- Very early in my career I made a sales call
before I had gone through the formal
training program with my company.
I was excited, energized, in my mind,
fully prepared, so well prepared that I brought
a separate salesman sample bag full of marketing
materials, catalogs, sell sheets,
and copies of all the various promotional
offers that we had available.
It was quite a sight, and it did bring a smirk
to my buyer's face.
The evaluation and measurement of how salespeople
put to use the promotions and collateral material
developed is often seen as a subjective analysis.
In many ways it is, and certainly historically
that's been the case, in the example from my story,
I was ineffective by bringing all of those materials,
and I chalk it up to a rookie mistake.
However, through the years, most salespeople
are accused of using collateral material at a bare minimum.
The first step that needs to be done is a rigorous
review of what's being created,
what's needed, and what's used.
That would also include the total budget
and dollars spent.
The sales, business development, finance
and marketing management all should participate
in these discussions and get on the same page.
The waste of materials and poor usage
are much improved from years ago,
but the majority of companies still need to make
this a strict, regular review.
Clearly online and other digital support is key,
but there are many cases when print materials
are still needed.
When focused specifically on salespeople,
you can examine a variety of variables,
based on your type of business and product
or service offering.
Some of the newer tracking systems
even have features to examine promotional usage.
Here are some examples that I've seen tracked
and measured of critical marketing programs
and the salesperson's effort to utilize them.
Expense management, cooperative advertising
marketing funds.
This is an essential training that you need to have
regularly with your sales team.
It should start right when they're hired
and be an ongoing measurement.
If you don't use cooperative advertising,
then it's the use of marketing funds available.
You set the parameters based on your style
and company philosophy, and then review quarterly.
Deals and offers, programs to incentivize
customers to place an order now,
more aggressively, or to beat the competition
aren't developed blindly.
I found some salespeople pounce on these opportunities,
while others need more of a push.
For me, I value those account managers who don't
need to be prodded.
Social media, many salespeople are reluctant,
or not trained in the use of social media
for selling purposes.
Some are fully on board and you need to recognize
those salespeople who are using social media
to support their efforts.
Sell-through analysis and ROI,
it's the age old sales and marketing question,
we spent X amount of dollars,
and what was the return on investment?
It's easier to pinpoint in some industries
compared to others, but it's one that you need to have
always as a part of your performance
measurement criteria.
Remember, whatever materials we're creating,
or promotions we're developing,
the purpose is to grow revenue.
We can have the nicest looking collateral
and attractive promotional programs,
but if our customers don't want them,
or the salespeople don't use them,
then there's a problem.
It's a performance measure that the best salespeople
have mastered because they know their customer's needs
and how to support them to maximize sales.