Sales Process Management
Selling is getting more and more complex, yet very few companies are implementing formal sales processes that would bring the degree of management control that is needed. Too many managers have no reliable way to measure the performance of sales people other than orders produced and buldging 30-60-90 day forecasts with little back up. There is pressure to adopt sales automation but there is not much evidence of its improving salws effectiveness .. The decision is not a simple one, successful implementation is even harder.
If you want to improve your competitiveness you may need to change the behavior of your salespeople by focusing on the processes that run the business. You can't change the behavior without changing the processes and inspecting that they are being followed.
The sales process management part of this website, and the publications that support it, guide the reader to building an integrated system of sales and marketing management processes. But this itself will not bring the desired level of effectiveness. You must also manage the interaction among the management processes and, in so doing, seamlessly integrate the product marketing strategy, the sales and marketing tactics, and the sales and marketing management processes.
In a global business environment, where every business is working hard to achieve a unique edge, understanding and improving your management processes faster than your compeitiors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage.
The book "Integrated Sales Process Management: a methodology for improving sales effectiveness in the 20th Century" introduces Integrated Sales Process Management (ISPM), Integrated Territory Management (ITM), and Integrated Channel Management (ICM) to marketing and sales executives and provides them with a direction to achieving the concepts in their own organizations. See Books section.
The central theme in the book and this section is that if you want to solve sales effectiveness problems permanently, or prevent them from occuring, you must become more management process driven.
Articles:
What to do When Sales Start to Slip, by Michael W. Lodato Ph.D.
See Sales slipping article