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Aligning Performance Levers to

Forge Breakthrough Sales Results

Mike Kunkle
2011
 Critical organizational elements which must be present for sustained high-
performance to occur. Levers usually include competencies, knowledge,
and skills/behaviors, as well as other elements such as systems, processes,
culture, technology, tools, and more.
Examples:
Competencies Knowledge Skill/Behaviors Other Elements

• Compensation
• Persistence • Opening a sales call
• How products work • Process / SOP
• Self-reliance • Using CRM data to
• How to order marketing • Policies
• Energy Level research accounts
collateral • Technology / Tools
• Verbal Skill • Executing a territory
• How to organize leads • Performance Management
• Assertiveness management plan based
• Elements of a marketing plan • Reporting
• Sociability on account potential

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Think of an 8-cylinder Engine…

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8 2

7 3

6 4
5

Firing on all 8 cylinders

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 What happens if it’s only firing on 4 cylinders?

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8 2

7 3

6 4
5

Firing on only 4 cylinders

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What if more than one system is not performing optimally?

System 1
 Engine

System 2
 Drive Train

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 Organization| Company Organization

 Function | Department
Function
 Position | Role | Job
• Task Position
Competencies Knowledge Skill/Behaviors Other Elements
• Compensation
• Persistence • Opening a sales call
• How products work • Process / SOP
• Self-reliance • Using CRM data to
• How to order marketing • Policies
• Energy Level research accounts
collateral • Technology / Tools
• Verbal Skill • Executing a territory


Assertiveness
Sociability
• How to organize leads
• Elements of a marketing plan
management plan based
on account potential


Performance Management
Reporting Task

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Sales Training Sales Effectiveness
• Is an important part of “sales effectiveness” • Includes much more than training
• Preceded by a training needs analysis • Preceded by a performance gap analysis
• Based on learning objectives • Based on performance objectives
• Improves workplace behaviors and
• Improves knowledge, skills, or attitudes
outcomes
• Requires instructional design and/or
• Also requires performance consulting skills
training delivery skills
• Output includes courses, curricula, training
• Output includes training, process, policy,
events (e-learning, self-directed,
technology, systems, best practices
classroom/instructor-led, field training)
• Tactical: Focused on who, what, why, how, • Strategic: Focused on organizational
when & where alignment to support high performance
O
F
P
T

 What can you control (or most strongly influence)?


 Within that span:
• What is the easiest win? (low-hanging fruit)
• Where is the biggest gain? (most mileage)
• What is the biggest pain? (biggest problem solved)
 But generally, to get started…

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O
F
P
T

This is your first target and you need a bullseye


 Focus your initial efforts here - on the Position levers
 Get this right for Sales & Sales Management Roles
Position  Show results
 Align the other levers next
 Then start “tying strings” (align) to other functions
This is training work – task analysis. Consider it an important part of the
Position Analysis and the resulting training.
Task  Do a great task analysis
 Write this into your training
 But consider it just part of the Position work

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Just a few of the many reasons…
 Better hiring | shorter-ramp up for new hires (and promotions)
 Geometric growth for incumbents (vs. incremental)
 Greater customer satisfaction & loyalty (increase penetration)
 Break out of “80/20 prison”
• Improve “average” performance levels across the organization
 Ensure that rewards and incentives drive the right behaviors
 Systemic alignment fosters clarity and focus – people “feel better”
(reduced frustration and cognitive dissonance)
 But most importantly, we do it for the bottom-line results…

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The Outcome | Bottom-line Results (Some Real Examples):
 Achieved a $9.96MM annual net ROI (multiple performance projects)
 Increased sales per rep by 47% through changes in territory management
and sales coaching
 Increased sales results 600% over previous year while decreasing net
operating expenses by 21%
 Improved average profitability per rep by 11% in 4 months
 Newly-trained 4-month employees outperformed a control group of 5-
year employees
 Improved processing efficiency (order pull-through) by 16% in 6 months
 Increased loans closed per FTE in the 3-month period after training by 2.3
per month (average revenue increase of $183K per class or $36.6MM in
12 months).

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The Business Situation and Problems
 Good growth rate – Wall Street darling
 Original team was doing very well (top 20% doing 80% of production)
 New Hires struggling – annualized NH turnover was growing fast
 Sales training was one week in a classroom, all lecture based
 Reporting was fragmented, hard to interpret, not actionable
 The best of the new sales people were promoted into management, but…
 No management training and managers each managed their own way
 Coaching was rare
 Performance management was, “You did X last month. You need to do Y next
month or you’ll be fired”
 If you had industry sales experience, wanted the job, and could fog a mirror,
the job was yours
 Few understood the complex compensation system.

