103
MALEMENT
Service
calls
Administrative
tasks
55
Prospecting
145
153
323
With customers
Waitinraveling
FIGURE 3-4 How Salespeople Spend Their Time
into the company's internal Web site, click on a button that says "shipment information."
and in just a few minutes they are able to tell the purchasing agent that the tank car is
in Houston, 20 miles away. The importance of this technology is indicated in Figure 3-4,
which shows that salespeople spend 15 percent of their time on service calls.
Overall Time Management
Despite all the emphasis companies are putting on increasing selling time. 34 percent of
a salesperson's time is spent on administrative tasks. This figure has not changed much
during the past two decades. Although it is important for salespeople to provide customer
and competitor information to their company, a key aspect of managing time effectively is
to recognize and control things that tend to waste time. Following is a list of what many
salespeople consider some of the most common time wasters:
1. Telephone interruptions 6. Lack of objectives. priorities, and deadlines
2. Drop-in visitors
7. Indecision and procrastination
Lack of self-discipline 8. Attempting too much at once
4. Crises
9. Leaving tasks unfinished
5. Meetings
10. Unclear communication
Note that the top two time wasters are telephone interruptions and drop-in visitors. The
rest of the time wasters, such as lack of discipline, lack of objectives, and procrastination.
indicate poor self-management by the salesperson. How different is this list from the one
you would make for yourself? One aspect of time management that is particularly important
in sales is to know when the customer is available. This is the key selling time during the
day, and salespeople should strictly adhere to customer contacts during these times. This
time must be protected, while other duties and issues are handled at other times of the day.
key step frequently recommended for improved time management is preparing a list
of personal and professional goals and then pursuing them one step at a time. Planning does
not have to be elaborate to be useful. Simply writing down a list of things you want to do
tomorrow is a good place to start. The next step is to rank the tasks on the basis of their
importance. Then when you start the day, begin task 1 and stay with it until it is completed
Recheck your priorities and begin task 2. Continue with tasks as long as they remain most
important
Once people get into the habit of daily planning, the next step is to plan a week or more
ahead. Many salespeople, for example, are required to prepare weekly call plans. The idea is
to encourage salespeople to plan a series of calls for cach day, to call ahead for appointments,
CHAPTER USALES OPPORTUNITY MAN
DEVELOPING YOU
104
Importance
LO
Hot
HA
Eeroes
Recreation
Personal
FIGURE 3-5 Time Management
and to nuke better use of their time. Today technology such as Blackberries and smartphom
help time management for busy salespeople because of their size, portability, and ability
syne with multiple personal computers.
Stephen Covey, a well-known consultant in personal and professional developer
advises people to analyze their time
management using a framework like the one show
Figure 33mportance” refers to activities that are of importance to you in meeting you
objectives. "Urgency." on the other hand, is the time pressure we feel to perform certas
activities Notice that we may feel this pressure for both important and relatively unimpa
will generally take care of themselves. People can gain control over their
lives
COM
less time on Time Wasters and more on Personal Growth
urgency but low importance) include phone calls, some
rowth activities. Time Wasters
trative work-in other words, things that demandings, and unnecessary admin
activities low urgency but high importance) are causily put off but are very important to
our immediate attention. Personal Growt
future prowth and development Activities in this category may include reading professional
other functional areas operate, or prospecting for new customers. Notice that many peop
provide us with a useful penpective on how we can spend our time more productively
by
| (hà
SUMMARY
KEY TEF
Account og
Acquisition
Best few os
Brekvens
Cold canva
Competitie
Couperca
Decision
Duea mai
Over the past decade, les force productivity las lagged behind the double-digit increase
in selling costs. As a result, top executives are giving added emphasis to improving les
force productivity by increasing the amount of time salespeople spend face-to-face with
customers. Salespeople are being armed with laptop computers, cellular phones and the
1. Describe effective steps for generating new accounts. First, a prospect profile should
may be based on sophisticated database analysis of the purchasing patterns and profitabil
be constructed the describes the best prospects for your company's offerings. The profile
ity of your current customers. With an cal prospect profile clearly in mind, a list of
prospects should be developed wing a variety of methods, including direct mail, trade
shows, directories, Telemals, and cold canvassing. Finally, prospects need to be qualified
besed on their need for the seller's offerings and intention to buy in the near future, their
Internet to fight this battle
DEVEL
uhority to buy, and their ability to pay for the offering
105
YOU COMPETENCIES
sales response
2. Explain how to determine the minimum account opportunity a salesperson should
pursue. Two techniques for making this determination should be used. First, the cost per
sales call should be identified. This is calculated by identifying all direct selling costs for
the period of time being evaluated and dividing this sum by the number of sales calls that
are expected for the time period. The cout per call figure is then included in a breakeven
sales volume analysis, which consists of multiplying cost per call times the number of
calls necessary to close the sale and dividing this product by the company's sales costs
is a percent of sales target. This provides a base figure from which to determine whether
a sales opportunity is of sufficient magnitude to warrant a face-to-face selling effort
3. Describe four methods for setting opportunity priorities. The single factor model
focuses on sales volume to classify account opportunities and allocate salespeople's time.
