Sales Roles And Productivity II: Data-Driven Boosts
Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don’t think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other. — Bill Gates
So what drives productivity in your organization? Is it a matter of management making the sales process easy for the reps? Is it about financial incentives?
We recently worked with an office supply company that tried the information-based approach. Knowledge is power, and while too much data can be overwhelming, especially if it’s unorganized or seemingly irrelevant, specific, pertinent information can increase efficiency. Or so the theory goes.
This company decided to look at customer composition and tried to understand what each customer would buy by product category. Then, they looked at how far that customer had been penetrated by certain product and service segments. The idea was to focus the sales organization on the clear paths of penetration.
They were able to capture all of the data relative to what the customer was consuming. They were able to see the product details for each customer bought in the paper category, they bought in print/copy category, and in furniture. “Then the game is to maintain the spend, improve it, and get them to spend in categories that they haven’t spent in before,” said the former executive vice president for the business solutions division.
“The overall approach l was to look at the customer and map out their remaining potential. And for those who are pretty well penetrated, assign them to a different sales resource. You have to make sure your data is kept fresh; it’s a reflection of where your customer is today, not where they were three years ago, because things change quickly,” she said.
How do you use information to increase productivity in your sales organization?
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