Digital Sales Result Strategy
5) Sales. Digital sales. Digital Sales Result Strategy. Digitization puts "the focus" on customers and in this way becomes one of the most important levers of value for the strategic sales process. Through the method “Digital Sales Result Strategy” we use digitization in the sales strategy to obtain the best possible result, which, as leaders, should be our main objective.
Like any strategic process, it consists of a series of phases in which we will consciously apply all the digitization that is within our reach to obtain as much information as possible about what customers want and need. We insist again, "the focus" is on the customers and in the strategic sales process we also put "the focus" on the results. We have to be highly efficient, effective and effective in the sales strategy to be able to differentiate ourselves from the competitors and turn our position into a winner.
The different phases for the strategic digital process of results-oriented sales (Digital Sales Result Strategy) are the following:
5.1) Analysis of the current situation. Need to act.
5.2) Analysis of the current objectives of the company.
5.3) Diagnosis of the situation.
5.4) Reformulation of the objectives. Definition of final objectives.
5.5) Contribution of creative ideas to achieve the final objectives.
5.6) Definition of the strategy and roadmap.
5.7) Implementation of the strategy and roadmap.
5.8) Measurement of results.
5.1) Analysis of the current situation. Need to act. Our current business system is not competitive. We lose sales operations to competitors. Lower the turnover. We lose market share. Profits decrease because of all the above. The company is weakening, shareholders are uneasy, and staff are unmotivated and uneasy. We lose the best talents. The situation is worrying and there is a need to act to correct the situation as soon as possible because otherwise the company is at risk.
From the point of view of digitization, which is what concerns us now for the development of the “Digital Sales Result Strategy” process, we will pay attention to the following points:
5.1.1) Do we have a sufficiently prepared CRM sales management system? Do we know what kind of clients and how many clients we lose? Do we know why we lose sales? Do we know in which markets we lose sales? Do we know which products we lose sales with? Do we know to which competitors we lose sales? Does the sales network use the CRM system properly? Are the visit reports up to date and of the required quality? Do we have enough customer information? Do we know all the interlocutors in the purchase process?
5.1.2) Are visits from our commercial network properly managed? Is all the commercial activity reflected in the CRM? Do we make the visits per client / market committed in the commercial budget? Do we have a commercial budget up to that detail? Do we do opportunity management? Are they reflected?
5.1.3) Is there a digital methodology to obtain / win new clients? Do we have a well-defined and managed digital process? Do we have a well-defined and digitally collected customer cluster? Are the cluster parameters well defined and understood? Is there a methodology for working with clients? Is it working according to potential?
5.1.4) Is there a defined commercial strategy regarding direct customers, channels or mixed strategy? Can all this be followed and monitored in a digital way? Is the information that the sales network has better or worse than that of our competitors? Does always the sales network have access to the information in a digital way? Does the commercial network use appropriate digital equipment? Is the pricing and discount strategy transparent for the commercial network? Do you have access to it digitally?
The digital connection points with the sales network are today innumerable and a modern commercial network cannot be conceived without a high degree of digitization. The convenience of digital commercial management systems is no longer discussed, but rather the very high quality of commercial management that they must provide us to achieve a clear differentiation with respect to competitors. Today we are working to digitize the pre - sales with all the necessary and available information when making a visit and having a high probability of success. We are talking, for example, about knowing the latest economic news about the client collected in the media, new agreements and contracts signed, new models of machines launched on the market, latest events held and why not, of all the data collected from the social networks about the people we are going to visit. The time of sale, the visit itself is also closely related to digitization. Apart from the current demands due to the pandemic, in a face-to-face visit the use of digital media to support the sales action is remarkable, such as product presentation videos, manufacturing processes, available logistics, details of plans, etc., etc. The after - sales phase undoubtedly requires a high dose of digitization to be effective. Quality and defect evaluation programs, digital customer service and claims systems, digitally monitored preventive maintenance, etc. We will talk about all this later.
Therefore, digitization permeates every state of the sale and it is clear that a well digitized sales process is the best internal diagnostic tool we have to assess our relationship with customers.
5.2) Analysis of the current objectives of the company. A company with a high degree of digitalization in its management has many possibilities of generating different scenarios before deciding on the objectives that will give rise to the annual budget. In a simplistic way we can say that budgets, with their corresponding objectives, tend to fail due to a lack of sales or due to excess expenses, or both at the same time. I insist, it is a simplistic way of looking at the scenarios so as not to go into much detail here. Both concepts, lack of sales and excess expenses can be perfectly analyzed if the digitization of the company is moderately acceptable. The exterior scenario is always more difficult to analyze than the interior, but for this we can also provide ourselves with many digital analysis tools that can reinforce to give clarity to our positioning within the selected markets. The internal scenario is usually more digitized because it was always finance and accounting that we took care of digitizing first. The production cost scenarios are always more difficult to interpret, but I insist, normally there are enough digital tools to establish the possible scenarios.
It is therefore up to the management and the leaders of the company to choose between the possible scenarios to determine the annual budget with the corresponding objectives. It frequently happens that this choice is wrong due to excess optimism or excess pessimism. Objectives are not met, shareholders are nervous, management is hesitant, and staff is demotivated, putting the company at risk. Now is the time to act to correct the situation as soon as possible.
