Beware of Spreadsheet Forecasts!

10 Reasons Not To Rely on Spreadsheets for Sales Forecasting

1. Forecast accuracy inevitably suffers using a spreadsheet because you have only limited visibility, predictability and control in respect of sales (opportunities, accounts, activity, etc.).

2. It is impossible to keep a spreadsheet based sales forecast or sales campaigns up-to-date. This is compounded with different versions being used across a sales or management team. A spreadsheet only gives a snapshot at a point in time and is quickly gone out of date.

3. Managers who track sales using spreadsheets spend twice as much time in report preparation.

4. Sales Meetings involving the use of spreadsheets are grossly inefficient – with updates being made line by line to different accounts, or opportunities for each rep in turn. That is time that could be spent coaching.

5. Spreadsheet-based analyses are more subjective because they struggle to adequately communicate how, for example, an opportunity is rated. They don’t map opportunities to your sales process – e.g. has the buying group been identified/covered, has a formal needs analysis been undertaken, has budget status been clarified, etc.

6. Spreadsheets don’t trigger actions in a diary where an action is allocated to an account, or an opportunity and they don’t provide a record of the associated actions, emails, meetings and so on.

7. Managers should have dashboards at hand so that they can review at a glance their pipeline, identify priority accounts, and so on.

8. Spreadsheets are of little use if a sales manager or a sales rep leaves. With growing levels of rep turnover, it is vital that all account, contact and opportunity is held in a central repository so that it does not vanish when a rep leaves.

9. A spreadsheet will struggle to give a sales manager the metrics he/she needs, including the ratio of leads to meetings, or the win rate of proposals.

10. A spreadsheet won’t adequately tell a sales manager where his rep was last week, or where he should be next week. It won’t enable him to identify areas where the rep needs coaching either.

9 Ways To Turn Your Sales Database into a Powerful Sales Tool

Want to get more from your Sales Database or CRM system? Here are 9 ways you can transform it into a powerful sales and marketing tool:

1. Purge your database!

A database with a well-used 200 entries can be much better than a database with 4000 names that is disorganised and out-of-date.

So screen all those contacts, accounts and opportunities in your database, re-classifying them as appropriate (based on relevance and potential). Do a random spot check – taking 20 or so entries to see where contact information (e.g. contact name, address, etc.) is out of date, or where the last contact is dated.

This will help you set the criteria for cleansing the database – for example identify those past customers who have not purchased in the past year and mark as priority, eliminate those that have been dormant for than 5 years and so on. Then allocate those that have a priority to an owner and assign an action or next step to it.

2. If its not working, scrap it

If your existing database is difficult to use, cannot be accessed remote and do not provide basic functionality such as dairying next actions, sending emails, capturing web enquiries directly, or providing real time management reports, then scrap it.

From as little as $9 per user per month you can provide your sales team with access to the most sophisticated CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and SFA (Sales Force Automation / Administration system).

Take out a demo account on Appshore.net, Salesforce.com, Sugar CRM or Sage CRM to see what your sales database can and should look like.

3. Use it for pipeline mgt and forecasting

Transform your sales database into a powerful management tool, by using it to track leads all the way through to orders. That begins with leads and enquiries, the meetings, opportunities, deals won. Track progress at each stage, generating metrics to enable you to identify salespeople who may be under performing, or areas of the sales process that require attention.

4. Organise training

One of the key barriers to the more widespread, expert and consistent use of a sales database is the level of skill and support available to users. So classify users into basic, intermediate and advanced user skills, in terms of their present skills levels and what their jobs require. Then organise a programme of training, supported by the necessary manuals, or documentation. Certification may be important to encourage extra there is a quick test of user skills levels before and after.

5. Incorporate Sales process and a common sales language

Getting the most out of your sales system will depend on having a consistent definition of sales process and sales language across your sales team. That means ensuring the way sales opportunities are ranked is consistent, with the associated probability of closing relating to some agreed and hopefully objective standard. This curbs the natural optimism of the sales person.

