Keys to Effective Delivery Systems

“It is through cooperation, rather than conflict, that your greatest successes will be derived.” – Ralph Charell – Business Book Author

We just completed a series of blogs on sales and marketing plans. A well thought out and executed sales and marketing plan is essential for any business to be profitable. But even the best sales and marketing plan is worthless without a delivery system to back it up. You can sell millions of units of a product, but if you can’t get it to the customer, you are playing a losing game.

How do you develop a delivery system that will appropriately support your sales efforts and seamlessly complete a positive customer experience? Here are a few things to consider when you create your delivery system:

An effective Delivery System requires coordination between Production and Sales to fulfill the customer’s expectation. – This is the essence of the delivery system conversation. Both Production and Sales must be aligned on their commitment to represent the company in the marketplace. They are interdependent players on the same team. Each has a specific role to fill, and they must communicate and work together to make sure the customer is getting what he wants, and when he wants it.

Production must be clear on what is and isn’t possible and communicate that to Sales. – The Production team has a responsibility to the Sales staff to be clear about what is possible. How many units can they produce? How quickly? How much flexibility do they have for special orders? If Sales doesn’t have a grasp of what they can sell, the result will be unhappy customers.

Sales must understand production capabilities and communicate those to the customer. - The follow up to the previous point is that the Sales staff must be able to articulate to the customer what’s possible. Sales should only promise things they are positive that production can deliver.

Both sales and production must be willing to explore creative solutions to customer concerns. – A good delivery system depends on Sales and Production being allies in the effort to produce products and services that customers want and that satisfy customer concerns. Depending on your business, there will always be times when sales and production need to think outside the box. Maybe production can create the product in a special color. Maybe Sales can work with the customer to agree on a delivery schedule that insures a successful and well-made product. Creativity and a willingness to partner together go a long way toward fostering happy client relationships and driving the company to profit.

Have you reviewed your company’s delivery system lately? Are there times when your sales and production teams see themselves as adversaries instead of allies? What can you do to design a delivery system that will insure that the customer is satisfied? If you would like guidance on how to create an effective delivery system, give us a call. We’ll help you find the win-win solution that works best for your company and your customers.

Are you ready to win?

Individual Sales Objectives

“A salesman minus enthusiasm is just a clerk.” – Harry F. Banks

Sales and Marketing plans need to reflect both company-wide objectives as well as the individual salesperson’s goal numbers. Both corporate and personal goals should align with the company’s profit intentions. Last week’s blog spoke to the company objectives. This week we will look at how to craft a sales and marketing plan for the individual salesperson.

Here are some key elements of a personal sales plan:

Marketing Tasks – Marketing tasks are things like networking, sending e-newsletters, blogging, and doing internet research to find prospects who have a high likelihood of buying your product. Without this kind of legwork, salespeople are hard-pressed to find those ideal clients.

Sales Actions – Sales actions include setting appointments, meeting with clients, preparing proposals, presenting the product, closing deals and following up. Each of these actions must happen consistently, and they must be scheduled into the calendar. Sales people who present proposals, but don’t follow up or close the deal are not going to meet their objectives. Break your sales effort into specific actions like these, and determine where those are going to appear in your calendar.

Accountability System – Salespeople need accountability systems if they want to stay on track to meet their goals. Who holds the salesperson accountable in your company? Is there a sales manager? A production manager? Who is responsible for tracking the progress and offering support to the sales staff? Is that chain of command clear to the salesperson?

Existence System – This is something the salesperson needs in order to be disciplined about performing the sales and marketing actions that will result in sales. The most common and best existence system is a calendar. Scheduling sales and marketing actions into an Outlook calendar gives one a picture of future results. A weekly sales meeting is another kind of existence system, as is a visual chart or graph that plots the salesperson’s progress toward his goals. Existence systems require some discipline, and it’s best if they have visual components that are easy reminders of where you stand.

Proposals – What kind of proposals do you need to have to present to clients? Maybe yours is a simple pricing sheet that you discuss over the phone, or maybe it is a highly detailed and customized PowerPoint presentation that you will deliver to the board of directors. Either way, it’s essential to have your materials prepared and be able to articulate how your product or service will be able to answer the prospect’s concerns.

Ongoing Training and Support – A salesperson should never feel like an island, separate from the company and colleagues and left to sell without direction. Salespeople should continually receive training on product capabilities and new ways to reach out to the marketplace. Salespeople also need to understand where to go for support when customers have complaints, questions or special requests.

The salesperson is often the embodiment of the company’s brand and reputation in the marketplace. Salespeople need clear individual objectives and well established channels for support. Businesses need to manage for personal and corporate objectives so that salespeople can distinguish themselves in the marketplace and deliver on the company sales intentions. A winning plan will yield winning results and will keep your business on the leading edge of the game of sales.

Are you ready to win?

Keys to a Sales and Marketing Plan

“Everyone lives by selling something.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

Over the past couple of months, this blog has focused on helping you develop specific and measurable intentions for your business. Now we want to shift gears, and talk more about delivering on those intentions. What actions do you need to take to create more sales, which will increase your revenue, which will ultimately increase your profits and keep your company viable?

The first step is to have a sales and marketing plan. It’s important to take the time to create a plan for where and how you are going to generate sales. Otherwise you will waste valuable time and resources throwing darts at a vague map on the wall instead of finding the prospects who have the greatest likelihood of buying your product.

There are some key elements of any sales and marketing plan that are essential guidelines for your strategy:

The Sales and Marketing Plan must align with your intentions. You have put a lot of effort into creating specific intentions that are going to drive your company to your desired results. Your sales and marketing plan needs to tie into those intentions. Design your marketing actions so that you are pursuing the kinds of clients that will give you what you want. When you look at your sales and marketing plan, ask yourself, “Will this plan be the path to me achieving what I set out to do?”

The plan must include both sales and marketing actions. You simply can’t have one without the other. If all you do is sell without spending time researching the best prospects or the best approach, you will waste a lot of time and effort on people who likely are not a fit for your product or service. Likewise, if all you do is marketing research, and never go out to make a sale, well it’s easy to see where that will lead…no sales.

Marketing is the process of creating opportunities for sales. It’s important to remember that sales and marketing are two distinct actions. Marketing is the set of activities that help us find good potential clients. Marketing includes networking, internet research, sending newsletters, hosting webinars; any action that can put you in proximity to the people who have a need for your product or service.

Sales is the process of having conversations with people who have the possibility of buying your product. Sales involves talking with pre-qualified prospects, listening to their concerns, and creating a vision for how your product or service answers their concerns. Sales is not an intrusion. Sales is your opportunity to solve someone’s problem, and show how your company is the best choice now and in the future.

Sales and Marketing must both be scheduled in your calendar. You schedule dentist appointments and plane flights and you show up. Likewise, sales and marketing actions need to be firmly programmed into your calendar, and you have to show up! Just thinking about sales and marketing is not going to yield results. Those who spend time every day on sales and marketing are the ones who have the highest probability of delivering on their revenue and profit intentions.

We will delve deeper into sales and marketing plans in upcoming blogs. But don’t wait to take action. Start designing your sales and marketing plan today and finding where in your calendar those actions will show up. Because those who plan for success will be the ones who win the game of business.

Are you ready to win?