outlined the process and told us what needed to be done every step of the way. The customer willingly gave us a step by step playbook for how to win the business.

When she was done, I told her that I was certain we could do >90% of the work for her.  I asked her how she planned to reduce costs form the various suppliers being that she'd lost most of here team.  Her response, "Good question!"  I told her that's where we could help.  I told her to think of us as an extension of her team.  We'll do the analysis, we'll build the implementation plan, we'll even craft a draft email to your boss.  And of course, we promised to get her feedback every step of the way.

Within about sixty days the customer's in box was reduced in size along with some of her anxiety we won the business.

Looking back it became obvious to me why so many sales people miss this opportunity.   I believe it's largely because they've not been on the "other side of the desk" dealing with all the issues that go along with implementing a new idea and/or changing a program or supplier.  It take's a lot of work and is one reasons why 60% of RFP's are won by the incumbent.

I now regularly coach sales people to be conscious of the challenges the customer faces.  Because no matter how good or lucrative your proposal may be it must to get to the top of your customer's in box before it will be considred.  Do you know where your proposals are in the in box?

The Diluted Promise of CRM at Dreamforce

Per usual, this year's Dreamforce conference was well attended by a wide variety of users, vendors, thought leaders, etc.  Everyone descended on San Francisco to learn about the latest and greatest bells, whistles and research about salesforce.com and customer relationship management.

Like every year, I attended to get more knowledge about a few specific topics.  That being the case, I focused my time attending seminars, panel discussions and meeting vendors that were relevant to my mission.  And of course, not being able to avoid it, my name badge was scanned and my information was loaded into, you guessed it - salesforce.com.   And here's where it gets interesting.

Whether or not I took the time, or was allowed the time to explain who I am and what I do; it didn't seem to matter.  Because in the days following the show, a huge number of relentless and sometimes "crafty" sales people have been trying to "follow up"with me.  After all, I'm an unqualified prospect waiting to be sold, or at least that's what everyone thinks.

I compliment the sales people for their fearless determination to get me on the phone, qualify me and sell me something.  The problem is that virtually none of them are using their CRM system as it was designed.  Remember my comment earlier about trying to share what I do, etc.?  Well, none of that data got captured, or it was ignored.  So, I have to start all over again every time I take a call.  And it's time I'll never get back.

The sad part is that this reflects on the company's brand.  One day their pitching how they (brand) can help improve sales and the next, executing with total incompetence.  It leaves me wondering if their product is really as good as they advertise.

But should I be surprised?  No.  I work with sales organizations all the time and I realize how poor most are at execution.  And we all know one of the biggest challenges of organizations is getting their sales people to use the system and enter meaningful data.  This is highlighted year after year in many studies including CSO Insights.  I find it ironic that there are legions of users and sellers all looking for the next best app to drive some huge improvement, all the while executing poorly on what they already have.

So what can be done to resolve this problem?  Below are three, basic solutions.

1. Make sure you have a sales process/playbook with a prescribed methodology that can be taught, monitored and that your managers can use as a coaching tool.  It's critical for each stage of the sale to have go/no go filters.  And most importantly make sure the process is used.
2. Make sure your incentives, including "gamification" are not counter productive.  Make sure people are being rewarded for the right behavior and outcome.  Frankly, I'd rather see half as  many calls if they're twice the quality.  Yes, I understand the math, but at some point effectiveness has to become part of the equation.
3. Capture better information up stream.  Make as simple as checking boxes, e.g. a) I'm currently looking for a solution; have a seller contact me, b) I'm just doing research send me product and information updates, c) I'm not interested and just stopped by your booth. Getting basic information will help you prioritize your post show actions.  You can use what you want, but more time upstream will help downstream productivity.  Obviously these are oversimplified examples, but it's more information than I was asked to provide, or the company had.  So ask yourself, "What are the key pieces of data needed (size salesforce, # inside & outside, CRM system, current objectives, what interests you about our offering, etc.) to qualify as much in the moment.