Defining your organisations sales progress takes forecasting another step further. For example, if a deal is forecast for January and given a 90% probability, the sales manager can assess the validity of this assessment by reviewing if key aspects of the sales process have been satisfactorily completed, such as:

• identifying and covering the buying group
• formal needs analysis completed
• notes of meeting in the database
• client feedback on draft proposal, etc.

6. Put it in people’s job descriptions

Encourage people to use the sales database, providing them with the training and support requirement required. But don’t stop there. Make it mandatory. Write it into people’s job descriptions and job reviews. Calculate commissions and other payments based on sales data as presented in the system.

7. Stop relying on spreadsheets

Stop relying on spreadsheets and make your sales database do the work of managing sales opportunities and forecasting sales revenues. This is a real test of the degree to which you are using your system. If your team is putting in the right information and keeping it up to date, you should be able to view an up-to-date dashboard of sales KPIs every time you log in.

8. Put somebody in charge of it

Give somebody overall responsibility for managing the sales database, that includes organisation of the training, reviewing data quality, cleaning out the system, tracking usage levels, managing compliance, etc.

9. Run campaigns using it

If you are having problems adopting your sales database, then put some new leads into it and use them to run a campaign. Allocate them to various reps and direct them there to find them. Use the system to send a campaign email as well as to automatically capture enquiries made from your web site..

Sales Systems: a framework for developing user skills

The functionality of today’s Sales and CRM systems is impressive, however that means they require higher levels of training and skill on the part of users. Insufficient, or inadequate training of users is a key factor explaining why the fact that most organizations have not reaped the benefits of their systems. It directly translates into low levels of usage, sales productivity and sales effectiveness.

So, how many users are at advanced, expert, or just foundation level? What level do they need to be at, given their various roles? The following checklist will help you assess and develop the CRM/SFA skills levels of your team. It is also an ideal structure for planning user training in respect of new systems implementations.

Put a tick in the box beside each activity users are able to complete. Those activities un-ticked then represent the ideal starting point for further training.

Level 1: Developing Foundation Skills

Here are the key tasks, or foundation skills, you will need to successfully use the CRM / sales automation tool:

1. Can you create an account and set Type, Source, Industry and Rating as appropriate, or to default? 

2. Can you create a contact in a specific account, add notes of a conversation to it, schedule a call with the contact and send an email to the contact person? 

3. Can you change your password? 

4. Can you search for a company or a person in the database and view their information? 

5. Can you edit a contact and an account and save the changes? 

6. Can you order accounts in alphabetical order, both in ascending and descending order? 

7. Can you order accounts by a specific category in rating, type, or source to show only a list of the ones in the category you have chosen? Can you see the number in the category without counting them? 

8. Can you enlarge the number of accounts shown at any one time to 50? 

9. Can you send and email with an attachment to yourself and check that it arrives correctly? Can you view the sent email in your sent folder? 


Level 2: Becoming an Advanced User

Here are the key tasks, or advanced skills, that will demonstrate your proficiency in the use of the CRM/sales automation tool:

1. Can you create opportunity, setting probability, start and end dates, etc., and assign follow-up call to it? 

2. Can you view opportunity created in Forecast tab, viewing under quarter and year tabs? 

3. Can you assign an account to another user, view accounts and contacts owner by other users? 

4. Can you open accounts, or contacts, in edit and in view mode? 

5. Can you change dashboard layout? Putting neglected accounts in the right panel, top activities by priority and by date in the centre column and open cases in the right panel of the screen? 

6. Can you send test email using a template & change if required? 

7. Can you export a file containing account details for backup? 

8. Can you upload a document to the database and rename it? 


Level 3: Becoming An Expert User

If you can complete the following tasks they you will have reached an expert level of proficiency in using the CRM/sales management tool, and managing or administrating the system for your company:

1. Can you import a list of companies or contacts from an excel spreadsheet, then set rating, type, source and industry as appropriate to the records entered en masse? 