5.3) Diagnosis of the situation. Obviously, we will use our entire digital infrastructure to make an accurate diagnosis of the situation and thus, in some way, knowing where the real deviations are to be able to formulate a battery of proposals to correct the budgets, straighten the company's situation and define clear objectives and closer to the existing reality. Indeed, budgets must start from the base, that is, from truthful information provided by the market or the group of clients that comprise it. And curiously, the base, the market and the customers, determines the top line of the budgets, that is, sales. Therefore, the most important question is: is our network and business structure prepared in knowledge and media (especially digital) to take on this responsibility? I am afraid that in many of the companies the answer would be a resounding NO. Experience supports me in this statement and that is why I believe that digitization has only just begun and especially in the field of sales. If we are not able to "adjust" a sales budget, it will be very difficult to hit the bottom line, that is, the profits resulting from the exercise. The reader can do the exercise corresponding to his / her company with deviations of 1 to 10% in sales, which would mean for the benefit of the company. There are still many commercials that consider deviations of 5% as normal and difficult to predict. And in many cases, they are, for which it is necessary to create "reserve plans" to compensate them. Think about when within the sales objectives is the acquisition or gain of new clients. Target customers are defined, but the procedure or method to replace them in case one of them fails is not defined. Our “Digital Sales Result Strategy” takes care of this like so many other result-oriented factors.
Once the diagnosis of the situation has been carried out with a good external analysis of the market and product, comparisons with the competition, analysis of the points of difference complemented with our truthful information on clients, visits made, potential of the clients, analysis and management of proposals , projects won and lost, etc., we will complete a good analysis of expenses always asking ourselves the same questions: Is it necessary? What does the customer get out of it?
Then we will be able to reformulate the objectives to define realistic final objectives, achievable and assumed by the entire organization.
5.4) Reformulation of the objectives. Definition of final objectives. Realistic, achievable and assumed by the entire organization. Realistic because they start from the base, that is, from the customers. The relationship with customers in the short, medium and long term, the knowledge we have of them, the trust placed, the continuous and truthful communication are the basic aspects to obtain figures, data, concrete facts that allow us to formulate a reliable sales objective, sustainable and truthful. What does it take for it? Having a well-prepared commercial network and structure with the necessary means so that each interaction with the client is a positive event and that sustains the relationship in the future. Means to know more and better the client with up-to-date information, to give reliable delivery times, consistent prices, constructive visits, management of opportunities, clear closings, adequate after-sales service and, ultimately, to grow the relationship in a positive way in the time.
Compliant because they are realistic and not "inflated" by internal issues. If there is customer commitment there is a solid foundation for trust. The organization becomes more transparent and puts more "focus" on the customer.
Assumed by the entire organization because today we are not talking about a solitary salesperson but a sales team that brings together practically the entire organization. When we require trust with the client and we talk about commitments, we talk about everything that concerns relationships and not just the product and the price. The customer requires much more from our organization, from management to telephone service through purchases, operations and other services that intervene in a relationship that is increasingly complex and more intense. Therefore, within the digitization of the company we will take great care to have very well organized digitally all those people who intervene on the part of the purchasing team (customer people) and the sales team (people from our team) including some external ones when they deal with complex contracts (Lawyers), external transport, etc. This is what we call "Political Relationship Poster" and it plays a fundamental role when the client has the complexity of a Siemens, ABB, Schneider Group, Rockwell, Mitsubishi, Huawei, etc., to give a few examples.
5.5) Contribution of creative ideas to achieve the final objectives. For the reformulation and definition of the final objectives, some ideas have already had to be put on the table to do things different from those we have done so far and thus have a chance to change things. If we don't do different things, nothing will change! Therefore, creating change requires "creative ideas". It happens on many occasions that the same people who are involved in the day to day are not capable or do not dare to formulate "creative ideas" that may even be disruptive with what has been done previously. This is when the management must choose to intervene and create an “expert group” with the most creative people in the organization without attending to hierarchical positions (it is my recommendation) and possibly combining external experts (it is my recommendation) who can give (always and when they have the necessary experience) a point of view not subject to the day to day of the company. It is perhaps one of the keys to the whole process, but remember: without doing different things, without contributing “creative ideas” there will be no changes! Without changes we can put the company in danger! Digitization is essential for the analysis, development and optimization of processes. Now artificial intelligence does not solve the reformulation of strategies through "creative ideas". This is where true experts are needed who, endowed with good digital resources and with good group management, can intertwine the best of digitization (data analysis) with the formulation of “creative ideas”.
5.6) Definition of the strategy and roadmap. We have a good diagnosis, the objectives have been reformulated and the final objectives defined, and we have also generated enough "creative ideas" to achieve them. We know what we must do differently to change the course of our company. Now we have to define how we are going to do it, who is going to do it, where we want to go and how long we are going to do it. In other words, we must define the strategy and the roadmap for what we will also use all the digital media at our disposal. We have to transform all the “creative ideas” into detailed concrete processes and facts, define the people, the means at their disposal and the time they have to achieve the defined final objectives.
As the roadmap unfolds, we will use digital simulators to track the progress of the strategy and its results. Everything must be duly registered digitally in such a way that later we can define a control panel capable of measuring the results as it cannot be otherwise. The "Digital Sales Result Strategy" method is governed by the strictest results-oriented criteria and that is why we detail to the last point of the processes and concrete events to be carried out that are measurable, so that we can correct possible deviations.
It is assumed that each one of the steps taken has been duly communicated to all company personnel. For this we have used available digital media more than ever. The management through the internal communication department or directly (better) has regularly reported (assemblies, meetings, video - conferences, bulletin board, internal digital messages, internal digital letters, e - mails, etc.) of all events from the beginning of the process. Most strategic changes fail due to mismanagement of information or because the strategy has not been properly explained. A strategy (or a strategic change) cannot be implemented without the proper prior information and the appropriate explanations for understanding. The commitment of the management with the changes must be clear in any case.
5.7) Implementation of the strategy and roadmap. The moment of truth has arrived! Let's do it! We will need to select the right people for the implementation of the strategy (or part of it) and my recommendation is that it be a group of people very well prepared to carry out the project. People who know how to lead people and who have enough charisma to push the project even in the most adverse moments. The problem with strategies is that most are not implemented or are only partially implemented. It should not be our case and that's why we will pay special attention to this section. Now all the leadership in the company should come out! The implementation of the strategy and the roadmap is a project within the great project that we are defining and therefore its leader must be an expert in project management. The implementation working group does not have to coincide with the "expert group" defined above, so I recommend one or two sessions of coordination and knowledge transfer between one group and another.
The digitized roadmap with all the processes and detailed concrete facts to be implemented will be followed to the letter with the utmost rigor. All deviations must be noted and rectified as soon as possible. The working group must hold digital meetings with the frequency established in the roadmap. The management of the company must be involved in all relevant processes and events that affect the final objectives of the company. I recommend that management have direct digital access to the roadmap to track progress on it. A weekly meeting or video conference with the working group is highly recommended. Digital monitoring (videos, photos) of modifications in processes, facilities, machinery, transport, etc., are highly recommended.
In this way, we will reach the end of the implementation process with a positive degree of satisfaction. We will be able to observe how the self-esteem of the people and of the company rises as the different stages of the implementation are successfully completed. Success leads to success and us all like to work in successful environments. A well digitized process allows you to create enough scenarios and speed up decision making. It always allows us to determine that we are complying with what is established and therefore indicates whether or not we are on the right track. We know where we are going, and we can glimpse the end of the journey with guarantees of success. The digitization of processes, especially in sales, brings peace of mind, security, peace and quiet and allows us to face the future with extreme difference over competitors. This is how we like to work as successful leaders!
For this we have prepared a digital control panel that will allow us to continuously measure the results.
5.8) Measurement of results. We would all like to have our company perfectly digitized in such a way that we would know at any time the economic result of all operations carried out in a certain present and future period. It's like the crystal ball that I can ask questions to: How much am I going to sell today? What do I have to manufacture? How much will I earn? What products do I have to have in store? It would be like the extreme vision of digitization: on the one hand, customers' orders are entering digitally into the computer system and on the other hand, I digitally see customer income at the bank. In between everything works digitally!
We are not yet in that stage of digitization, but it should be a guide to follow. We define a digital scorecard adjusted to the final objectives defined in our "Digital Sales Result Strategy" process. The computer system must be prepared to provide all the required parameters collected from the different processes and that serve to analyze the deviations with respect to the final defined objectives. The digital dashboard should be snappy, simple and clear without too much detail. It should indicate by means of graphics, if possible, the trends of the magnitudes that we want to measure. The use of traffic lights is easy and quick to display. I do not advise to measure everything and with four figures after the comma. We are not in a testing laboratory. We want to run a company in the millions.
The most important thing is that we have the data "online" and that the entire process is perfectly digitized. This way we can quickly decide whether the results are as expected. In any case, we will be able to make quick decisions to change what is not working properly. Being oriented or putting "the focus" on the results and having a highly digitized process is the best guarantee of success that we have within our reach.
The winning formula 1 teams are those with the most digitized driving of their cars. Today races are won in part thanks to the enormous amount of data that is processed in the pits to "parameterize" driving with the best conditions during the race. We also need good machinery and a good pilot, but the great differentiating element today is in digitization and in the equipment that makes it possible to put all these elements to work in a coordinated way. Let's imagine that the driver is our commercial and the driving is the sale. We must "parameterize" the sale with the best conditions for the visit. We must also equip them with the best machinery and the best equipment so that our pilot, the commercial, wins the race on his visits. I repeat, the great differentiating element today is in digitization and in the equipment (the entire commercial structure) that makes it possible to put all these elements to work in a coordinated way.
The "Digital Sales Result Strategy" method gives a good account of all this with extreme rigor to position your company among the best in the market. We are at your service.
www.thesellingmachine.sale
Thanks
Muchas gracias.
José Carlos Álvarez Tobar, PADE IESE
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