Sales Automation

In an ideal world, management would like to automate the sales process as much as possible, even eliminating or reducing the head count in the sales department. For those of you in sales, don't worry! Your job is safe — at least in this lifetime. Ideally, if customers could find us, select the product that best fits their needs, purchase the product, and require no service or support, companies would explode the bottom line. Of course, this is taking automation to the extreme, which some companies have actually tried to do. The point is obvious — sales is a necessary function. Of course, the dependency on sales varies from one business type to another. Even though sales professionals are here to stay, there are ways to improve the process. In case you don't think so, look at the customer satisfaction surveys for the companies that automate nearly 100% of the sales process, i.e., cable, telephone, etc.

It is amazing that every company that utilizes some form of continuous improvement process seems to overlook the sales department for one reason or another. Just because we are humans does not mean we can't improve. CRM programs were supposed to help with this, but based on statistics, that has not been 100% successful. But don't put the blame on the CRM technology. There are several basic tasks that can be implemented to continuously improve the sales function.

What Do You Want to Improve?



Instead of trying to revamp your entire sales process, determine what is working well and what you would like to improve. Make a list of those items and then prioritize them based on level of importance.

Set Goals

Once you have defined which area of the sales process you want to improve, set a goal. How much would you like this area of the sales process to improve by? Describe the ideal scenario — once you've fixed the particular area, what will it look like? For example, "reduce the average sales cycle from nine months to six months," or "increase the annual value of a client from $200K to $400K," etc.

Develop a Plan

Once you know what you want to improve, and by how much, brainstorm with your team to see what needs to happen in order to make the improvement. This may require input from other departments besides sales. For example, if the quoted turn-around time is two weeks, what will it take to decrease it to two days? It could be a systems issue and not even related to sales per se. Develop a plan that addresses the problem areas.

Define Measurements

No improvement process will succeed without a means of tracking and measuring put into place. These measurements will identify where problems are typically occurring, pinpointing the actual root cause of the problem. The measurements will also help track when things are improving. They are the heart of any continuous improvement process.

Implement Change

Once everything is ready and in place, implement the change. But realize that this is not where the process ends. Once one change has been implemented and is working, you must continue to look for other areas of improvement and repeat the process above. Continue to monitor or measure the effectiveness of your sales process. As technology, customer demands, product and service offerings, etc. change, there will always be opportunities for improvement.

Although complete sales force automation is unrealistic, you can still get the benefits of becoming more efficient and increasing the bottom line by decreasing the cost of goods sold when you implement a continuous improvement process for your sales organization.

About the Author

Henry Pellerin is president and founder of VantaEDGE™, Inc. and co-author of The Strategic Selling Process. VantaEDGE™, Inc. provides customized sales training, consultation, and facilitation services. Henry personally has over 17 years of experience in sales, sales management, and business development which he shares with clients to help them receive the same results he has attained year after year.

You may want to sign up for the VantaEDGE™ monthly sales tips newsletter VantaEDGE Monthly, where you'll receive valuable selling tips each month along with the special report Avoid the Top 10 Selling Mistakes That Lose Sales. To do so, visit www.vantaedge.com. Henry can be reached at 864.254.9300 or via email at henry@vantaedge.com.