Reading Summary
“The New Science of Salesforce Productivity”
With changing market environment and customer behaviour a traditional way of sales might
not prove profitable for companies. The traditional way has become outdated and cannot
predict the way customers are buying. For this it is necessary that companies change the way
that they sell and reap benefits. This can be achieved through applying new frameworks of
sales that are in sync with the modern world. Thus, sales leaders are applying new ways to
respond to these changes. This can be done by trying to reach new customers by expanding
their promoting methods and reaching more people, also employing smart and talented
people on board which can be good salesperson, someone which know the art of selling. The
article refers this art as more of a science that sales leaders are applying in order to fulfil their
sales target.
In order to gain objective sales-target it is important to create a sales plan. The first step of a
sales plan is to define the sales target. Traditionally this was done by taking into account what
the shareholders have to say and the senior executives. But the market is changing
dynamically and a traditional way might not help the company. So, sales leaders are moving
to more proper way of doing this. Getting insights from all segments is necessary. Studying
the changing market, changing customer behaviour, what the competition is doing and the
various product line. These aspects should be taken into consideration.
The traditional way of increasing or finding the productivity of a company was done through
adding more salesperson and then this data was compared with last year’s data. However, this
has changed drastically now and companies are doing more scientific method that brings
benefit for the company. There are three different kinds of Distribution strategies prevalent
across the marketers. This type of strategy is employed to products of low price and high
demand. The main goal of this type is to make sure the products are widely available to a
large set of customers. This strategy focuses on reducing the availability of the product and
restricts the supply to one outlet per region or location. They offer certain rights for
exclusivity and the manufacturers influence business decisions taken by the Channel partners.
It is a limited form of distribution wherein the product is less widely distributed than
Intensive distribution but more available than exclusive distribution. The main goal of this
strategy is to ensure more coverage and maintain control over the selling of the products,
brand image and other factors which influence the reputation of the company.
Productivity can be increased by using the following four factors:
Targeted Offerings
Targeted offerings reduce cost and is very useful in ensuring that the right product is
marketed to the right set of people and the message is conveyed properly. The first step in
designing this would be to understand the need of the customer, i.e, how does he wants to be
met in the marketplace. After understanding this requirement, the distribution system should
be built backward accordingly. In general, the main objective of target offering is to
understand the different segments of the customers.
Optimized automation tools and procedures
Using IT tools in sales is in trend and many companies are using it. The company because of
the resource constraints could not serve every segment, hence it has to train the salesperson
accordingly in order to sell effectively. A IT tool which is enhanced by technology can add to
the benefits.
Performance management
Performance management is necessary to ensure smooth performance of all sales people and
monitoring them. It also helps in determining the average sales productivity of eac
Sales force deployment
This a very critical part of a sales strategy. Along with deploying sales force, a support team
is also required. The various problems which arises could be in the form of coordination and
one-party exerting control over the other stakeholders. The company should define these
responsibilities clearly and utilise the power to reduce the conflicts. Providing analytics is
also an efficient way to deploy sales force.