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Challenge from the President – “Fix these problems”
 He hired a SVP of HR

 The SVP hired a Performance Development Team


• I was the Director, Sales Performance Development (Sales Training/Effectiveness)
 The President told us all:
“I believe in this group and what you were hired to do. But I
want to be clear. If you can’t deliver on your promises about
improving performance, you won’t be sitting at this table this
time next year.”

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What We Did – Performance Gap Analysis
 Analysis of past and past results | current state | current results. (Point A)
 Discussion with senior management on strategic direction, goals and
performance objectives. (Point B)
 Analysis of traits, habits, skills and practices of carefully selected Top,
Middle and Low Performers…
• Individual Interviews | Multiple Surveys | Focus Groups | Observations
 “Hiring Right” project – what’s the “right stuff” for our roles? How do we
hire and promote people effectively?
 Process analysis and documentation review for possible Lean projects
 Review of compensation and incentive programs and practices for sales
 Review of sales management practices
 Customer Interviews, Surveys, and Focus Groups.

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What We Did – Performance Gap Analysis
Befriend Smart People with SAS, SPSS, or Minitab

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Real-World Tips & “Gotchas”
 Analysis of traits, habits, skills and practices of carefully selected Top, Middle
and Low Performers
• Validate performer status closely: Especially rule out “inherited a great territory”
and other factors that mask “earned” top-producer status
• Listen most closely to the real top producers, those moving up steadily, and
superstar new hires who leap out of the gate
• Of the top 20% superstars, replicate the bottom 16%, not the top 4%
 Methods: Interviews | Multiple Surveys | Focus Groups | Observations
 Insert the Voice of the Customer – talk to them/listen
 Retool training based on the analysis (the performance levers)
 Be ruthless on process reviews. Streamline!
 Assess right. Hire right. Train right. Develop right. Manage right.
 Agree on what success looks like, with executives, upfront, and how it will be
measured.

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Outcomes: Position-Level Performance Levers
 For a Commission Sales Position in Financial Services

This is just one example.


Produce this for your sales and sales management roles.

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Other Levers We Aligned

Created Training
Hired for the for All Levers
Competencies
Management Levers

Sales Training

Adjusted
Compensation Lever Diagnostics

Sales Coaching

Performance Management

Improved
Internal Service Tracked Success
Metrics

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How we Created a Performance-Enhancing System
 Vetted the analysis, identified the levers and communicated everywhere
 Put 3-week sales training curriculum in place for new hires (2 weeks
remote + 1 week in class) that taught all levers, changed behaviors in class
and certified them
 All new managers went through the program and were certified
 Taught incumbent managers separately and certified them
 Developed a coaching program for managers (and yes, certified them)
 Aligned comp, performance management and reporting/metrics
 Started work on the supporting levers just discussed
 Constant communication | monitoring with dashboard reports
 Quick feedback loops, performance hotline, adjusted course as needed
 Transitioned leaders to take ownership and accountability
 Top-down, C-level support was critical.

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Some Results
 Reduced average ramp-up time to minimum acceptable performance for
newly-hired/trained reps from 6 months to 3
 Increased average sale revenue by 8% per sale
 Reduced turnover from 44% to 28% (1st year New Hire to 24%)
 Increased size of top producer contingent from 9% to 14%
 Increased “New Customer Stick Rate” (stat not available)
 Decreased order processing time by 16%
 But even better…
Overall: Delivered a $9.96MM net Return-on-Investment within one year!

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Varies by Role… What Should You Add / Subtract For Your Company?
 Recruiting | Selection  Document and discuss
 Competencies  Perform the analysis – Conduct the research
 Product Knowledge
 Build training around the levers
 Setting Goals & Objectives
 Activity Planning
 For sales roles, build activity models
 Lead Management  For managers, build train-the-trainer and coaching systems
 Account Selection  Align the performance systems
 Training | Coaching
 Technology | Tools Performance Lever Mix
 Needs-based Selling
 Consultative Selling Skills
 Reporting
 Pipeline Management
 Account Management
 Compensation

Thank you, Wordle.net

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Thanks for Reading!

Questions or Comments?

Mike Kunkle
mike_kunkle@mindspring.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikekunkle http://bit.ly/InviteMike-LinkedIn

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