2. Can you review a selection of 6 accounts (randomly chosen) in the database? Are they completed correctly? Is each one assigned, is there a next action, is there a type, rating, source and industry rating? Are notes kept of meetings and conversations? Are emails and documents present? 

3. Can you quantify & compare activity and progress by 2 users, in terms of number of accounts\contacts, level of activity & effectiveness? 

4. Can you generate a report? 

5. Can you create an email template, using different typefaces and colours. Send a test email using the template and make changes as required? 

6. Can you add a category to the ‘type’ drop down menu? Then update an account – changing type to the new category you have added. 

7. Can you add a new user, reset a user password, reset roles, or priviledges, change the order in which different applications (e.g. accounts, contacts, etc.) are displayed? 

8. Can you customise the database to company standards: Dashboard, Drop down menus, User set up, etc. 

Sales Systems: Why People Don’t Use Them & What To Do About It

Most companies have implemented some form of sales system (CRM or SFA system). However, few have achieved the promised payback on their investment. One of the key reasons is patchy use of the systems implemented. Indeed, our experience shows that such systems are under-used, or not used at all, by a majority of sales reps, sales support and sales administration staff.

Our clients point to 7 reasons why people don’t use (or at least don’t use properly) their sales / CRM systems. They represent real barriers to achieving the expected sales effectiveness and customer relationship management benefits. These reasons and what to do about them are examined overleaf.

Reason # 1: The wrong system has been implemented / inherited – the system in place does not meet user needs. Typically that means it is:

• Cumbersome, unsteady/unreliable, or slow
• Difficult to use (rather than being intuitive and easy to follow)
• Inadequate in terms of help/instructions
• Lacks key functionality (e.g. does not have a diary function, no remote access, or does not allow you to enter 8 digit product codes)
• Does not integrate with other applications that staff must already use (resulting in duplication of effort)
• Not tailored to the needs of users (e.g. drop down menus, field names, etc. do not correspond to the business in question)

What to do about it: Management should review if the existing system can be improved, or should be replaced.

Reason # 2: The information contained in the system is of poor value – the company and contact information in the system is incomplete, out of date, or not relevant. The system is not being purged, or updated on a regular basis.

What to do about it: Management should institute periodic reviews of the quality of the information in the database. Then provide the administrative resource to purge the data, replacing redundant information with new target lists and contact information, and importing for reps information that is kept in other locations (spreadsheets, outlook address books, etc.).

In addition the automatic capture and assignment to users within the system of web, or email enquiries should be set up.

Reason # 3: The system has been implemented without sufficient user buy-in, or understanding of the benefits (both to users and to the company overall).

What to do about it: Re-launch the system, starting with one small group of users who can most immediately benefit from using the system (or are suffering as a result of not being able to use it) and provide the support to enable them to reap the benefits for themselves. With this group as advocates spread news of the benefits to others.

Reason # 4: A lack of leadership - the system is not being used, or aggressively promoted by senior management (e.g. sales managers, or directors).

What to do about it: If the sales manager is not using the sales database, then he is not in a position to expect anything different from others. He/she has to demonstrate a commitment / competency in respect of using the system. That includes moving from spreadsheet based forecasting and paper-based sales reports, to conducting every conversation with reps or the team by reviewing the relevant account, opportunity or lead in the database.

Reason # 5: Lack of appropriate incentives, where the proper usage of the system is not written into job descriptions, staff and team performance reviews, or linked into the receipt of bonus and commission payments.

What to do about it: Increasingly job descriptions stipulate that keeping sales records, account and contact information up to date in the sales system (including notes of meetings, telephone conversation, etc.) is mandatory. This aspect of job related performance is formally reviewed at staff reviews and moreover payments of bonuses or commissions are linked to the same.

