MARKETING & SALES

SALES GOVERNANCE

Development of a high-performance sales force and culture through the formation of rituals, processes, tools and KPIs aligned to customer needs

What challenge(s) do our clients face?

A Go-to-Market strategy cannot be brought into reality and truly generate results without the Sales Governance reflecting priorities, realigning incentives, and adjusting to the commercial identity.

Sales processes within organizations often develop empirically and incrementally. Whilst this organic method of development is only natural at the outset when companies reach a certain size, it can lead to large discrepancies in the teams’ performance along with the market they act. It also results in difficulty to identify and leveraging the best practices across the sales teams and to grow the overall service level.

The symptoms or issues of a lack of harmonization in sales processes/governance often become apparent when companies experience the following:

  1. Sales teams spending too much time with internal activities, rather than being “in the field”, conducting their core sell-out and analytical activities;
  2. Difficulty in achieving a high-quality store execution due to an apparent lack of “field time”;
  3. Lack of standardization between teams or divisions or different service levels delivered among different territories/zones;
  4. Low visibility of actions that are being taken by the sales teams, with poor KPI tracking and misalignment of the key commercial focuses.

Overall, these problems characterize an inability to translate the Go-to-Market Strategy into execution. Without the correct sales rituals, processes, tools, and KPIs to sustain the strategy, sales performance inevitably suffers, and company growth can remain stunted.https://integrationconsulting.com/en/consulting-services/marketing-sales/go-to-market/

How do we help?

We help our clients translate their customers’ needs into practical governance rituals which deliver improved service levels.

The main goals of a Sales Governance project are to deliver a better service level to your customers and to reorganize and prioritize the focus of the sales teams based on those different customers’ needs.

In order to deliver these capabilities, we support our clients to:

  1. Develop a clear governance model for the Sales area, providing alignment, rhythm, communication, and collaboration.
  2. Define clear roles & responsibilities within the team hierarchy and across interactions for commercial and trade areas, as well as harmonize interactions with other areas (logistics, finance, etc).
  3. Strengthen routines and checklists to create a “method” which allows for individuality as well as the adoption of the best practices of top performers, ensuring a culture of continuous improvement.
  4. Embed Customer Relationship Management (CRM) processes and tools in the sales team routine.

What are the benefits?

Sales Governance projects benefit the company, sales teams, and the customer.

COMPANY Planning, Execution and Management processes for all regionals/ segments;Replicable sales model –easier identification and dissemination of best practices. Guarantees documentation and maintenance of empirical knowledge. SALES TEAM Planning with clear and standardized objectives; Greater team direction and alignment; Tools that facilitate daily life and information exchange;Rituals interconnected between the different levels of the company. CUSTOMER Service connected to business customer’s needs;Standard of service; Speed ​​and better service level execution; Increased customer management by the sales team as a whole; Bond and close relationship with the customer.

How does it work?

Our 6-step methodology ensures a true transformation, culminating in operational pilots to see the solution in action.

DISCOVER Field research and market understanding Accompaniment on sales force routinesInterviews with internal teams (sales, trade, supporting areas, etc.)Interviews with clients DESIGN IMPLEMENT 1 Define design drivers for the routines Align goals and expectations for the project with the client’s needs and realityE.g. Gain more visibility, increase standardization, improve in-store execution 2 Governance Model Define the Yearly, Monthly, Weekly and Daily routinesDefine the KPIs to track and follow each routine 3 Ways of working and Playbook In-depth detailing of each routine and ways of workingDefine responsibilities of each role in the newly developed routines 4 Training & rollout Train all field sales teams in how to conduct the routines in practiceDefine owners of the new routines to guarantee continuous improvement 5 Implement and pilot test Implement ‘hands on’ alongside the team Prepare and follow a pilot to see performance “in action” and adjust if necessary 6

Across this journey, we aim to ensure a truly pragmatic and implementable solution considering the following ‘golden rules’, which we have learned across the years conducting these kinds of projects.