Portfolio models expand the criteria for classifying account opportunities by considering
both competitive position and account opportunity factors. Decision models allocate effort
according to a
function, which is based on the sales response to different
numbers of sales calls during a period of time. The sales process model allocates time
to sales opportunities based on
will depend on market demand, the competitive, and selling situation of the company
The appropriate model
4. Explain why emphasis is shifting from sales volume to profit flow. The main reason
for shifting from sales volunie to protits as a
as a performance and resource allocation metric
is because protits may be quite different for customers purchasing the same total volume
of products and services. This is caused by the price concessions some customers obtain.
the mix of product they purchase, the services they require, as well as their future
profit growth potential. A corresponding shift is taking place from emphasizing pust
sales and profits to valuing customers based on their future stream of protits. Customer
Lifetime Value (CV) is one method for calculating the discounted flow of future profit
contributions,
5. Tell bow salespeople can manage their time more efficiently. A recent survey indicates
that salespeople spend about 54 percent of their time selling either face to face or over
the phone. Three avenues for increasing this percentage are incorporating technology into
the selling and planning process, more efficient routing of sales calls within a territory,
and reducing time wasters through personal time management techniques,
stage in the
is
KEY TERMS
este portate
les
Directories
Direct selling expenses
Minimum account
Portfolio medel
Prospecting
Prospect profile
Qualified opportunities
Quality a prospect
Relers
Sales fund
Sales process model
Sales response function
Single-factor model
Time management
Tradeshows
Unqualified opportunities
was
DEVELOPING YOUR COMPETENCIES
th
1. Self-Management. One of the most important aspects of self-management is to develop
a clear understanding of your personal and career goals. One highly successful method
of arriving at a better understanding of your goals and of the steps that should be taken
to achieve those goal is the time management analysis developed by Stephen Covey
DEVELOPE
106
high
CHAPTER SALES OPPORTUNITY MANAGE
First, list your personal and professional goals in any order. Next, list the actions
you will need to take to get yourself in position to achieve these goals. Third, to
the Time Management Matrix presented Figure 3-5, labeling the axes as
how importance and high versus low urgency. List the activities on which you
developed for achieving your personal and professional goals. In which quadrant was
these poal-directed activities fall? How could you adjust your time to put yourself
pood position to achieve your goals?
2. Coaching are spending the day with a new salesperson in your district
has been with your company, Consumer Research International (CRI), for less te
3 month. CRI is a marketing research company that competes with the likes
MAR/C Group. Market Facts, and Burke Marketing Research. Although CRI
number of accounts with which it has worked for a number of years, each me
between 20 and 30 callers will contact your company to investigate engaging is
a marketing research project; however, only about two or three of the calls warta
further attention. A new salesperson is having a problem determining in a reasonable
amount of time, which of these callers is a real prospect and which is a waste
time. Time is precious, however, but you do not want your salespeople walking
wway from important growth opportunities
. Because the salesperson is new on the
job, you would like to give him a set of questions that he could ask to determine
whether this is a "hot" prospect of one that is just looking. What would be you
advice?
Global Perspective. Dendrite International is one of the world's leading suppliers
sales force automation software in the pharmaceutical industry. Pharmaceutical firm
worldwide are arming their salespeople with laptop computers and looking for software
to design call plans and collect call reports to increase sales force efficiency and effe
tiveness. More than 15,000 salespeople in 40 companies in Il countries use Dendrix
systems. One of the issues Dendrite faces is that software demands differ greatly from
country to country. How would software requirements differ in each of the following
countries? For more information on Dendrite, see www dirte.com
US pharmaceutical sales forces are among the largest in the world, ranging from
5000 more than 3,000 reps per fim, Sales reps call on medical personnel every
4 to 6 weeks to leave product samples and literature, perform service tasks, and
build relationships with prescribing physicians
in
funding of health care and large managed-care organizations are common. In England
• In Japan, sales forces are like those in the United States, and, with fewer doctor
a rep sees a doctor once a year, always by appointment, and can only leave one sample
there is one pharmaceutical salesperson for every six physicians, Unlike
States, where physicians cannot sell drugs, Japanese physicians combine prescribing
and dispensing of drugs. Sales reps negotiate prices with individual physicians, who
e derive income from selling free drug samples to their patients. Most Japanese
doctor. As a result, social selling is very important in Japan Keps develop face
doctors work in clinics or hospitals that require sales reps to wait outside to see the
time with doctors by washing their cars, entertaining them, and running all sorts of
errand
4. Technology. Wisdom Ware Inc. a small software firm, has developed a stick tool that
helps salespeople to be better informed and more efficient. It requires salespeople and
the United
their bones to do things just a linde differently. The issue Wisdom
attempts
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