Reason # 6: Inadequate system administration and support to users, including help in terms of lost passwords, user problems, importing lists, organizing mail outs, etc.

What to do about it: Every database or CRM system requires an administrator. But that is not just somebody who can, when requested, set up a user, or change a password.

It is a more active role of reviewing usage levels on an ongoing basis to ensure users have the skills required, that data is being entered in the correct/uniform manner, that neglected leads, accounts, or opportunities are being followed up, etc.

It is also a resource that can pro-actively anticipate and meet the needs or users and teams, such as assisting in the creation of new lists for entry to the database, input of sales letters, proposal and other templates, etc. – all designed to ensure that users can gain the maximum benefit from the system.

Reason # 7: Insufficient, or inadequate training of users. That means not just an intensive one day training session, but periodic training in line with a progressive building of skills, from foundation to expert levels (depending on the specific role and requirements of the user).

What to do about it: The functionality of today’s Sales and CRM systems is impressive, however that means they require higher levels of training and skill on the part of users.

Although salespeople in particular may have little time, or patience for office based training, or indeed may not even admit that it is needed, it is clear that one of the key reasons why sales systems are not used is the frustration experienced by users who have inadequate systems familiarity, or skill.

Office based staff tend to fare best in terms of the training traditionally provided for CRM and sales systems implementation and much of that training tends to be provided up front.

Greater care is needed in terms of providing training to non-office-based staff. Training participation must be mandatory, with certification and providing access to ongoing training and intensive support provided, based on scheduled follow-up between each rep and the system administrator.

When it comes to user training we recommend a 3 steps process to building user skills, including establishing foundation, advanced and expert levels of skills depending on users requirements (see related article/checklist).

10 Reasons Why You Need A Sales System

Imagine an accountant without an accounts package, or an architect without a CAD programme! Well, most sales organisations do not have a widely used and effective sales system. That is costing them in terms of lost sales, as well as lost time and effort.

Here is a list of the compelling reasons why you need a good sales system and the benefits it will deliver.

Increase conversion rates at all stages of the sales cycle. A sales system enables sales opportunities, or leads can be managed more effectively, including the universal application of a more consistent and effective sales process.

A system enables a more systematic, structured and managed approach to the management of sales; leads, opportunities, etc. Nothing is left to chance as salespeople and their managers can, for example, immediately identify neglected accounts, leads that need to be followed up and opportunities that require more work before closing.

Provide increased visibility, predictability and control in respect of sales. That means managers can see what is happening, they can use this information to predict what is going to happen (including inbuilt forecasting tools) and can take action, without waiting until the quarters results are in, or the next sales meeting takes place.

More accurate and reliable sales pipeline forecasts. This is because more information is available and that information is more up to date. In addition the use of a system applies more rigor and consistency to how information is stored, including

Sales people are by nature optimistic, however a sales system tapers optimism with reality providing for a common sales language (e.g. when is a hot prospect ’hot’?) and relating opportunity ratings and close dates to the more objective standard of work done (e.g needs analysis completed) and progress made (contact with 3 senior managers in the buying group) in respect of each account, or opportunity.

See ‘Don’t Rely on Spreadsheets’ for details of the limitations of the traditional spreadsheet based approach to sales forecasting.

A sales system can reduce reporting time by up to 50%, eliminating the frustrating work of manually compiling written call sheets, cross checking spreadsheets, requests for updates, etc. With a sales system that is being implemented consistently all the information required by managers should be available through dashboards, or easily accessible reports.

Enables a more sales-led approach to marketing, facilitating a switch from expensive mass marketing (e.g. advertising and events) to on more measurable direct, or one to one contact with target customers. In this way it aligns sales and marketing more closely. Other benefits to marketing include, the automation of tasks such as capturing web generated leads, mailing of electronic newsletters, tracking of opt-outs, etc.

Makes people more productive and efficient, reducing time spend on paperwork, information search, personal organization (e.g. route planning and time management), meeting preparation, and, of course reporting. Functions such as diary reminders of scheduled tasks, integrated email and document storage (such as proposals) are particularly beneficial to busy reps.

Maximizes collaboration across sales teams and between sales and marketing by ensuring access to shared information and tracking of requests/activities/cases across different members of the team.

Enables managers to tracks and manage levels of sales activity and effectiveness across the sales cycle. It provides mangers with key metrics and KPIs in respect of sales and marketing, including number of leads generated, number of sales meetings, or conversion rates at different stages, for example from lead to meeting, or from cycle to close.

Makes leading and managing a sales force easier. This works in a lot of ways, here are just some examples:

• A system makes sales meetings – managers have all the information (result of meetings, status with opportunities, etc.) from the system, so meetings can focus on a transfer of enthusiasm, knowledge and insights, rather than a role call of opportunities.
• Managers get to do more coaching thanks to a sales system, which identifies what sales people, markets or products may be struggling.
• What gets measured gets done, thus a sales system generally results in an increase in the levels of sales activity (initially at least).
• As sales people are motivated by their performance relative to their peers, the introduction of a system that provides greater visibility of comparative performance, can when handled correctly, spur individual sales people to ‘up their game’.

More and better information is available to the people who need it. Such improved openness and communication, generally enhances levels of trust and respect and in turn performance. It also enables managers and their people to make better decisions, for example where to focus limited sales resources, what areas will delivery greatest results, etc.

In so many organizations the second-guessing by managers of the activities and progress of salespeople because they do not have accurate information available is unhelpful and can be demotivating. A sales system ensures that a sales person and his or her manager are constantly on the same page. It results in clarity of expectations and reduces the likelihood of suprises.

Customer relationship management. Sales databases began as a central repository for customer information and as their functionality expanded, they became effective tools for managing customer relationships. This is still a vital role for any sales database to perform, enabling managers and their teams to engage in more co-ordinated, systematic and proactive customer contact, resulting in more effective account management, increased customer loyalty and growing customer revenues.

Rolling Out A Sales System

Managers often complain about the difficulty of accurately forecasting sales and objectively rating opportunities. In addition they often lack the information to monitor and control sales team, or campaign effectiveness.

Meanwhile as organisations involve more people in selling, often from outside the sales team, the issue of co-ordinating activity and preventing overlap or duplication becomes important. The answer to these issues is a sales system.

From our experience successfully moving a sales team from paper to a sales database, or CRM system, can boost efficiency by between of 30 – 40%. However, this advantage will not be easily won.

Why You Need A System

SFA (Sales Force Automation), or CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Systems solve these problems by providing:

1. A central repository for customer, prospect & marketing information
2. Real time reporting & tracking of activity and effectiveness in terms of; leads, opportunities, accounts, etc.
3. Sales productivity tools in terms of reporting, scheduling, dairying, etc.
4. Marketing campaign management (including newsletters and mail outs)
5. Customer relationship management

How to Spot A Good System

1. Easy to use: intuitive enough to learn quickly and fast enough to save time.
2. Add value to the user, help them sell and deliver
3. Are flexible and display meaningful results within a mouse click
4. Able to solve day to day problems for the user and is consistent with the way they sell
5. User led not management led.

Are you Ready for a System

Although the sophistication of even the on demand or hosted systems is impressive, the reality is that there is no turnkey database solution.

So, beware it will take quite an effort to get a database up and running, even the most ‘user friendly’ systems, so it is important to get the timing right. The reality is that you need to double your estimate of the time and effort it will take to get the system up and running and then most crucially get users using it.

