Your company’s sales force is its most potent weapon in the battle for market share. It is also the most expensive. Having an effective sales force is absolutely essential for success.

What do we mean by “effective”? We mean that:

Fundamentally, each of these is an aspect of effective sales management.

The Foundation

Unfortunately, many companies mistakenly treat the symptoms of disappointing performance rather than attacking its root cause. They change their compensation plans, buy expensive sales force automation systems, or hire a stream of motivational speakers to pump up the troops. But without a proper sales management foundation, none of these will work.

IRCG has developed the Sales Effectiveness Process (SEP) precisely to provide this missing foundation. It is the culmination of our team’s 100+ years of experience in sales management process improvement. The SEP is an activity-based sales methodology that:

The SEP includes tools, such as a personalized web-based dashboard for each account manager, that support:

Although the SEP includes some automation, it is not a canned software package; it is a set of processes and tools that are customized for your company and that you own completely.

In addition to the SEP, IRCG has extensive experience in addressing specific sales and sales management issues. We can help you create powerful pricing processes to seal off what is often one of a distributor’s biggest “profit leaks.” We offer an extensive outcall program that can turn your inside sales team into a growth engine. We can help you reduce your overall sales expense while improving coverage with a sales channel and territory sizing analysis.

The New Role of the Sales Representative

The economics of distribution are changing, moving from a buy-hold-sell model to a sell-source-service model, where the traditional approach of assigning an outside salesman to a geographical area may no longer work. The sales role and the skills required to be effective must focus on the customers' business, providing solutions to problems and constraints in order to make them more successful and more profitable. This marketing role involves developing your core competencies into unique, differentiated solutions that bring real value to your customers from their point of view. Adding value as a channel partner involves understanding the profit drivers of your suppliers and your customers to eliminate cost from the channel while increasing value. It requires a highly skilled sales team focused on a clear strategy. It requires team selling, with outside sales, inside sales, telesales, customer service and technology working together in their most effective role.

The role of the sales rep is changing. "A Players" are focusing on growth and getting the majority of their targeted customers' spend. They are becoming intimate with their high-potential customers, creating an "insider" level of involvement and trust, and becoming part of the customer’s business development team.

The Difference Between Sales and Marketing

"The purpose of a business is to create a customer, not make a profit. Making a profit is rather a goal and a test of management effectiveness in creating a customer. A business has only two functions in society, marketing and innovation. Everything else is just cost. Marketing, which is the opposite of selling, is finding ways to create value for customers. Innovation is the constant process of finding new ways to employ existing resource investments. Every department in a business must have impact on these two areas. When they are correct, selling becomes unnecessary. Customers only need to be made aware that the value proposition exists." – Peter Drucker

Deciding whom to focus on (segmentation and account targeting) is as important as what you do to grow your sales. Concentrating on specific markets, whether by industry or customer type, will help you develop the expertise to differentiate yourself with your customers. Developing ideal customer criteria based on profit potential will align your marketing efforts with your business strategy.

Build the proper foundation for sales effectiveness and cultivate “A Players” for your team. Call us for a free phone consultation, or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .