Sales channels to reach your customers
Selling through retailers, wholesalers and other distributors
Selling through an intermediary may be a more cost-effective way of reaching your end-customers than selling to them directly.
If you are targeting business customers who prefer to deal with large suppliers, selling directly to them may not be a realistic option. Instead, you might aim to supply wholesalers who have existing relationships with those businesses.
If individual consumers buy low value quantities of your products, the best option might be to target retailers that sell similar products. Or you might choose to focus your efforts on a relatively small number of wholesalers who can in turn supply your products to many retailers.
Other distribution channels may also reach your end-customers. For example, technology suppliers often sell to resellers who can configure and install the technology to suit end-users’ particular needs.
Managing your distributors
You need distributors who will value your product. If they sell competing products, what will make them push yours?
Rice Bran Sales Strategy
Think about how you set your prices. Distributors will be more enthusiastic if they can make a large profit – but setting too low a price will eat into your own margins.
Effective advertising and promotions can be vital. As well as marketing to the distributor, you can promote your products directly to end-customers. Distributors will be keener to stock and sell products that their customers are asking for.
The key terms of the supply relationship should be covered in a written contract. Key issues might include:
Rice Bran Sales Strategy
how much stock the distributor will hold
what the distributor will do to promote your products
how quickly you can resupply and minimum order levels
whether the distributor has exclusive rights to your product (for example, in a particular territory)
what happens if either you or the distributor want to end the relationship
Business ideas, Marketing and sales , promotions and advertising ideas , articles
Key Performance Indicators for Sales Success
Key Performance Indicators for Sales Success
brianoconn
Business Tips, Social Selling
February 3, 2015April 27, 2016
5 Minutes
Key Performance Indicators for Sales Success.
Sales in a digital driven world brings different challenges for the sales team, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and sales metrics that reflect this shift is critical for sales success.
Measuring sales metrics like revenue per head, order values, margin mix are still valid measures for sales management as selling is a numbers game. However these metrics are only indicators of past performance, it allows sales management to measure the output but they dont monitor the inputs needed to grow sales. Sales KPIs are what sales managers or sales leaders need to use as the indicators to future sales success, indicators that show gaps in the sales process, how strong the sales funnel is, how deeply is the sales team connected to the industry and KPIs that pinpoint coaching areas to lead the sales team in higher levels of performance.
KPIs Measurements of sales activities that are vital gears in the success of a sales engine
What does the term Sales KPIs mean?
When sales leadership discuss the term KPI it is not always understood by the sales team or sometimes even management itself. To be defined as a Key Performance Indicator within the team it must be:
KEY to the future success of the organisation. A KEY is a measure, one of the plates management want to spin. An example could be how many direct contacts and connections a company has with buyers in a market segment
The KEY is then related back to the sales team PERFORMANCE where it is measured, monitored, quantified and can be understood by all the members of the sales and marketing teams. Linking a KEY to PERFORMANCE could be benchmarking when a sales person connects (phone call, LinkedIn, meeting) and influences (with great content) to an executive level decision maker in a customer segment.
Then this KP (Key Performance) will be used as an INDICATOR; where this information will be analysed to model future sales results or sales plans. So in this example, sales management might want to track the amount of time the sales teams spend social selling, the size of their LinkedIn/CRM database, the number of calls and the amount of time they spend influencing executive level decision makers in their accounts, and then set some SMART sales expectations there that can be measured, maybe the prospect to lead ratio, or lead to proposal ratio.
So when sales leadership discuss Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), the sales team know to focus on indicators as part of their sales role the team and management will use KPIs as signposts along the way to focus everyone to spend time on activities that need doing in order for everyone to be successful now and in the future. KPIs is one of the best ways to keep a sales strategy on track. Planning and laying the foundations are future success leads to great sales outcomes.
Remember that KPIs and sales metrics are not the same. Sales metrics are outputs and results that are measured past performance, and sales managers have a tendency to give these most attention because they tend to be the metrics that go into sales reporting to senior executives.
KPIs with a focus on the Indicators are sales activities and actions that will be tracked or measured for future success (as the sales pipeline is refreshed).
Here is some sample Key Performance Indicators that could be implemented.
Note: Sales KPIs are about desired business outcomes, so they will be unique and individual to every business. So begin the construction of sales KPIs with a clear understanding of the sales strategy and business goals. Try and ensure the KPIs are specific, maybe it is to Shorten the sales cycle by 40%, Generate 50% of sales leads from social selling or Get existing customers usage up by 20%. If a business links sales KPIs to sales strategy and is clear about where the business is going, then any business will have a set of sales KPIs to get the business to where it wants to get to.
Lead Generation Funnel
Lead generation is not the sole responsibility of marketing, think Smarketing; where sales and marketing both generate leads. How fast and at what cost can qualified leads be generated? So the KEY is number of sales leads generated this week PERFORMANCE could be something like the lead response time (especially on inbound leads) to talking (yes talking) to the customer.
The INDICATOR might be how many leads got into the sales funnel (lead to proposal ratio). So have the lead generation funnel as a sales KPI , the business can determine how many and who generated sales leads, ideal contact times/points, rate of lead to prospect or how many leads does it take to generate one prospect.
Social Media Selling
This KPI will grow in important over time, social selling to influence buyers and as a channel to lead nurture is now paying dividends for forward thinking companies. If a business is in B2B selling then the sales teams needs to be social selling. Research from top performing sales teams using LinkedIn to build connections show a direct correlation between social media selling, leads and revenue as a result of activity in this channel.
KEY = Number of connections in sales funnel on Social Media
PERFORMANCE = number of leads generated or document views on LinkedIn or SlideShare
INDICATOR = Number of buyer discussions or leads generated from social selling channel
Sales Cycle
Sales Cycle is more of a sales process KPI. How many touch points (calls, meetings, presentations) over a given period of time needs to happen to ensure customer moves through the sales funnel. It also includes rate of contact as the focus is on the levels of performance and efficiency not just with the sales person, but with the company including pre-sales and customer service. When a business understand the sales cycle length it can forecast, budget and adjust the lead generation funnel creating efficiency in the sales engine but also controlling cost of sales.
Lead to Win/Lose Ratio
This KPI is critical to understanding how effective a sales person is at moving customers along the sales cycle. It also can throw up questions on sales training, product fit and pricing strategy. The focus here is on the lead drop-out rate, the connection between social selling and the sales cycle process. What is profile of customer guided through the sales funnel and what is the profile of customers who abandon the sales process at the proposal stage (think buget, needs, authority).
Sales KPIs are powerful because they help sales leaders or senior sales management make better decisions, which leads to better sales execution and ensures a consistent approach across the sales focus. But mostly sales KPIs ensures that the sales teams are connected to the overall sales or business strategy because everyone is focused on the KEYS that will make the business stronger.
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Published by brianoconn
Online Sales training programs and online sales training courses via The Digital Sales Institute. Passion for helping salespeople succeed in their sales career.
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Published
February 3, 2015April 27, 2016
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