Increasing Sales Force Effectiveness

Problem

A $6 billion consumer products company was using independent sales agents to reach over 1.5 million customers each year in retail outlets across the U.S. The client wanted to improve the quality of the in-store interaction and create a branded buying experience for the customer. Among other objectives for the sales force, the agents needed to become consultative sellers who could help customers identify which of the company’s products best fit their needs. Given the unique nature of this in-store process, no off-the-shelf sales methodologies adequately addressed the goals of the program. Go To Market Partners was engaged to develop a new sales model that included improved processes, skills, tools, and metrics.

Action

Following the Sales Force DNA^SM methodology, Go To Market Partners began by analyzing existing salesperson performance data to identify the top agents in the sales force. Previously, sales agents had been evaluated based on their strict adherence to a defined sales process. When the actual effectiveness of each salesperson was assessed, the ‘top’ salespeople under the old evaluation system were not the most effective sellers. In fact, many of the most productive sales agents had been ranked near the bottom, because they had completely disregarded the old sales process and developed their own ‘consultative’ selling style that enabled them to excel with customers. The client was persuaded to redefine the way it measured its sales force to account for actual sales effectiveness, not just sales obedience.

Guided by the new salesperson rankings, Go To Market Partners observed and interviewed top and average performing agents and their managers. The objectives were to: 1) Identify best practice behaviors and tools that could be replicated across the program, and 2) Understand the environmental and logistical constraints that the agents faced in their day-to-day activities. This field research was critical to ensure that the new processes and skills to be developed were based in reality and capable of being implemented quickly and successfully.

Go To Market Partners also conducted several hundred in-depth ‘exit interviews’ with customers who experienced the in-store interactions. Customers were debriefed in the retail outlets to get their immediate reactions to the agent and the process – What about the experience was compelling, and what could be improved? Additionally, customers were contacted six weeks after the sale to determine what lasting impressions had been created – Were they continuing to use the product, and how did the agent or process affect their decision to do so?

By correlating the data obtained from these three sources (internal data analysis, salesperson observations, and customer interviews), Go To Market Partners was able to isolate the specific behaviors that led to improved sales effectiveness with the company’s target customers.

Go To Market Partners then helped the client develop a fully-customized program for re-tooling the existing agents as high impact consultative sellers. The new system introduced improved sales processes, additional selling skills, supporting sales tools, and better metrics to manage and improve the sales agents. A pilot group of agents and managers were trained on the new sales model, and the program was reinforced in weekly calls to continue developing the agents’ skills and collect feedback for continuous improvement.

Result

The client was overwhelmed by the dramatic increase in effectiveness that the salespeople displayed in the pilot regions. The results speak for themselves:

• The percentage of consumers who accepted the in-store offer improved from 88% to 98%
• The client’s market share of occasional product users in those markets increased from 13% to 19%
• Overall perceptions of the client’s brands improved by 10% in those markets
• The percentage of consumers agreeing to provide telephone numbers for follow-up calls rose from 73% to 91%

Across all key metrics, the re-trained sales agents outperformed their peers by an average of 61%. The new processes, skills, tools, and metrics were so well-received, that the program was immediately rolled out to every agent in the country, where similar results were achieved.

With the assistance of Go To Market Partners , the client completely transformed its retail sales force into a strategic asset. The increased productivity of the agents saved the client millions of dollars in costs. Additionally, increased market share and volume of customer information drove millions of dollars more in revenue gains. This in-store program became a centerpiece of the client’s sales and marketing strategy and was used as the template for other divisions within the company.