The firm improvement Strategy is used to underpin your main firm Plan and essentially it sets out a appropriate approach for developing new opportunities, whether from within existing accounts or by proactively targeting brand new inherent accounts and then working to close them.
This document highlights the key issues you should think prior to compiling your own plan and will hopefully guide you logically through a proven framework.
The key word is 'Strategy', because you are creating a workable and achievable set of objectives in order to exceed your each year target.
Your beginning Point:
The key words are Who? What? Where? When? Which? Why? How?
For example:
Who - are you going to target?
What - do you want to sell them?
Where - are they located?
When - will you approach them?
Which - are the appropriate target personnel?
Why - would they want to meet with you?
How - will you reach them?
If you have conducted regular catalogue reviews with your key accounts while the old twelve months, you should be aware of any new opportunities that will surface while the next twelve months. You will also, when assessing what division of your each year target usually comes from existing accounts, need to enumerate data over the last two or three years. (It is likely that you can apply Pareto i.e. 80% of your firm will probably come from existing accounts and in fact 80% of your total earnings will come from just 20% of your customers/clients)
You will be left with a balance - i.e. "20% of my firm next year will come from new opportunities" - therefore you can then begin to allocate your selling time accordingly.
Ideal customer Profiling:
Pro-active firm improvement demands that we generate an ideal target at the front end - i.e. An Ideal customer Profile. The primary characteristics you will need to think are:
- commercial Sector
- Geographical Location (Demographics)
- Size of organisations (Turnover, estimate of employees etc)
- Financial Trends
- Psychographics - i.e. Philosophical compatibility
Many strategic sales professionals merely profile their best existing clients and try to replicate them - there's nothing wrong with doing this but we should all the time remember that we are seeking an Ideal and we can all the time enhance on what we already have.
'New' Opportunities From Within 'Old' Accounts:
Because it costs roughly ten times as much, to first locate and then sell to a new customer as it does an existing one (although these costs are rarely reflected in the cost of sales), it is primary that we fully institute our existing accounts working upwards, downwards and sideways, thus production the most of the (hopefully) perfect prestige we have industrialized already.
Most corporate accounts have some divisions, departments, sites, even country offices and you must satisfy yourself that you have exhausted every inherent avenue. Don't be afraid to ask the question "Who else should I be talking to in your organisation"?
Developing New Opportunities:
There are a estimate of ways in which we can target new opportunities e.g.
o Direct Mail
o Telephone Canvassing
o Researching Archived Files For Customers Who Used To Buy From Your Company
o Exhibitions
o Seminars
o User Groups
o E-Mail Campaigns
o Referrals
o great Leads
o Advertising
Not all of these will be appropriate to your singular industry, but you should not be afraid to experiment - i.e. Challenge the paradigm - and do not accept that just because a singular idea has not worked in the past that it will not do so in the future. (Remember when you were learning to walk - it didn't work first time then!)
The important thing is to make an early decision in terms of what you are going to try and then build this (those) ideas into your scholar plan.
A Typical firm improvement Plan:
You should plan out the whole year and enumerate / revise quarterly.
o List your existing accounts and plan what activities / actions need to be completed in order to fully exhaust all opportunities. You may for instance, plan to cover more bases within the decision production unit or caress related clubs or offices. The Strategic catalogue Profile can be used as a prompt.
o Begin to target new accounts using firm directories etc. And set targets per week / month / quarter i.e. I usually allow for eight hours per week as a minimum (Don't forget to continually refer back to your Ideal Profile)
o Then build in what assistance you need from your marketing function - i.e. great leads, seminars, exhibition attendance etc.
o ultimately share your plan with your employer and then commit to it.
You should also quantum it against S.M.A.R.T.E.R. i.e. Is it.
S.pecific
M.easurable
A.chievable
R.elevant
T.imed
E.xciting
R.ecorded
Linking With Your commercial Plan:
I have suggested that your firm improvement Strategy, would link with your scholar firm Plan but logically you should also merge it into your commercial Kit(this is a document that outlines your monthly,quarterly and each year targets) - specifically the areas that deal with new firm generation, catalogue supervision and development, four tier catalogue lists etc.
These three documents when combined should drive and guide you through the next twelve months and beyond.
Summary:
As I have said often sufficient "People do not fail because they planned to fail but rather because they failed to plan"
The man who knows where he wants to go is more likely to get there, he just has to conclude how to get there. All plans are essentially maps and guides; the strategic element is the 'How'.
Do be prepared to turn course, flexibility is key, and don't be afraid to experiment, look surface the square.
Copyright © 2008 Jonathan Farrington. All proprietary reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment