Benchmark Those Successes

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What a lengthy, highly competitive struggle! ... but you won the business, that's the most important thing. Now comes the hard work; actually making it all happen. But that can wait a while. Why not go and celebrate a little, relax and unwind? After all, you do deserve it.

Now comes the logistics of fulfilling the project requirements to the customer's complete satisfaction. The tedious paperwork is essential, and that delivery time ... why does it always take so long? Keeping the customer up-to-date with progress however, should appease any resulting anxiety. Now on to the next sales project ...

The dust has settled, what have you learned? No one really cares when the business is won, do they? It's assumed that the salesperson did nothing wrong and the overall package offered satisfied requirements perfectly. You haven't learned much at all. Ever stopped to think that perhaps your organisation simply did less wrong, and the package offered was the best of a bad bunch? Undiscerning buyers may not be prepared to reject all offers and repeat the process due to the costs involved and the up-line embarrassment. Next time you may be left wondering why you failed?

Management often only questions when major business is not won, concentrating on the negative aspects. But what sane salesperson is going to proudly proclaim the various mistakes they made? Most salespeople provide lame excuses (claiming to have spoken to the prospect), which satisfy their management, get a tap on the wrist, and told to get on with the job. There may also be organisational issues involved, but to be labelled a complainer just isn't personally worth the overall company benefit that might result from an analysis. Again, little is learned.

Clearly it's a waste of time and energy doing nothing. It's hardly any more productive concentrating on why business is lost due to the limited information flow. Perhaps concentration on determining why business is won, might provide more useful knowledge. And there's no point in asking the salesperson, meet with the customer.

Customers dislike sales visits without purpose and they also don't appreciate being ignored post-sale-pre-delivery. Salespeople put a lot of effort into the pre-sale customer relationship so why not keep the momentum going? A post-sale meeting without the pressure of sale closure provides the ideal relaxed forum at which much is achievable for both parties:

By being selected as a supplier, your customer is strongly stating, "I want a relationship, I want to talk about my company, I want you to understand my needs, and I want to be appreciated". That is why this post-sale meeting method is so successful, it's in the best interest of both parties.

On the other hand, to attempt the same style of meeting after losing the business (a more common process) is futile. The customer doesn't want the relationship, so why would they bother talking at any length with you? Because you want help? The customer doesn't care, and probably won't tell you much anyway.

Written questionnaires are often used. They offer a range of organisational functions/services/products and request an importance rating to the customer, and a supplier performance rating. It's then up to your internal interpretation and analysis to create the picture. But you don't really determine why you won the business. Face-to-face discussion and note taking is ultimately the best method, but is of course a little more difficult, takes longer and is more expensive to implement. The data gained from questionnaires is however quite useful

Selling styles vary widely, but what is it that makes your most successful salesperson so successful? This is referring to their 'hit rate' as opposed to their level of prospecting. Why is their success rate higher? What are they doing differently? What can be learned from them? They obviously push different buyer-buttons during pre-sale activities, which 'buttons'? This data is also very important.

All collected data needs to be processed into a database, and continually updated. The picture painted by the database is one of 'how to succeed' in sales within your organisation and marketplace. By knowing 'how to', it's a simple deduction process to avoid 'how not to'. This database then becomes an organisationally-personalised sales training tool.

You won't need to learn 'worst practises' from salespeople's failures, their successes make for far more interesting conversations. By concentrating on the successes of business in order to establish the negatives by deduction, employee attitudes tend to remain more positive. Your company displays a happy positive feeling, which is felt by others. The rote learned 'best practises', simply get repeated.

The strategic marketing process continually self-benchmarks. Successful programmes (determined by the return on investment) are repeated. Unprofitable campaign styles get analysed and are avoided in the future. Sales result from marketing efforts, so if benchmarking is so paramount in marketing why wouldn't an organisation extend the process to include sales activities. It seems pointless not to.

The most important thing is to win the sale. But remember, the second most important thing is to appreciate and fully understand why you won the business. Yes the benchmarking of other organisations is common, but to ignore your own hard-earned and expensive knowledge is simply flushing dollars down the drain. Benchmark your own successes.

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About the Author

Steve Underhill (MD - Business Rationale) is a business consultant dedicated to helping SME's (Small-Medium Business Enterprises) understand more about business techniques. Download his E-Book 1000+ Free Business Tips & Ideas and also take a look at the many Other Products that are available from Business Rationale.