According to Dr. Deming, the critical component is your system, or process. For the purposes of our discussion, we’ll be focusing on the process that has to do with generating sales–your selling process. In my experience it doesn’t matter how talented, educated, or experienced your salespeople are, or how hard they work at it, there remains a very large gap between the actual results they will produce and the results they could have produced had someone been paying attention to process. In today’s ultra competitive business environment, where the margin between winning and losing is so slight, I am surprised at how many companies continue to ignore an area that holds such potential for drastic increases in productivity and bottom line results.It’s easy to say that your salespeople could be producing better results. It’s not so easy to actually demonstrate it and then formulate a workable plan to do something about it. Most managers would agree there’s always room for improvement. The challenge lies in knowing where to look in order to find the weaknesses in the selling process that are holding your people back. It’s hard to stop the bleeding when you can’t find the cut–or worse yet–when you don’t even know there’s a cut. Most companies don’t even know where to start. In that sense, it’s easier to manage people than to engineer process improvement. It’s always easier to treat the symptom than to actually diagnose and treat the underlying cause. The result is a selling environment where the true reasons for most mistakes and failures go unaddressed and are blamed on people instead. Companies who operate this way often find themselves grappling with the same basic problems year after year with the only change being the people doing the grappling. It’s an ineffective and expensive proposition, certainly much more so than teaching your sales managers how to apply the principles of Sales Process Management.

Sales Process Management (SPM) promises to do more than just identify and improve the weaknesses in your selling process. Another major benefit you will enjoy when you make the commitment to SPM is seeing the best practices in your selling process identified and duplicated across your entire organization. I’ve heard many leaders talk about implementing best practices but have seen very few of them actually manage to consistently achieve it.

I first stumbled upon the benefits of SPM a few years ago when I was on the other side of the management fence selling online recruiting solutions for a major Internet company. The Internet bubble had burst and the economy was starting to slow down. As a result, our prospects and clients weren’t hiring at the same rapid pace as they had been before.

Sales started to slump. Salespeople who had always hit their numbers were now coming up short every month. Management focused immediately on inspecting and monitoring the individual performance of the salespeople. The decision came back that we were not making the necessary number of daily sales calls. A resolution was made to mandate ratcheting up the activity levels on the floor. If we failed to make X percent more dials every day we could be penalized or otherwise punished. Incentives were introduced to reinforce and reward the required behaviors.

Employee morale plummeted. Salespeople expressed concern that management was unfairly targeting them for blame. Management expressed concern that perhaps many salespeople had been taking advantage of the situation during the good times and didn’t really care about the company, or, worse yet, were lazy and needed to be weeded out. The mandate had its intended effect… at least on call volume. The average number of daily sales calls on the floor did increase dramatically. Unfortunately this increase in the number of sales calls did not result in a corresponding increase in sales and revenue.

During this time, my focus was on finding something that would work to produce measurable results for me. Initially I ratcheted up my activity levels too. In order to accomplish this I began coming in early and staying late. After a few months of this I noticed that although I was working harder and longer, and sacrificing time with my family to do it, I wasn’t seeing any appreciable return on my investment of additional time and energy. I began to realize that I wasn’t addressing the real problem. The market had changed dramatically while my sales process had remained the same. I was doing the exact same things I had been doing when the market was hot. The only difference was that I was now doing a lot more of them.

I began to analyze how the marketplace was different now and to think about changes I could make to my own approach and what the results were likely to be. Unwittingly I was applying SPM to my own selling process!

I recognized that during the time the economy had been booming almost every company seemed to be hiring. A salesperson could just pick up the phone and dial a prospect (seemingly at random), and chances were that they would be hiring or could refer you to someone who was. I had always kept data on the number of sales calls I was making and the results and success ratios my efforts generated. The data showed that before the bubble had burst, nearly one in three of my sales calls resulted in a lead. It was the perfect market for making as many sales calls as you could possibly fit into the day.

The present situation was very different. I was now making almost 30 dials, on average, to get to that same lead. I did the math and found that increasing my outbound sales calls by the suggested 50 percent wasn’t going to get me even close to where I needed to be. I would have needed almost a 1000 percent increase in call volume to come close!

