Building an army of True Believers

Building an army of True Believers

This whitepaper is Part 1 of a 3 Part series focused on

Making the most of your sales process

August 2010

Copyright Blackdot 2010

Building an army of True Believers

Introduction
As business leaders, we all want to have well-defined sales processes that are followed by all of our salespeople. Imagine if they did so not for being forced to, but because they genuinely found it enabled them to sell more! The reality for many leaders however, is that their organisations dont have a well defined process to begin with. Even in those that do, many of their people either do not follow it, or follow it only because it is mandated. In this paper we introduce a new way of thinking about the effectiveness of an organisations defined sales process and look at how high performing companies are using process to drive more predictable, sustainable and profitable above-market growth. We define the three stages of the sales process that an organisation works through to win new clients and grow existing ones as follows: 1. Identify targeting and segmenting the market including portfolio, territory, account and opportunity planning (but excluding marketing awareness building activities) Qualify understanding customer needs as well as exploring solutions and fit, to determine suitability to progress further in the sales process Close gaining client commitment and negotiating terms and conditions, contracts, planning of product / solution / service fulfilment and on-boarding

2. 3.

These insights have been derived from the Blackdot Benchmark which employs a rigorous empirical examination of the unique behaviours and activities of high performing sales organisations (called the Top Quartile), sales leaders and frontline sales people as compared to their Core counterparts. Over the last 12 months over 6,800 sales leaders and frontline sales people globally have participated in the Blackdot Benchmark.

Insights
Our research has indicated that Top Quartile sales organisations: Grow revenues at more than 71% above their market growth rate Have more people who adhere to the organisations defined sales process (vs the Core) Have significantly more people that view their sales process as enabling (vs the Core)

Sales process (adherence) drives performance

We see this as compelling evidence that an enabling sales process - as perceived by frontline sales people and managers - drives superior revenue performance and represents a significant source of sustainable competitive advantage for those organisations that are able to achieve it.

Blackdot 2010

Building an army of True Believers

Evidence
The Blackdot Benchmark asks frontline sales people and leaders to describe their adherence to their organisations sales process and the extent to which they perceived this process as enabling.

5 distinctive tribes of sales process adherence have emerged

Our analysis identified five typical tribes existing to varying degrees in every organisation: 1. True Believers Adhere to the organisations sales process, AND view it as enabling 2. Compliants Adhere to the organisations process, but DONT view it as enabling 3. Mavericks Do NOT adhere to the organisations sales process 4. Self Reliants Apply their own process where the company process isnt (perceived to be) available 5. Clueless Do NOT adhere to any sales process Sales Process Adherence

Organisations who grow quicker than their market have MORE True Believers - sales people who view the sales process as enabling

The critical insights to draw from this tribes analysis are that Top Quartile sales organisations have significantly: Greater adherence to a defined organisational sales process than Core Performers 78% vs. 64% (Sum of True Believers + Compliants scores) More True Believers than the Core Performers Figure 1: Sales process adherence for all top quartile sales organisations versus core organisations 62% vs. 39%. In addition, True Believer scores are highly correlated with low flight risk, further supporting the notion that an effective sales process is a fundamental part of creating an environment where high performers can over- achieve Less Clueless and Self-Reliants than Core sales organisations 13% vs. 24% Even amongst Top Quartile sales organisations though, there are absolute performance gaps. These organisations would also benefit materially from driving up their True Believer scores. Interestingly, high performers were evenly-distributed (in relative terms) across the True Believer, Compliant, Maverick and Self Reliant tribes which dispelled a common Sales Leader hypothesis that the bulk of their Mavericks would be high performers (who characteristically possess a stronger aversion to process adherance).

Blackdot 2010

Building an army of True Believers

The Fundamental Question

For any business leader looking to ensure that their organisations sales process actually enables their sales people to sell more, the fundamental question to resolve is How do we build ourselves a team of True Believers?

Five Steps to Drive Up Your True Believer Scores (and Grow your Revenues) The True Believer data highlights the dual challenge leaders face in building an enabling process and then getting the frontline to buy in to it. Our work with many leading organisations to address this challenge has indicated five key ways to drive up your True Believer Scores.

Is your sales process fit for purpose?

1. Ensure your Sales Process is aligned to your Strategic Priorities a fit for purpose process will be geared towards driving client acquisition and/or growth thats aligned to your core sales strategy and the way you measure and reward your sales people. If (as a Sales Leader) you cant articulate what products / solutions are the priority, across selected distribution channels to target client segments, verticals and geographic regions; then your sales process will inevitably be less efficient than it should be. Ensuring your process drives both organizational and individual performance is key. 2. Dont Confuse Ineffectiveness with Poor Implementation be aware that sales peoples discontent with the defined sales process often stems from the fact that it: Is poorly documented, communicated and understood Is inconsistently applied Has been ineffectively implemented or introduced High performing sales leaders ensure that the core disciplines are understood and clearly mandated. 3. Ensure your Leaders are on Board unsurprisingly, Maverick and Compliant leaders drive Maverick and Compliant behaviour in their corresponding frontline team. The single most direct means of driving up your True Believer score is to shift the mindset and behaviours of your Maverick and Compliant leaders. Common challenges to address are the sales leaders or managers who want to believe theyre different, think they already have a team of high performers, or only see the value in a loosely-defined sales process. Whilst its critical to understand divergent perspectives amongst the sales leadership group; ultimately, you cannot effectively manage a large sales force by exception. You have to manage by the rule that is the defined organisation wide process.

Have expectations been well understood & implemented?

What proportion of your leaders are True BelieversTM?

