Blue Mine Group

Building an effective sales capability is central to a company's ability to grow. The goal must be to develop a productive, consistent capability designed to win, retain and grow clients. Building this organizational capability requires three key elements, all of which must be developed, maintained and periodically reassessed for sustained success – performance management, skills and processes.

In the next three months, we will explore these three elements in summary and begin to demonstrate how they work together to create a successful sales capability.

This month we will focus on performance management – planning, measuring and managing results. The foundation for any successful sales capability rests on a well thought out and defensible plan, which properly aligns corporate revenue expectations with the resources required to meet those expectations. To properly measure progress against expectations, performance metrics and measurement systems must be implemented. And these results must be translated into action through effective sales team management.

Effective sales performance management should include:

Desegregation of the revenue plan into key metrics, such as required suspects, prospects, client wins, expected sales cycle duration and average gross and net value per sale.

Territory management plans and reports which clearly define target market(s), team territory assignments, and weekly, monthly and quarterly sales activities.

Definition of sales financial targets and the appropriate quotas and subsequent motivating compensation plans for achieving those targets, closely aligned with accurate sales cycle definitions and required sustained pipeline value.

Taking innovative, emerging technology solutions into new markets requires a sustained sales discovery and business development effort in order to identify the right people and positions within prospective customer companies that drive decisions. Over time, an optimal sales process will be developed that leads to predictable sales cycles and new customer wins. Building and consistently reassessing sales performance management is essential to realizing success.