How to get effective sales people? We must face the facts: traditional sales techniques are outdated. Today, it is necessary to transform its sales people on the model of Account Based Sales Development, that is to say to adopt them One to One marketing strategies and provide them with the necessary tools to adapt their product offerings to their customers. How to proceed ? Manual
INTEGRATING THE ONE TO ONE MARKETING ASSETS TO THE COMMERCIAL FUNCTION
See the One to One as a customized marketing strategy. Its main goal? Provide each customer with the most suitable product for their needs in order to retain their loyalty and then to win new ones.
But, as Gilles Liguori of Business and Decision says, "to claim to propose personalized offers, it is essential to know perfectly its customers". Thus, the commercial has the obligation to get closer to its customers or prospects through various media channels (e-mails, field visits, phone calls) and social networks such as LinkedIn . Moreover, according to Forbes, 78% of salespeople with a LinkedIn profile produce better results than their peers: social selling, a digital innovation at the service of salespeople, proves once again its effectiveness. But beware, the purpose of this approach is not to offer standard product sheets!
The sales representative will use these exchange channels to offer advice, share tips, present the news and expertise-business of the company through articles relayed or written by the marketing department or sales department, and finally, to collect the opinions of its customers, etc. It will then define packages of offers or products adapted not to an individual, but rather to a set of target customers according to the basic principles of Account Based Sales Development.
IMPROVING MARKETING-COMMERCIAL ALIGNMENT ON THE PRINCIPLES OF ACCOUNT SALES BASED DEVELOPMENT
Your marketing and sales department cannot work effectively together? You have to immediately solve this situation if you want to make your sales people performing and effectively boosting your sales figures. Adopt the collaborative work of these two departments for a better profitability of your company. How to do ?
Start by offering them (both commercial and marketing function) the same definition of a lead.
Then define for the two departments common objectives whose evaluation indicators can be:
If the customer is already in the portfolio:
- Service quality
- Increase in the customer satisfaction index
- Increase in turnover
- Margin rate
- Attrition rate (number of customers leaving)
If the customer is to conquer:
- Achieved turnover
- Number of new accounts acquired and opened
- Cross-selling
However, the contribution share to the achievement of these objectives differs according to the two departments. While the salesperson works in the field or directly contacts the customer, the marketing function focuses especially on data collection.
Commercial and marketing are closely interested in working together to achieve their own goals. The success of one often depends on the other. Granting an overall collective bonus amounts to making a strategic mistake in terms of compensation policy. A remuneration given to marketers based on commercial success could be considered. But if the objectives are not achieved, the responsibility would then be rejected on the failure of the commercial. The self-criticism of one's own action is then no longer possible.
The ideal: the collective and the individual
The ideal is to clearly define all the tasks or operations that will be assigned to each of the two parties. Then, to boost them and boost their collaboration, you can combine the achievement of individual results, a bonus on goal in addition to a team bonus. This team bonus will have the effect of boosting the collaborative motivation for the co-adaptation of the product to the needs of the customer on the basis of Account Based Sales Development.
DEVELOP A RELATIONSHIP OF CONFIDENCE WITH YOUR CUSTOMER
In order to convince their prospects more easily, your sales representatives must develop a partner relationship with the customer. They can no longer be limited to their simple Buyer Persona cards. They must go beyond and be interested in the personal life of leads or prospects.
The example of Nivea Baby, particularly edifying, sounds like a school case to follow. The company has developed a program to follow young mothers since their pregnancy until the 15th month of the child. During this period, the mother receives counseling, tips, an informed interlocutor, coupons, test samples and more... As indicated by Delphine Jacq, senior product manager at Nivea Baby, the results of this strategy were not long in coming. Moms became "potential customers".
Summarize here the whole issue of Account Based Sales Development: put the customer at the center of the business strategy and make it clear that the company wants to better meet its needs. Now, develop your sales and marketing strategies around this key factor.
You can also read our article on the link between sales performance and variable compensation