Blackdot 2010

Building an army of True Believers

Do you know why the Mavericks & Compliants dont believe?

4. Understand Maverick and Compliant perspectives - the three key reasons why Maverick and Compliant sales people in Core companies reported that the organisations sales process was inhibiting were that it: 1. Creates distractions and involves low value tasks (36%) 2. Does not assist with opportunity identification (22%) 3. Is not supported by useful tools and technology (20%) Process improvement initiatives targeting these key areas can yield significant results and are the subject of our Second paper in this series titled Lost Revenue & Lost Talent the True Cost of Non-Sales Activity. 5. Use High Performing Mavericks as the Litmus Test understand what your high performers are doing and leverage internal best practices when executing process improvement initiatives. If high performing Mavericks dont see the value in converting to become True Believers, then you do not have the optimal process. Ultimately, visible high performer support and demonstrated success with the improved sales process creates a virtuous cycle that further lifts process adoption and behaviour change across the core and low performers.

Are high performer best practices evident in your defined sales process?

Blackdot 2010

Building an army of True Believers

CASE STUDY Global Freight Company One global freight company that Blackdot partnered with has used several of the above Five Steps to Drive Up Their True Believer Scores to attain a significant improvement in its sales effectiveness. Figure 2 illustrates the Blackdot Benchmark True Believer data for 2009 which reveals: Unusually high Compliant and low Maverick and Self Reliant scores indicating the presence of a defined, universal sales process thats ultimately perceived as ineffective by a significant number of sales people and leaders No Clueless sales people indicating that no one is working without a defined sales plan Sales Leader True Believer scores that were higher than the Frontlines indicating a loss of buy-in to the organisations sales process as it cascaded through the levels
Figure 2: 2009 Sales Process Adherence for Australia & NZ Division

Over the last 12 months, this firm has re-designed its defined sales process based on Benchmark data and high performer feedback to: Systematically reduce the amount of low-value adding, nonsales activity and servicing done by all frontline sales staff Streamline key opportunity identification processes, including the: - Introduction of a more systematic approach to prioritising prospects and suspects across territories and major account portfolios - Reinvigoration of company-wide territory and major account opportunity planning process & toolkit - Evolution of more targeted marketing-driven lead generation campaigns Centrally assist sales staff with bid and proposal templates and tools in support of a more customer needs focused solution selling methodology

In 2010, this organisation re-tested using the Blackdot Benchmark and Figure 3 illustrates the Blackdot Benchmark True Believer data for 2010 which reveals: Overall uplift in total True Believer scores from 53% to 66% Overall uplift in Sales Leaders True Believer scores from 68% to 81%

More importantly over the 2009-10 period, this lift in sales effectiveness has enabled the company to grow revenues by 10.2% and achieve net real growth of 2.43 times the broader market.

Figure 3: 2010 Sales Process Adherence for Australia & NZ

Blackdot 2010

Building an army of True Believers

Conclusion
The True Believer concept represents a new way of thinking about the effectiveness of an organisations sales process. The empirical data and insights generated from Blackdot Benchmark clients clearly demonstrate: 1. Process drives sales performance. 2. Compliance with a defined sales process is simply is not enough 3. Compliance must be accompanied by a belief amongst the leaders and frontline that the process will actually enable them to sell more Only then will you produce a critical mass of True Believers capable of delivering predictable, sustainable and profitable above-market growth for your organisation. Click here to find out how your organisation can produce a critical mass of True Believers.

Upcoming White Papers in this Series

White Paper #2: Lost revenue and lost talent the true cost of non-sales activity Do you know how much time your sales people actually spend selling? On average, high performing sales organisations, sacrifice 33% of core selling time to nonsales activity each week. In this paper we introduce new empirical research which indicates the true cost to organisations in terms of lost revenue from under-utilised capacity and highlight how high performing sales organisations have successfully addressed this challenge to eliminate lowyielding non-sales activity. White Paper #3: The Sales Process What does good actually look like? In our third and final white paper in the series, we re-visit the sales process. If, as we have seen, it is so important to have an army of True BelieversTM who follow your organisations sales process and view it as enabling, then what then does a good sales process actually look like?

Blackdot 2010

Building an army of True Believers

About Blackdot & the Blackdot Benchmark

Established in 2001, Blackdot is a niche management consultancy that partners leading organisations to better enable them to acquire, grow & retain customers more profitably. Our vision is to be the global leader of sales force effectiveness benchmarking and performance improvement. The Blackdot BenchmarkTM is our online diagnostic tool that quantifies what a highperforming sales organisation, leader and Representative actually looks like. To date, more than 6,800 sales leaders and frontline sales people from across 11 industries and 19 countries have contributed to our growing database of world leading insights.

About the Author

Marty Nicholas
marty.nicholas@theblackdot.com.au

As Managing Director, Marty is charged with leading the business and driving Blackdots strategy & growth agenda. He is hands-on in project design & delivery and works extensively with clients: In the design & execution of organic growth strategies To drive large scale change or transformation projects across the Sales, Service & Marketing functions Marty established Blackdot in 2001 following an eight year history in management consulting. He has an Honours degree in Science (Psychology) from the University of New South Wales and between 1988 and 1991, Marty coxed the Australian Mens Under 18 and 23 Rowing Eight.

Contact
For more information on how Blackdot can help your organisation build a team of True BelieversTM, or to find out more about how you can become accredited in administering the Blackdot BenchmarkTM, click here or call us on (+61 2) 8246 7300. Received this from a colleague? Signup for free to receive future White Papers and Blackdot thought leadership insights.

Blackdot 2010