Another difference was that, whereas during the boom, I could approach a prospect without specific knowledge of their business or hiring plans and effectively communicate using very general terms, now, leads were so few and far between that I needed to have a more thorough knowledge, and a specific, customized solution prepared in order to engage the prospect in any kind of meaningful discussion. Each lead was too rare and too valuable to risk losing on a random, generalized cold call.

I concluded that I needed to change my selling process from one in which I was making a higher volume of random sales calls, to one where I was making a lower volume of more targeted inquiries. Talk about flipping conventional wisdom on its head! I couldn’t argue with the numbers, however, and, after some initial hand wringing, my manager couldn’t either. He agreed to let me try out my new process.

The new approach began to yield results immediately. I was opening up far more new cases than ever before and my sales numbers jumped up higher than they had been when the economy was booming! I began to apply the same thinking to every process I was using.

First, I would identify all of the activities within my current selling process. Then I would analyze each one to try to understand its true importance to advancing the sale and producing the intended outcome. Whenever possible I would look for patterns and ways to measure the cumulative results of each activity or behavior. I soon found that by taking the time to isolate and understand the role each activity played within the context of my whole selling process, I could better reason from cause to effect and more accurately pin point the relative strengths and weaknesses of each. The result was a sort of behavior pattern algorithm that told an accurate story of my process from beginning to end.

After gaining an understanding of exactly what I was doing and how each component of my process contributed to the outcome I wanted to achieve, I would look for ways to improve upon my results. I would repeat this process over and over again; continuously looking to identify inefficiencies and replace them with new, improved ways of doing things better. Often the improvements would come as a result of talking with and observing other top performing salespeople. Now that I knew what I was looking for, I could more readily identify what others were doing differently in the same area that was allowing them to perform at a higher level and immediately incorporate it into my own process.

The results were immediate and dramatic, enabling me to finish 2002 as the top telesales rep in the entire company. Since then, I’ve successfully introduced SPM to my clients and to my own salespeople and have never seen it fail to produce the same outstanding results. SPM is easy to implement and works in any situation, economy, environment, industry, or company. It will work for you too.

Advertisers look at promotions in terms of cost per impression. CPI, also known in the business as CPM–cost per thousand–is the best measure of a marketing dollar’s true value. In 2010, the Advertising Specialty Institute looked at CPIs for various forms of advertising. This study paralleled a similar survey in 2008, providing a longitudinal look at advertising efficacy. Both surveys agreed on a few common points.

Promotional products’ CPI came out consistently lower than most other advertising forms. Only internet advertising could match the low CPI of promotional merchandise.The price of promotional merchandise stayed virtually unchanged for both surveys. The effective cost of promotional items therefore showed a slight decline–a marked difference from the cost of advertising on television, radio, or print.

Branded merchandise makes repeated impressions per month without incurring additional costs. For example, promotional pens showed an average of 437 impressions per month for the 4.6 months that clients kept and used the pens. With more than two thousand impressions on potential clients throughout the instrument’s life, branded pens offer an exceptionally low CPI.

Other strong performers were textile-based branded merchandise like shirts, caps, and promotional bags. In fact, bags had the highest number of impressions on average in the 2010 survey at 1,078 per month. This information suggests that the initially higher cost of promotional clothing and bags can be offset with a higher number of impressions.

Customers use promotional merchandise; when they have no use for it themselves, six out of ten will pass the item along to someone who can use it. Compare this to the number of newspaper circulars and mass-mailed brochures that wind up in the trash.

Neither the 2010 nor the 2008 survey addressed up-front costs of promotional merchandise directly, but prices are low enough to allow smaller businesses to give branded products to current customers as gifts, or to future customers as incentives. In increasingly competitive markets, it’s important to position a company’s name prominently in clients’ minds; the low CPI of promotional goods makes them a good choice for the small business as well as larger chains.

Another aspect of CPI that the studies approached tangentially was the longevity of branded items. A print or television advertising campaign has a limited shelf life; at some point, potential customers tune out even the most eye-catching or entertaining ad. With the exception of wall calendars, promotional items do not have an expiration date.

The advent of DVR technology has raised television advertising’s CPI, since customers can now fast-forward past the advertising blocks. Everyone needs pens, notepads, and tote bags and essential items with imprinted logos will keep their value over time.

