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Integrated Sales Process Management: a methodology for improving sales effectiveness in the 21st Century. Available from Author House publishers - $31.95 + S&H Also available worldwide from booksellers and on-line websites $34.95 +S&H This 400-page book targets sales and marketing executives from businesses that use personal selling to sell high-priced products and services, to other businesses employing long, multi-step solution selling cycles. The book also targets recent college graduates who are entering the marketing and sales field. For more information and to place an order, click on the image.
Preface
This book introduces the concepts of Integrated Sales Process Management, Integrated Territory Management and Integrated Channel Management to marketing and sales executives and provides them with a direction to achieving these concepts in their own organizations. Integrated is defined as concerned with connected wholes or complete systems rather than the analysis or treatment of separate parts.
It is within this definition that we use the term Integrated Sales Process Management (ISPM). For we see the job of managing sales as that of managing the interrelationships among a system of sales management processes to implement sales and marketing plans. The same justification for using integrated for Integrated Territory Management (ITM) and Integrated Channel Management (ICM) holds.
This target audience for this book is well aware that changes in the business environment over the past 10 years have presented sales executives with new challenges and opportunities at an accelerating rate. The book provides an overview of ISPM, ITM and ICM and hints on how to implement them.
The central theme in the book is that if you want to solve sales effectiveness problems permanently, or prevent them from occurring, you must become more management process driven. There are many such processes and within many processes there are other processes. Most processes are sub-processes of larger processes. The key to consistent success is to manage the interaction among management processes
Because sales effectiveness is so dependent on marketing strategy and planning, the link and interaction between the product marketing management process (PMMP) and the sales management processes are emphasized. Following only the sales management processes will give short-term gains in sales and provide insights into what PMMP should accomplish. Long-term success is more likely when the organization has and follows both processes. I have developed generic versions of all of these processes and tailored them to the peculiarities of specific clients.
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Achieving ISPM, ITM and ICM can involve a lot of time and effort. However, I have developed implementation methodologies that provide a way to complete the job in just a few months. ISPM, ITM and ICM are not software products; they are management systems.
Selling Big Ticket Items: The Master Method
Available from Author House publishers - $14.99 + S&H Also available worldwide from booksellers and on-line websites $14.99 + S&H  This 140 page book is an update to the book published in the mid-1980s that focused on selling computers and software. The foundation is still the MASTER Method selling system specifically designed for both rookies and veterans. For more information and to place an order, click on the image.
Big ticket items and services -- what are they? You see big ticket items all of the time. That one hour photo processing machine at the drug store was sold by a salesperson. The car wash that you take your auto to is a big robotic system that was a big sale for someone and many of the components of that system (e.g. the dryers) were big ticket items when they were sold to the contractor who erected the car wash. You might identify better with other examples such as residental homes, home renovation projects, landscaping projects, business systems, roads and sidewalks, parking structures, and college dormitories. Characteristics we find in the sales of big ticket items include: The products and services are of relatively high price The duration of the selling process is relatively long and consists of several steps The duration of the process that buyers go through is relatively long The buyers are usually looking to purchase against a set of specifications -- they are looking for a solution. Tthere are usually steps in the selling process to learn about and get agreement on the needs and wants of the buyers. There is often a team of people on the buying side Sometimes the salesperson needs help from others (team sales) The product often needs explaining There is usually competition to deal with They are rarely sold from a retail store
The complexity and prices of such offerings justifies the cost and selling time of a field sales force. To those who sell big ticket products and services, this book is for you. Throughout the book the pronoun you is used quite liberally. It refers to the intended audience for the book; those people who sell big ticket products and services. You might be an independent sales representative, a saleperson for a manufacturer of products or a developer of software systems a person responsible for booking (acquiring) significant services contracts such as major consulting engagements a sales representatiave for an independent marketing organization which resells products and services produced or developed by others employed by an organization that adds value to products and services of others
Although you are the bull's eye of the target market for this book, your managers could benefit greatly from what is contained in the book. For over three decades the MASTER Method has been adoped by many sales and marketing executives. Seasoned salespeople have reported that the training has shown them areas where they had become slack, and the structure of the matenials has showed them how to integrate techniques that have been successful in the past. Some benefits the reader should get from the book. This book provides, among other things: a systematic day-to-day process to help you to sell more, in a shorter span of time, without wasted effort. forms to help you avoid wasting time with unqualified prospects a structure, the MASTER Method, for relating the important sales principles and techniques so they can be easily recalled and applied a selling system consisting of a sequence of steps that you will take with the prospect to make a sale, guidance on how to apply the MASTER Method at each step to achieve incremental levels of commitment from the prospect until he or she makes a buy decision. guidance for conducting productive sales calls and giving effective sales presentations specific scripts for handling prospect stalls, objections, and other obstacles to the sale Annotaed outlines for various types of proposals you may have to prepare and present a structured questioning approach to help you get prospects to state explicitly the problems that are uppermost in their minds, benefits that they most want from the product or service, and criteria they will use in making their decision. the closing techniques most appropriate to the selling of big ticket items.
The MASTER Method is a structured approach to selling The word MASTER, used as an acronym, has turned out to be a very convenient mechanism for organizing all the principles and techniques of selling. M Make ready means learning as much as possible about prospects, their needs and situation, your product and offering, and the competition. A Approach with benefits recognizes that people don't buy products for what the products do, but for what products will do for them. S Stimulate desire means to appeal to the emotions of the people who must recommend purchase and make decisions. T Tell the facts means explaining the offer and the product without distracting from the benefits and the desire stimulation. E Eliminate obstacles means to elicit all stalls and objections and eliminate them as effectively as possible, and finally R Request action is the step that gets the prospect to make commitments during the sales cycle and in the end, ring up the sale, So the acronym M.A.S.T.E.R. provides a classification scheme for sales principles and techniques.
Management of New Product Launches and Other Marketing Projects  Available from Author House publishers - $13.99 + S&H Also available worldwide from booksellers and on-line websites $14.99 + S&H In this book is a detailed methodology for planning, arranging, sourcing, orchestrating and controlling projects that are encountered in sales and marketing. The methodology is applied to one of the most difficult challenges in marketing - the launch of new products and services. For more information and to place an order, click on the image.
Sales and marketing projects
The jobs in sales and marketing are both routine and project type. There is enough important sales and marketing work that is time specific and produces specific products, systems or other deliverables, by a specific time that it should be managed as a project. Examples are New product launches, (covered in Chapter 7), where a lot of specific things – including the product, the support program, and promotion - have to be completed by a specific date – the launch target date Promotion campaigns, where specific ads, brochures, TV spots, etc. have to be placed by specific dates Recruiting of channel partners, where specific agreements need to be signed with specific companies to be business partners within a specific time frame. The sale of a specific offering to a specific prospect or customer
Other activity, such as customer support, writing weekly status reports and analysis of the competition, is on-going or routine and so does not require management as projects. It is our conviction that success in performing sales and marketing work is enhanced when formal project management methodology is consistently applied.
Yet not many sales and marketing personnel get exposed to training or guidance in project management and so are ill equipped to perform well on these important tasks. This book has been written to help marketing and sales people develop strong project management capabilities. This is what the reader will find in the rest of this book:
Chapter 2, Management and Management Processes, sets a proper context for performing project management work.
Chapter 3, Project Management, discusses management of projects that are encountered in sales and marketing.
Chapter 4, The Project Planning Process, provides detailed guidance in the planning of marketing and sales projects. It shows how to define the tasks needed to be done, in what sequence and how long each task should take.
Chapter 5, The Project Execution Process, discusses deciding on the proper organization and relationship of resources and processes, to achieve the plan objectives, locating and getting all resources and processes needed to achieve the goals, and directing, coordinating, synchronizing, and symphonizing resources in changing and dynamic environments.
Chapter 6, Controlling the Project, discusses measuring and monitoring actual performance and providing direction when expectations are not being met. The discussion covers the concept of control, outlines quality reviews, distinguishes between calendar-driven and event-driven control, and describes time and progress reporting.
Chapter 7, Product Launch Management, details how to apply the previous six chapters to managing new product launches. The reader will get an appreciation of the magnitude of the product launch challenge and will develop a confidence that, with the tools provided, they can overcome these challenges.You will find a very ample list of launch program tasks and see how they are related in work breakdown structures. Further, there is a set of Launch Readiness Checklists and instructions for how to use them to control of product launch projects. At the end of this chapter are guidelines for using the Launch Readiness Checklists methodology as a product launch audit tool.
The book contains all the elements needed to plan, execute and control sales and marketing projects. Launching a New Product. One of the most challenging marketing projects is the launching of a new product - the focus of the book. Here are some of the things that must be ready on the launch date: The product itself including packaging, documentation and demonstration packages Product support, including trained people and tools for customer support Broad-based promotion efforts such as print ads, articles and white papers, website use, publicity releases and trade shows. Focused promotion efforts such as telemarketing, direct mail and seminars Fully trained salespeople to meet sales goals, guided by a sales management process A sales support organization ready to handle lead management Pricing schedules along with contract terms and conditions Marketing intermediaries, such as distributors and resellers, along with a group ready to train and support them A conpany-wide understanding of how customers benefit from the new product and how employees can play a role in the success of the launch
It is the author's conviction that success in performing marketing and sales work is enhanced when formal project management methodology is consistently applied. So the early chapters provide the reader with perhaps the most clearly articulated project management methodology that can be found anywhere.
The Agile Corporation: A Strategic Management Process Due to be published in 2012. What is an Agile Corporation? There are various definitions of Agile. As used in this book agile refers to the power and ability of a corporation, whether it is a single business unit or an enterprise of several business units, to be alert to changes in the business environment that may be coming or have occured, to quickly assess the impact of such changes on success, and to adapt to the new realities by making changes to its strategies, tactics and processes in time to avoid bad results.
In this sense, agility is the ability of the corporation to sense environmental change and respond efficiently and efficectively to that change. An agile corporation is nimble, aware, resourceful and adaptable. The link between the business environment and strategy is a set of documented assumptions about the environment. Assumptions are management's anticipation of future events and conditions over the planning period. They are what the mananagement team believes about the environment. For example, what is the management team's consensus about such things as the rate of economic growth, strategies and tactics of competitors, industry dynamics, critical success factors and so forth? The assumptions become the basis for formulating strategu. They provide an audit trail for each strategy statement and are invaluable in exercising the control function of management. Agile strategic management is more than a function; it is an attitude about rreacting to change.
Selling Computers and Software: the MASTER Method . | |
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