Often the entry point to our client engagements, the Footprint ‘Diagnostic’ process is a highly effective, light touch intervention designed to shine a light on the four key components of any effective sales strategy – Management & Leadership, Sales Skills, Planning & Execution and Processes & Infrastructure.
Undertaken by highly experienced sales experts, the Diagnostic is often utilised as a ‘health check’ by high performing sales operations in order to hone performance. Invariably however, the diagnostic is seen as the precursor to a larger intervention aimed at delivering a step change in performance. The key to the Footprint Diagnostic is that it takes an holistic view of every aspect of the sales operation. Far too often, performance improvement initiatives fail because they address the symptoms of poor performance and not the root cause. The Footprint Diagnostic delivers a balanced view of a sales operation’s ability to deliver its strategic objectives by validating the impact of each individual component of the sales operation upon the overall strategy.
It achieves this by examining the key aspects of your sales operation, starting with the sales strategy itself. It looks at the culture of your organisation and examines the impact, positive or negative, that it is having on sales performance. We take an in-depth look at your sales operation, both in terms of its people and the way it operates. From a people perspective, we ask the key questions – does the sales force possess the requisite sales skills and is it well led and motivated? Importantly, we also examine how well your sales teams plan and execute the sales strategy. Another key area of focus is to determine how well this strategy is underpinned by your processes and infrastructure. To do this, we look at every aspect of your organisation’s structure, processes or policies that support or impact upon sales performance to ensure they are having a positive effect. This includes key elements such as recruitment and training, remuneration policy, information services and sales force automation and so on.
Where appropriate, we can even work with your sales team on an individual basis to identify the current competency level against the competencies required for peak performance. We can report back to you whether your team are modelling the correct behaviours and demonstrating the necessary competencies to meet or exceed your sales goals, including areas of strength and areas required for improvement. We can even suggest the best way to go about developing and strengthening your sales team further with a variety of tools and methods to suit.
To help you act quickly and effectively on the opportunities we have identified, we’ll create a plan and work with you to execute it; ensuring that your sales operation is optimised and the required results are delivered with your business seeing a reduction in its cost per sales acquisition, reduction in its cost to service and/or increased revenue per customer.