The last few days, the cliche, "I don't care how much you know, until I know how much you care" has been playing over an over in my head.  One easy way to show you care is by doing homework.  I don't need to be sold, I need someone to help improve my business.   And that can't be done if the seller doesn't know who I am, what I do, and what my challenges and aspirations are.   A side benefit will be that sales will get better leads from marketing and thus reduce the battle over number of, and quality of  leads.

I've got to go. My calendar has just notified me of a call my executive assistant set up.

The title of the appointment is DREAMFORCE INTRO - CC Walk ME 818-XXX-XXXX.  And the notes of the appointment say:

Hi Chris,
It was a pleasure speaking with your secretary earlier.  Per our conversation, I have set up a web meeting for Wednesday, November 19th at 10:30 am Central.

I look forward to meeting with you.

All the best,

Name
Sales Development Manager

Here's how the the call started.

Me: hello this is Chris.

Seller: How can I help you?  Can you tell me the company you work for?  I saw that you saw a demo of our product at Dreamforce and  . . . pitch, pitch, pitch. 

Me: Name, do you know what my firm does?

Name: Um, I did do some research last week . . . 

You can imagine where it went from there.  And unfortunately this is the rule, not the exception.

In closing, I have to wonder how buyers are feeling.  Are we entering the era of "Do Not Call Lists" for b2b?  I feel like I'm under siege and it's not even dinner time when someone is trying to sell me a time share I don't want or need.

My Salesforce is Drowning - is There an App for That?

Is  your salesforce drowning in all the apps, tools, processes, training, etc?  Too many times the path taken to improve salesforce effectiveness is to add the next great app.  Before long the sponsors of the initiative begin to see sporadic use so a new plan is hatched to drive adoption using "carrots and/or sticks".  Over time, so many new "silver bullet" initiatives have been launched that the salesforce begins to collapse under the weight of all the initiatives.

A simple way to avoid this from happening to your salesforce is to conduct an audit.  First determine the existing capacity of your salesforce.  One, new initiative that consumes 15 minutes a day of a sales person's time doesn't seem like too much to ask, but when it's added to the existing fifteen, that's nearly four hours or half of a sales persons selling time each day that's now spent using "tools" or following "processes".  

Second, remove redundant or unused tools and processes.  Too many times there are overlapping features and only a few get used.  If there's no value, just say no. Graveyard unused, unproductive tools and processes.  Companies are always good at adding more, but not going on a diet.  Slim down to the essentials.  And make sure there's alignment form terminology to functionality.

Third, make sure any new app, process, or tool is essential and will provide value.  Often times I find it hard to isolate the ROI on sales initiatives.  I once told a CRM sales person and VP of Sales that I should just fire my salesforce because the claims of their system were so incredible that I'd just turn it on and grow a whopping percentage.  Understand that most investments in tools, processes and training are interrelated.   So make sure you value the impact appropriately.  

Fourth, use an agile approach to implement.  Start with a few pilots and make sure you have a way to isolate their performance to control groups.  Let the pilots know that what you are rolling out isn't perfect, but that's purposeful.  Tell them you want to build a tool with them, that works for them.  As you get the bugs worked out and receive favorable user feedback and results, you're ready to scale the implementation.  And by all means make sure the new tool, training, process, etc. is tightly integrated and complimentary to the existing echo system.

Finally it's time to execute.  My go to motto here is "wash, rinse, repeat".  If the new tool, process, training, etc. is really going to drive results, spend the time to get adoption.  You must get sales management and leadership on board.  Without their commitment the project is doomed to fail.  Make sure you spend separate time with the front line management team to get them bought in.  And make sure you use the success and testimonial of the pilot groups to help in the change management process.  And then it's about execution.  I once rolled out a new training concept and broke it into four modules repeated six times over a 26 week period.  By the sixth review people could recite it in their sleep.  And by then folks were actually just beginning to be able to use he training effectively.  It takes a lot of time and effort to get adoption and this is usually where the time and resources are not adequate to drive the desired results.  

Following this over simplified process will help improve the productivity of your sales organization and benefit from new initiatives.