Overcoming the Adoption Hurdle

The adoption of sales systems is a major challenge. In short, most users don't use them faithfully. There are lots of reasons for this, but much of it comes down to the failures of planning and implementation, particularly around adoption. Here are some tips:

1. Ensure people see their own activity and accounts when they log in, not someone else’s
2. Deploy sales tools gradually, invest time in winning buy-in. Start with a small pioneer group
3. Pick a sales champion / project manager
4. Communicate the benefits clearly (less paperwork, more sales opportunities, better time mgt etc.)
5. Provide lots of training
6. Heavy on the admin support to start with at least (i.e. import contacts for users, be available to answer queries, put various documents into the system, customize the fields, etc.)
7. Develop a cheat sheet for training. Highlight why the system will help people and key functions they should use initially
8. Ensure people at the top are using it (leadership)
9. Review progress, learn from it
10. Roll it out in groups
11. Certify and reward users for using it
12. Make it part of sales meetings and sales reviews. Ensure it is forward looking
13. Put it in people’s job descriptions

Don't Rely on Spreadsheet Forecasts!

10 reasons to ditch your spreadsheets and employ a SFA/CRM system

Increasingly managers complain about the difficulty of accurately predicting what deals will close and when. However in spite of a more complex sales environment, most organisations still rely on spreadsheets to manage opportunities and forecast sales.

This short article outlines 10 reasons why a more sophisticated approach is required.

1. Forecast accuracy inevitably suffers using a spreadsheet because you have only limited visibility, predictability and control in respect of sales (opportunities, accounts, activity, etc.).

A few columns on a spreadsheet are inadequate to describe today’s complex sales.


2. Spreadsheet-based analyses are more subjective because they struggle to adequately communicate how, for example, an opportunity is rated.

Moreover, they don’t map opportunities to your sales process – e.g. has the buying group been identified/covered, has a formal needs analysis been undertaken, has budget status been clarified, etc.


3. Have you got the latest version? It is impossible to keep a spreadsheet based sales forecast or sales campaigns up-to-date. This is compounded with different versions being used across a sales team.

A spreadsheet only gives a snapshot at a point in time and is quickly gone out of date. It is not a collaborative working tool.


4. Spending too much time on reports? Managers who track sales using spreadsheets spend twice as much time in report preparation, so to do their sales teams. This is an inefficient use of time, given that most sales systems will produce reports at the press of a button.

Furthermore, it means that most face to face time between sales managers and their people is spent information gathering and reporting, as opposed to coaching.


5. Sales Meetings involving the use of spreadsheets are grossly inefficient – with updates being made line by line to different accounts, or opportunities for each sales in turn.

That means the sales meeting is caught up with detail that is irrelevant to most of the team and this distracts from the more strategic elements of a sales meeting.

While I am interested in talking about my own opportunities and how they are progressing, I don’t really need to know that the buyer in my colleagues number one account is away on holidays, or his main contact has just returned from a golfing holiday and that the results of the pilot project are being reviewed Thursday week. While it may be interesting to my manager, I would rather be out selling that listening to all that unnecessary detail.

No wonder that meeting involving such protracted opportunity reviews don’t finish on time!


6. Spreadsheets don’t trigger actions in a diary where an action is allocated to an account, or an opportunity and they don’t provide a record of the associated actions, emails, meetings and so on.


7. Managers should have dashboards at hand so that they can review at a glance their pipeline, identify priority accounts, and so on.


8. Too much information in people's heads. Spreadsheets are of little use if a sales manager or a sales person leaves as the understanding behind them is lost.

With growing levels of sales person turnover, it is vital that detailed account, contact and opportunity info is held in a central repository (a sales system, or database), so that it does not vanish when a rep leaves.


9. What does all the information mean? A spreadsheet will struggle to give a sales manager the metrics he/she needs, including the ratio of leads to meetings, or the win rate of proposals.


10. Who is doing what? A spreadsheet won’t adequately tell a sales manager where his sales people were, or should have been was last week, or where he should be next week. It won’t enable him to identify areas where the rep needs coaching either.


