Aha Moments About Lean Six Sigma in Sales and Marketing

Its been a long time since my last post, partly due to a large project extending a client’s lean initiative to sales and marketing which started late last year. Another reason is that I wanted to step back from the blog, and from SPIF! for a few Read more

Powering Your Sales Process with Internet Marketing

In the last five to seven years Internet Marketing has been a gold rush for some entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, technologies have rapidly evolved, making it hard for B2B sellers and marketers to follow them. Those B2B marketers who have tried Internet Marketing techniques (such as Read more

Need to Fix Low Sales Productivity?

Here are Three Root Causes Every Senior Executive Needs to Know

by Michael J. Webb

Improvement in sales productivity doesn’t grow on trees. Once you understand what is really involved, the causes of statements like these jumps out at you:

• Company President: “I really like the new sales process you helped us design. Now, I expect my Sales VP to implement it. After all, I pay him enough.”
• Director of Marketing: “I understand how the Voice of the Read more

Whose Problem is Sales Quality?

How do we make the people in the sales function realize that Quality is an important factor for them? Hello. It has been a couple of weeks since I posted anything. Fall is the busy season, and boy, are we busy! The question above Read more

One Small Step Can Change Your Life

The Kaizen Way

People generally get a lot more chances in life than they realize. Everyone struggles with challenges and problems. The trick is to see beyond the surface appearance to the huge opportunities that may be hidden underneath. Dr. Robert Maurer has written a Read more

Are You Ready to Lead Your Salespeople on a Lean Kaizen Journey?

The tough economy seems to be causing more companies to poke around their sales departments with 5S or other lean-style experiments. We’ve received more inquiries on the topic, and some threads have popped up in lean and process-oriented bulletin boards. Many of these inquiries come from in-house Read more

Don’t Wait Until Its Too Late To Fix Your Sales Process

During the historic rains in Georgia last week I was putting out buckets to catch water leaking from the ceiling around my family room fireplace. At the same time leaking water was ruining the carpet and drywall in two rooms of my basement. I was reminded of Read more

How to measure new vs existing account processes (members only)

Marco, a SPIF! member in Europe, wrote to ask me this question:

Hey Michael, How would you handle this situation in the context of measurement: A salesperson acquires a new account but the initial order is low say $500.  At the same time the forecasted annual sales volume for this account is $20,000. If in the sales production diagram you record this transaction the amount would be $500 for that week or month. But then this account passes to the keeping phase as it is an acquired account where it will start to purchase more in the following months. So my question is, new business seems to be only $500 but in practice it will be much more than that, how would you record or handle this scenario. Which metrics are the most appropriate?

Marco, Thanks for your question. If I understand properly, you are pointing out that in some businesses success is a matter of generating additional revenue from existing accounts, rather Read more

Why Is Sales Productivity So Hard to Improve?

Should sales productivity be improving in your company?

If it should be, then year over year you should be able to measure the increase in whatever Output / Input terms you chose:

Revenue Cost of sales (and marketing)

Quantity of orders Quantity of opportunities

Revenue Full-time Read more

How to Sell Process to Your VP of Sales (members only)

Three Principles that Engage Sales Minds and Hearts to Improve Discipline, Measurement, and Performance

Many a company president, general manager, or company owner has struggled with Sales VPs who resist process improvement. This webinar presents Todd Youngblood’s approach to engaging sales executives who are resistant to process thinking. In it, he presents three principles that help them to take Read more