  1. Be simple, pragmatic and concrete
    • Make sure the solutions brought are based on concrete experiences which have proven successful
    • Adjust the routines to the reality of the company (consider IT systems and their limitations/capabilities, the specific categories/product dynamics in the market)
  2. Be connected to the company, strategy and the culture
    • Align the service level of each sales team to the GTM strategy
    • Guarantee the link between the sales governance design principles and the company’s culture
  3. Be conscious of resistance to change
    • Leverage change management expertise, involve internal areas, and first generate a willingness to change and embed the mindset needed
    • Build up internal engagement, by monitoring best practices, success cases, and sharing them with the team

SUCCESS STORIES

CHALLENGE

A manufacturer of industrial ingredients was having difficulty in building close professional relationships with their customers and generating commercial value from their interactions. They asked Integration for support them in harmonizing and boosting their frontline commercial capability in sales, business development, R&D and marketing.

APPROACH

We supported the client in developing a sales governance model across the entire LATAM territory. This promoted best practices and standardization, whilst allowing adjustment to the local needs. In this manner, Integration was able to:

  1. Enhance our client’s CRM capabilities – we developed a Joint Business Planning Process which linked the company’s sales routines with the client’s main activities and movements, allowing them to be more responsive and adaptable to the client’s requirements.
  2. Increase internal collaboration between the companies’ sales, marketing and technical specialists, through the introduction of an integrated governance model that organized all the main touchpoints between the areas, with clear objectives and action plans.
  3. Improves sales pipeline management, with tools and KPIs to track the development of new customers and support the development of targeted actions.

RESULT

Our client was able to deliver a top to bottom customer experience, involving and adapting to their customers’ needs. This resulted in an improved capacity to generate, qualify and convert sales leads, and with a better service level.

Furthermore, the joint business planning with clients allowed for better internal S&OP coordination and it prompted the development of a new product based on the customer feedback.

CHALLENGE

An extremely large cleaning and security service provider with more than 50,000 front line employees was struggling to track their contracts, the cost to serve them and standardization in the service level delivered across the regions where it operated.

APPROACH

Integration supported the company in addressing many critical issues that were hurting profitability.

  1. Senior management had no visibility of contracts that were generating losses for the company so we supported the company in developing and launching an App which could track and monitor contract KPIs
  2. To reduce sales team time spent in bureaucratic activities, we reorganized their sales routines and internal touchpoints with the supporting areas, ensuring better use of time and reduce admin
  3. Finally, given the large workforce, we clarified Roles and Responsibilities, authorization standards, and built a playbook and a calendar routine to ensure guidelines could be applied across territories.

RESULT

Through these activities, we were able to improve control, decision-making and standardize service level – generating truly live visibility to all the senior management as well as the field teams on contracts.

This increased margins and the effectiveness of the sales team, as field time increased and meetings became more efficient and focused in action plans to deliver better results.

OUR INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE

Integration has had the pleasure of helping many clients across different industry sectors for the last 20 years. These include Beauty & Personal Care, Food & Beverage, Construction, Pharmaceuticals, Ingredients, Pulp & Paper, Security & Cleaning, Agriculture Industry in B2B and B2C contexts, and more. These projects were carried out across different continents and countries, in Latin America, Europe, United States and others.

This experienced has shaped our knowledge on how to design routines both in an environment of high turnover (e.g. FMCG) as well as in more technical and longer sales closure processes (e.g. Construction), which demands more complexity and touchpoints in the service chain.

TALK TO US

André Valente

André Valente is a senior director at Integration and a leader within the Marketing & Sales Practice. With nearly two decades of experience supporting clients across diverse sectors and geographies, André is a specialist in the topics of innovation management, digital and data solutions, go-to-market models, market-entry strategies and global marketing approaches.

Ian Matiussi

Ian Matiussi is a director and joined Integration in 2010 and now has over a decade of experience, working in our Marketing & Sales Practice. Comfortable with a wide range of topics in this area, he is especially known for his expertise in strategic marketing initiatives such as Market Scans, Go-to-Market and Commercial Policy. His [...]

Roger Saltiel

Roger Saltiel is a partner at Integration and has been working since 2002 in the Marketing & Sales practice. Considered an authority in the Indirect Channel and Partner Relationship Management (PRM), he is a member of the Associação Brasileira de Atacadistas e Distribuidores (ABAD) [Brazilian Association of Wholesalers and Distributors], working in the leadership of [...]

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