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The Relationship Between Sales Force Efficiency and Customer Satisfaction

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mafa ii
The Relationship Between Sales Force Efficiency and Customer Satisfaction

Sales force effectiveness pertains to a company s sales employees being able to win at every stage of the client s purchasing cycle, and therefore make the company on the winning side at every turn. Sales and customer service are an important factor in any company's success, but it is sales force effectiveness that will determine if your company is a success or a failure.

While some sales forces may have been successful at one point, others have been very less so. There is a key trend that all sales teams should be following in order to have sustained sales force effectiveness. This trend can be broken down into three key parts. These are territory planning, preparation of territory, and the execution of sales force effectiveness.

Preparation of Play. Every good sales force effectiveness strategy should include planning for territory. A good plan will work with all aspects of sales teams to ensure that a territory is defined early on, and that the plan is updated on a regular basis as territory changes. The plan will entail metrics to track progress on a daily basis.

Metrics. Another key trend that all sales force effectiveness plans should focus on is measuring progress on a regular basis. Good plans will not only define territory, but will also provide metrics to track progress on a monthly basis, quarterly basis, and yearly basis. All of this will create a measurement system that allows you to see firsthand whether or not your sales teams are truly effective.

Execution. Just as the preparation of territory must be performed daily, the same must be done for the execution of sales force effectiveness strategies. Good plans will require specific actions from sales teams on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Without these actions, the metrics used will not be effective in tracking progress.

Lead Management. One of the most important aspects of sales force effectiveness is the implementation of good lead management procedures. Effective lead management programs will help to ensure that sales teams are effectively communicating with clients. In addition, they will help to track which clients are generating revenue, as well as which sales are losing money. This information will allow sales teams to make adjustments on an ongoing basis to further improve their overall sales performance.

Metrics and reporting. Once the plans are in place, the next important step for sales force effectiveness is to develop a framework for evaluating and reporting on a regular basis. The reporting process will not only provide sales managers with valuable information on current performance, but will also provide them with the ability to fine tune future plans and tactics to increase revenue. Proper metrics and reporting will not only help sales teams to better perform on a daily basis but will also help to inform management on any areas in which improvement is needed.

The above strategies will help improve the overall sales force effectiveness of sales teams. However, although salespeople play a large role in this success, it is not enough to simply rely on them. Sales managers should monitor the activities of their salespeople on a daily basis and should be sure that their policies and practices reflect this monitoring. By developing good communication with their sales teams, salespeople and sales managers can work together to increase salespeople's sales force effectiveness.

A sales force is only as effective as its manager. If the sales manager does not have the necessary skills to put together a competent, effective team, then they will not have much of an impact on the overall effectiveness of their sales force. Effective managers must be able to delegate responsibility for the success or failure of each specific salesperson to other team members. They should also have a strong plan in place to measure each salesperson's impact on the effectiveness of the product line and should make adjustments to the system when necessary.

The other key trend in sales efficiency is the increasing focus on customer satisfaction and retention. According to Kornmehl and colleagues, the single most important factor in determining a company's profitability is its customer satisfaction and retention rate. The reason that salespeople are becoming more important to a company stems in large part from this customer satisfaction and retention trend, as well as the increased emphasis that companies have placed on using the Internet and other online advertising tools to sell their products and services.

Another way to compare salespeople effectively is to look at the number of potential accounts that a salesperson can influence. If a company has two types of potential accounts - warm market and cold market - then it will pay to have a salesperson who can maximize the potential effectiveness of each type. In addition, a salesperson's ability to close deals will also play a vital role in these potential accounts. For example, a salesperson who is great at cold calling will have a far greater impact on a cold prospect than a salesperson who knows how to close a deal on a hot prospect. In addition, a salesperson's skill at negotiating for price increases will also play a key role in the amount of sales that a salesperson can close. It should be fairly easy to see the connection between potential accounts and potential profitability.

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