The 4 Stages:

Most sales activity can be broken down into 4 distinctly different stages or quadrants from prospecting through to managing accounts. If sales teams know how and where to identify opportunities, what account management plans or pipeline management tools look like and can then apply all of the correct activities within these tools then the results will follow. The assumption here of course is that they have the requisite skill sets to implement the process. (This is covered in the behavioural change area of the site)

Effective activities

"Look after the activities and the results will look after themselves."

This is a driving principle of the work we do at Taylor Healey. Our tools and processes are all facilitators of activity, either the quantity, the direction or the quality of the sales function.

"Effectiveness is doing the right things...Efficiency is doing the right things well!"

Stage 1 - Prospecting:

In the first quadrant we determine the criteria by which an organisation chooses their prospects. Most 'good and profitable' business is a result of customers fitting within a set of criteria (either explicit or implicit). These can be grouped, scored and actioned accordingly thus maximising efforts. We take customers through an evaluation process of their best current customers to determine themes and key measures.

Stage 2 - Budgeting and activity management:

The important knowledge in this quadrant is: Know your goals and your success ratios. Your Taylor Healey consultant will take you through the design of a simple yet effective tool to manage all of the activities that will maximise pipeline output.

Stage 3 - Pipeline management:

Your BDM in Perth tells you she has a 90% chance of winning a piece of business. Your BDM in London says the same. Who is right and what is 90% based on? Optimism, feedback or just plain 'Gut Feel'? What happens when you have 120 people using the same "science" to put together a forecast? In this stage we develop effective probability measures to assist in the forecasting process and we tailor a number of solutions specifically for your environment.

Stage 4 - Account management - customer engagement:

Yet again we continue with our theme of activity management. We create tools to help measure or "score" the value of a relationship. Is a good relationship good just because you entertain regularly or you have a regular flow of revenue? Once an organisation learns how to "engage" it's customers at all levels, the relationship becomes stronger. The measurement tools we build are actionable and in most cases universal so they can be applied to all customers big and small. This process can be applied to an organisation's 'Top 10' or any number of accounts. Your Taylor Healey consultant will help you develop a specific activity based engagement strategy for your business based on a number of methods at their disposal.

Key Account Management

Many organisations, as they grow, become more and more reliant upon large customers to deliver the 'lion's share' of their revenue. (The pareto principle or 80/20 rule is alive and well in most businesses). This is not a new phenomenon though how easily can you place your hands on the strategy for these accounts? Not just a set of action plans but a collaborative goal and action oriented document or process designed by you and the customer with partnership as the intent...where is it? Can you see it, touch it and review it regularly? If so then you are a long way down the path of customer engagement. Customers are often (but not always) involved in the development of this engagement.

The following are typical components of a key account strategy:

• ‘A stake in the ground’. Where are we today in terms of results and relationship and where do we want to be in 1,2,3 years time?
• Who are all of the key decision makers and what are their personal motivators for dealing with you? (The context for this component is that all people make decisions emotionally and justify them logically)
• What is our vision or statement of intent for this account?
• What is the competitive environment and how do we deal with it?
• How do we score the current relationship and how then do we increase the score to reflect our future plans?
• Are there continuous improvement plans in place and if so are they signed off by all parties?

Winning major bids & tenders

As the bid and tender process becomes more and more sterile with an often reduced ability to get close to the decision making process (eg online bidding and group bidding institutions) we are faced with a choice...do we submit to these changes or do we act differently?
Here we look at numerous ways of managing the process more effectively by communicating our intent as a potential supplier or business partner and building activity plans around (but not limited to) the following:

• The decision making process. Who are the key influencing roles in the opportunity and how do they operate as decision makers? What political issues are you up against?
• What do you know about the current business situation or the opportunity in question? How much do they need you? How are you perceived by them?
  
• The competitive situation, who are we up against and what is their strategy?
• What are our strengths and areas of improvement?
• How do we deliver the solution to the customer ?

Consultative selling

Consultative selling skills are designed to assist sales professionals to build rapport at all levels in the client organisation and to truly understand needs, wants, habits and expectations of people at a conscious and sub-conscious level. The next step is to be able to present the most appropriate solutions. People make decisions emotionally and justify them logically, hence sales professionals need to be better equipped in order to find the real motivators behind how their customers make buying decisions. Rapport is an outcome of empathy, empathy is an outcome of understanding and understanding is an outcome of questioning, active listening and 'parking' the ego.

Learning outcomes:

• Rapport - what is it and how we build it.
• Your questioning technique and how you can develop it to uncover more details and information.
• Active listening - listening to understand vs. listening to be understood.
• How to summarise a conversation to ensure ‘buy-in’.
• How to present a solution against a given set of needs.
• How to ensure objections are minimised.
• How to progress to the next step and win the business.
• How to present solutions that fit the exact needs.

There is no typical profile of a sales professional attending a Consultative Selling workshop as we tailor the content to your organisation. Entry level people through to experienced sales veterans have gained great value from a workshop such as this.

Advanced consultative selling
Advanced consultative selling skills is a workshop for sales managers and sales professionals who may have undergone training of numerous types and styles before. This work is based around the behavioural development work we undertake using MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator). We use this instrument as it has exceptional relevance to the world of sales and relationship management.

We believe that when a sales person understands how to ask great questions, actively listens, understands needs, builds rapport at a conscious and sub-conscious (MBTI) level and can then present solutions based on personality type - then negotiation becomes a much simpler process

Workshop content
Our initial approach with senior sales professionals is to explain psychological type theory, the process of verifying their own preferences in work situations and how to identify ‘type’ in others based on behavioural observation. We also provide elaborate profiles of each of the 16 personality types.

In the MBTI section of this programme we focus on how to approach customers with certain type preferences, how to gain the correct information from them, make decisions based on ‘type’ and build stronger relationships accordingly. We explore methods to estimate a client’s 'type mode' based on language and behavioural cues. Sales professionals can then change their preferred style accordingly.

High-performance sales management

We specialise in the management of sales performance within a business. Our approach is to develop the most appropriate process for your organisation using best practice tools as well as utilising existing methods or principles.

This aspect of our work consists of two main subject components:-

• High performance people management
• High performance business planning

Within each phase the following subjects are covered:-

High performance people management

• The need for management systems, methods and procedures
• Linking mission and vision to behaviours
• Creating and communicating high-performance job descriptions
• Discerning ‘development levels'
• Utilising ‘situational leadership’
• Managing sub-standard performance
• Developing and conducting high-performance sales appraisal systems

 

High performance business planning

• Developing the business unit vision and objectives (linked to corporate direction)
• S.W.O.T.
• Development of measurable action plans for resolving key issues and achieving vision and objectives
• Development of delivery time-frames and resource needs
• Development of measurement and accountability