Situation: A CEO is concerned that year to year sales revenue is unpredictable. Sales reps are averaging 25% of quota and commissions per year. While internally generated sales are up 20%, partner sales are down 83% and up sales from existing customers are down 54% from last year. How do you make sales more predictable?

Advice from the CEOs:

• It is critical to both understand what is happening in the company’s market, and why up sales and partner sales are down so significantly from last year.
  • What is the total available market – not just broad numbers, but information reflecting both the available market and key trends within the industry?
  • What is known of the latest product introductions from key competitors – are these significantly better than their earlier products?
  • Have cases of lost sales been thoroughly analyzed – either lost competitive bids or customers who have left and why? Was this business lost to internal or external competition?
  • Have an independent 3^rd party talk to lost customers.
• Is the company’s product well-defined, and is there a road map for future development? Do the company’s product definition and road map align with market directions and demands?
• How good is the company’s competitive analysis? Is there a good understanding of how to position the offering within the market? Are salespeople selling to the right people?
  • These require what is outlined above: who is in the market, old and new products, product features and positioning, product and product acceptance trends.
  • If salespeople don’t have the right weapons, they can’t articulate the company’s advantages: a clear ROI benefit, and Cost/Risk Avoidance Analysis. For these analyses, the sales target is the CFO and Risk Management Officer.
• There may be too many salespeople.
  • How does the company measure sales productivity? Are salespeople accountable for performance or non-performance?
  • What are the consequences – besides lower commissions – when they don’t produce?
  • Given current trends, it is likely that the company will lose some of the current salespeople. Take control of the situation and remove the poorest performers rather than risking losing the better performers.
• Do you have the right VP of Sales? While he may have been a great sales rep, few sales reps successfully make the transition to management. The skill set required for success is completely different. The company may better-served by letting him do what he is good at – selling or training other sales reps – and hiring an experienced industry veteran to run the sales operation.

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