Businesses see a proven return on their investment in promotional products. Keep CPI low and customer appreciation high with promotional merchandise.

Research studies conducted all over the world have shown that soft-skills such as cultural sensitivity, business etiquette and good communication skills go a long way in generating global business and are therefore indispensable to an organisation’s well being.A typical soft-skills training programme is divided into four broad categories:

Building relationships – Teaching students people skills and effective human relations

Getting things done – Teaching Total quality Leadership, Power Dynamics, Transitions and the Art and Practice of Agreement

Developing the organisation and the people in it – Teaching Total Quality Culture, Strategies for leading change, resolving differences and growing a business

Specialised skills – Coaching, consulting, negotiation and group facilitation

While emphasizing the importance of soft skills¸ there is a need to view its importance especially in the context of Indian companies. There is a reason why there is a strong demand for soft-skill training in India. Technical skills alone are not sufficient for them to be competitive globally. Cultural, language and environmental barriers can only be crossed with the help of soft-skills. Besides, Indian companies are in a position of competition with global companies since they offer similar services in most industries. Hence, without adequate soft skills, Indian companies are bound to fall behind them. According to Pramila Mathew, CEO of MMM, a training solutions provider, “The world is flat and we are constantly interacting with people who come from different cultures and countries. This is the reason that why there is an increased demand for soft skills training like Managerial Training, Team Leadership, Outbound Training, Executive Training and Corporate Leadership Training.

Research studies conducted on IT recruitment revealed that at entry level positions, there was a strong requirement for technical skills. However, soft skills are a must-have if one wants to move up the corporate ladder. Moreover, with leadership styles becoming more open, managers expect that their team members will be able to communicate their ideas openly. According to an ERP Consultant with a big Consulting firm, “Soft skills are very important in business. It is essential to be technically sound, but one should also have the ability to convey the idea to the masses in the simplest possible manner.” What had made soft skill most important today is the outsourcing boom. This requires professionals and subject matter experts to communicate directly with their clients.

Mutual mystification in the sales process is a real deal killer. It happens when either a buyer or seller has different expectations for an outcome of a meeting. Or it can happen when one party does something bewildering that is not clarified-leading to the “two ships passing in the night” syndrome.

The seller must provide leadership throughout the deal flow and must not allow mutual mystification to occur. To ensure that there is no mutual mystification in your deal making, discuss before each meeting:· The purpose of the meeting and time length.

· Your specific agenda, especially on the items requiring action.

· Your buyer’s specific agenda/expectations, you do not want to be blindsided!

· Budget issues, if any.

· Expected results from the meeting (e.g. accept or reject the proposal being reviewed).

Often in sales negotiations there is a tug-of-war between buyer and seller; each at cross-purposes with the other. It is important for you, the seller, to isolate hidden agendas and areas of disagreement before your sales presentation. This way, you have time to adjust your proposal while educating the buyer to the reality to what is feasible in solving his problem. (Having unrealistic expectations, improperly handled, is the leading cause of failed sales closings.)

When you discuss ahead of time, and mutually agree to what’s coming next; you will build and maintain rapport, credibility, and trust throughout a profitable relationship.

Mutual agreement is the antidote to mutual mystification and your formula for sales success.

However, creating a list of innovative ideas is not enough. You must take action!

Here are several ways to start taking action:

1. Evaluate the ideas on your list. Get a group of people from different parts of your business (different job functions) and review the ideas submitted. Perform a cost-benefit analysis on the most promising ideas. Initially, look for ideas that can be implemented quickly and are likely to produce a significant result to the bottom line.2. Prioritize the ideas. Perform an initial ranking of the ideas – be sure to include ideas that are “short term” projects as well as “long term” projects that take more time or resources to implement, but can provide significant long-term growth for the business.

3. Take steps to implement one or more of the ideas on the list. Take steps to begin implementing at least one of the ideas on your list. The first step may be to perform further investigation into the feasibility of the idea – such as seeking input from various groups in the company to determine costs, timing, or potential obstacles to address when implementing the idea.

Track the results of the innovative ideas implemented in your business. For example, you can track increase in revenue, reduction in expenses and customer growth. Celebrate the positive results of your innovation to encourage further creativity and innovation throughout your organization.