Conclusion

Managers want increased visibility, predictability and control in respect of sales. That requires a more systematic approach to leads, meetings, cycles and orders which has outgrown the capabilities of spreadsheet based sales forecasting, or reporting.

Thankfully, this is made possible by a wide variety of sophisticated tools, called Sales Force Automation, or Customer Relationship Management systems. Spreadsheets are not the answer.

'In the Dark' Sales Managers Cause Alarm

Many sales mangers don't have access to vital information regarding sales performance and potential. That effectively means they are driving in the dark and running the risk of an avoidable accident.

Sales is a Numbers Game!

We like to talk about numbers. We pull the calculator out wanting to really understand sales performance and potential and bypass hours of talking around the issue.

The fact is what gets measured gets managed, we want to talk to managers about their metrics. That is those variables upon which they will be judged and rewarded.

Managers want to talk about numbers too, but there is one big problem. A lot of the time they don't have them and cannot get them.

So when we ask managers about win rates, the number of sales meetings in the last quarter, the number of sales required next quarter we are often greeted with silence and a frown. When we ask about how these metrics vary across product lines, markets, or sales people the frown is even more intensive. Quite simply managers don't have access to key information regarding the performance and potential of their sales teams.

Managers Don't Have All the Information they Need.

Imagine driving without a dashboard telling you the speed you were travelling at, whether you had enough petrol to get you to where you are going.

Imagine not having the instruments to tell you if the breaks, lights, oil levels, or any of the functions important to staying on the road needed attention. Well this is what many well respected sales managers are doing when they don't have the information on the number of leads, meetings and sales cycles their team needs to work on at any one time. This lack of metrics is having major implications on how effectively they can manage communications with their peers, their team, their executives and their customers.

Visibility, Predictability & Control of Sales.

Sales forecast accuracy and sales reporting have long been a hot topic, and something that we are quite passionate about. We use the terms visibility, predictability and control because people can relate to them better. That is:

- Visibility of what is happening year to date (that is historical sales activity levels, sales revenue and margins).

- Predictability of what is going to happen to year end and thereafter (including booked and forecast sales, required activity levels and conversion rates).

- Control, that is the ability to impact on the level and effectiveness of sales activity, thereby immediately correcting any gaps and continually optimising people and process performance.

How to Achieve Greater Visibility?

Greater visibility comes at a price. It generally requires:

- Better Systems - that is the implementation of reporting systems, stricter forecasting methods, and even sales database, or CRM systems

- Better structures - such as a more structured approach to sales meetings, sales reporting and customer reviews

- Better plans and more importantly an approach to planning and target setting that sets out targets and metrics, not just based on sales, but on levels of activity (e.g. number of sales meetings required) and effectiveness (i.e. conversion rates throughout the sales cycle and ultimately win rates).

- Better processes - a more structured approach to the management of sales cycles so as to enable more accurate pipeline forecasts and the rating of individual sales opportunities.

Visibility is a Challenge.

We feel it is important that sales managers move from subjective measures to ratings based on the completion of specific elements of the sales process (e.g. documentation of needs analysis, contact with all members of the buying unit, or presentation of ROI model).

Many of these items will generate a kick back from salespeople and will require considerable commitment, effort and discipline to bed in successfully.

What is the alternative? Well, it is to keep on driving in the dark.

10 reasons to ditch your spreadsheets and employ a SFA/CRM system

Increasingly managers complain about the difficulty of accurately predicting what deals will close and when. However in spite of a more complex sales environment, most organizations still rely on spreadsheets to manage opportunities and forecast sales.

This short article outlines some of the key reasons why a more sophisticated approach is required.

 

1. Forecast accuracy inevitably suffers… 

2. Spreadsheet-based analyses are more subjective… 

3. Too much time is spent on reporting

4.  Ineffective sales meetings

5. Spreadsheets don’t trigger actions in a diary 

6. Managers should have dashboards at hand 

For more click here…