Question

Topic: Strategy

Sales Productivity And Account Maintenance

Posted by Anonymous on 4/10/2010 at 3:43 PM ET 50 Points
What do you do when your sales team is no longer being productive? I work for the marketing department of a small health care company. After years of growth our numbers are sliding. It could be the economy but then again our competition is thriving and expanding.

With that being said, you would think that with our declining numbers, that the sales team would be sweating bullets, right? Nope! They are doing suspiciously just fine. So we looked into it and we discovered that they are ONLY visiting accounts that already give us steady referrals. They log the visit in our sales tracking system, and when the doctor sends over their referrals within a 30 day range of that visit- the sales person gets that commission. That's all fine but ALL they're doing is account maintenance. I know it's important but they aren't forging new relationships or doing any cold calls because they don't have to. They are making good money to visit doctor's offices once and awhile and drop off brochures and bring in an occasional lunch. They are benefiting off accounts that were built years ago by other people. My question is do we really need to pay 10 sales people to just drop off brochures? From studying the log records we already know that their doctor's visit are very superficial. And it's rare they actually get to see a doctor. Most of the time they are just popping in for 5 minutes. No real business is being discussed or deals are being made. Aside from 2 people on our team, I highly doubt they have the personality or knowledge of their product to do a cold call for a doctor. Most of our sales team doesn't have any sales experience. So what do we do now? It's not up to me who goes and who stays but I'm thinking I'd only keep the sales members that have the personality and experience to effectively direct business with doctors. And how do we set up a system where our sales team continues account maintenance but is also keeps hungry and motivated to bring in new business? How do we weed out the weaker sales members?
To continue reading this question and the solution, sign up ... it's free!
SUBSCRIBE
Or, SIGN IN

RESPONSES

  • Posted on 4/10/2010 at 3:57 PM Member
    Wow. that's a hot topic. Sounds like you need better management of the sales team and perhaps a different commission scale. It's funny that you mention "cold calls" because inbound marketers like myself cringe at cold calls as they are frequently futile. Who is responsible for generating leads for the salesforce? Maybe that's problem #1. Maybe there is no lead generation plan? If I were those salespeople and my company didn't have a lead gen program I would be frustrated and might do exactly what they are doing - focus on maintaining the relationships they have.

    Why on earth your company has a sales team comprised of people with no sales experience is beyond my comprehension! Okay maybe not completely - but its not smart.

    As a marketing person, if you do not have a lead gen program. I would start learning about that. Doctors get a lot of visits and they have a lot of pressures to contend with all the health bill changes. I used to be a business banker for citibank and they sent us out to bang on doctor's doors....so I know what's on the other side of the door: doctor's who get frequent visits interrupting their busy practices. I can't give you any kind of precise ideas for inbound marketing because I don't know exactly what it is your are selling. So if you want to share more - please do. If not, you can checkout www.hubspot.com to learn more about inbound marketing and lead generation. This kind of lead generation, when successfully done will leads delivered to you - and your salesforce will then have targeted leads they can focus on closing.

    K
  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 4/10/2010 at 8:25 PM Member
    The most fundamental issue your question outlines is that your organisation has no proper performance management metrics to track the relationship between activity, behaviour and results.

    It sounds like your sales team is literally dancing around the edges of the process rather than driving it. Management is oblivious because - well, they're oblivious! Happy in their ignorance, for the moment, perhaps?

    The organisation needs to work out what the correct pathway to success looks like. And maybe the sales team just does not figure at all in that. If it does, it certainly needs a complete and radical rethink about activity planning, monitoring and management to make sure work gets done that will lead to the desired outcomes.

    I sincerely doubt the state of the economy or the GFC has anything to do with it. You haven't explained exactly what your organisation sells in terms of home medical equipment and supplies, but health care expenditure does not take a break when the economy comes under pressure. Discretionary expenditure does, investment does, savings take a hit - but people go on getting sick and old at the same rate regardless of the state of the economy. In fact, some disease gets worse in a down economy.

    So unless your firm is selling discretionary products and services like cosmetic implants it's really unlikely your depressed figures are caused by the economy - more likely they are caused by an anarchic sales team working for its own ends rather than the company's. And if you are selling products like blood pressure monitors, blood-glucose monitors, that's a whole area of health care that's growing because of the obesity crisis.

    Your management needs to get on top of what the factors are that really drive sales revenues. If the doctor's office sales team isn't on the critical path to a sale, you should redeploy them and use the funds for something that WILL lead to a sale.

    You say it's not your responsibility to say who stays or goes - but whose responsibility is it to draw the current situation to management's attention?

    To paraphrase the ex-head of Citigroup recently: "we relied chiefly on the judgement of others in assessing the risks being taken in loading the bank's balance sheet with subprime mortgage bonds and other complex debt instruments... "

    newyorkmiss84, Perhaps your management would be anxious to hear your thoughts on what is wrong with the current sales team management and practices?

    Good luck.

    ChrisB
  • Posted by michael on 4/10/2010 at 11:41 PM Member
    This is the problem of the ages with any sales organization. Who really deserves credit and for how long. If they're calling on all the doctors...and that model is working...you can't increase the number of available doctors. Yet, don't punish them if the plan works.

    Some people just flat out resent paying sales people commission. I've worked territories that, after building it up, I could take 6 months off and not see any drop in sales. Of course the company could have fired me and not seen any drop for 6 months also.

    Suggestion: Do a survey among your customer about their perception of you as a company. 1) Why do they choose you 2) How do you compare to your competition etc. You'll get a sense of whether or not it is actual sales or just relationship building. Both are worthy of good pay.

    Michael
  • Posted by CarolBlaha on 4/11/2010 at 8:02 AM Member
    I remember your last post- and remember my post of empathy and sympathy. Your sales people have read the sympathy of your org "its' not their fault" (the wording on last post) and take that as their reason and excuse.

    Sales is performance based. So slagging #'s should mean less pay no same. In addition quotas in every sales org I worked with -- are raised yearly. You aren't there to coast. It forces you to maintain the existing accounts and develop new biz.

    Forget lead generation programs. That will only give them a new reason to wait -- "wait for those new leads". From the sound of it, they wouldn't follow up on those leads anyways.

    I can go deeply into sales management and make this a very long post. But instead, get the book "Managing for Sales Results" by Ron Marks. He spends a lot of time on holding your sales staff accountable. Make it transparent, the numbers are on the board in plain view of everyone. Track in plain view the # of new accounts.

    Inspect what you expect. When you hire someone to wash a window you go out and see if the window is clean. Too often in sales, we let them self manage themselves. They justify this with the long sale cycle. But the bottom line is they aren't working cause they don't have to.
  • Posted by CarolBlaha on 4/11/2010 at 8:09 AM Member
    To add:

    So what do we do now? It's not up to me who goes and who stays but I'm thinking I'd only keep the sales members that have the personality and experience to effectively direct business with doctors.

    Keep only the sales people making their numbers. It's not subjective, it's objective. Don't judge personality. Evaluate numbers.
  • Posted by Frank Hurtte on 4/11/2010 at 11:29 AM Accepted
    I believe the comments about your situation actually cover five very common subjects:
    1) Sales people whose compensation plan rewards them for actions not necessarily good for the company.
    2) Lack of management ability to steer the sales team direction with a lousy compensation plan in place.
    3) Do we have the proper mix of account maintenance vs. prospecting?
    4) Do our sales people have the abilities to drive the right business?
    5) How do I get from where I am now to some better sales situation?

    Compensation plan
    Selling organizations need to revisit and reevaluate their compensation plan often. Company needs change and sales direction changes. Smart companies evaluate these on a regular basis.
    It should be remembered that changing compensation plans is a source of discontent amongst sales people (the good ones as well as the bad ones). Over communicate, be fair and predictable in your dealings. And, keep compensation plans simple. If they get to the point where a salesperson cannot calculate their potential commission on the fly, it looses its ability to drive behavior (good or bad).

    Sales Management
    A good compensation plan alone is not the answer. To work properly sales organizations need constant coaching, tweaking and leadership. I have found individual quarterly objectives must be set and worked against. I suggest a management by objective plan to drive behavior.

    Proper mix of maintenance vs. prospecting
    This is a company by company issue. But suffice to say, many organizations tie their very expensive sales staff up taking care of issues that could easily be handled by those with lesser skills. When sales people are constantly sucked into expediting, routine order entry and other ‘clerical tasks’ it costs more than building a playbook that drives these activities to inside sales or customer service.

    Do our sales people have the ability?
    Again an individual question – past history indicates most do with the right training and objectives.

    How do I get from where I am to a better place?
    This requires a firm understanding of where you want to be in the future. Nothing frustrates sales teams like lack of future direction and tons of wasted energy as you struggle to find the right place. Data and metrics need to be established. And a plan to give everyone a working plan for the future success is critical as well.

    All of these are hard to do without strong support from the very highest levels of management. An outside coach/mentor helps as well. I have found that sales people put more faith in a process that is fine tuned by an outside expert. I have served as that expert on dozens of occasions. Call me if you want to discuss how to get started.
BACK TO TOP

Post a Comment

Related Discussions

Community Info

Top 25 Experts
(Strategy)