Re-invent sales for

the 21st century

Re-invent sales for the 21st century

Selling is getting harder and the adage of sales being

more of an art than a science has never been further
from the truth.
Changes in market, customer, technological and • Social media – Consumer opinion and expectations
competitive landscapes mean that traditional methods are increasingly driven by powerful social media tools
of selling and approaches of sales management do which are proactively leveraged to enable the growth
not suffice in increasingly complex, clued up and of sales opportunities.
cost-conscious world. As we shape game changing
initiatives for our clients the typical challenges we are • Net margin and cost of sales focus – Sales executives
helping them address include: face more budget scrutiny, increasing the pressure to
optimise return on investments and lower acquisition/
• Savvier customers – With more access to information bid costs.
customers have higher expectations, with pre-formed
needs and are loyal to those who provide consistent, • Talent shortages – Limited talent is available with the
positive customer service. newly required technical skills, while more traditional
relationship-based sales skills are being usurped by
• Buyer sophistication – Thrift is the norm as the need for analysis, insight, and negotiating talent.
customers are more price-sensitive and deal-
conscious, and specialist B2B buyers demand higher • Self-service opportunities – New purchasing
value at lower costs. expectations are driving companies to build out their
self-service infrastructure. Although this reduces
• Channel proliferation – Organisations are finding it costs, sales teams lose traditional face-to-face
difficult to manage sales interactions across various customer/market feedback.
multi-channel vehicles (brick and mortar stores,
e-commerce sites, catalogues, kiosks, etc.). • Mobile platforms – Mobile options for marketing and
sales are extensive and growing rapidly and require a
well-defined mobile strategy to avoid confusion.

Go-To Market Organisation

Know where the value is and Structure your sales force • New sales technology platforms – Evolving tools
align channels and resources for success, and leverage the such as price optimisation, configure/price/quote
to capture it.. entire enterprise to deliver on
applications, mobile sales force automation and
the sales strategy across the
et Org smart phone-based applications are transforming
ark an
traditional sales techniques.
M
isa
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Go-T

tion

These challenges demand well thought through and

well executed solutions, spanning all dimensions of
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ty
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selling, from strategic to operational and cultural.

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Pr o Deloitte’s sales transformation framework
Enablement Productivity At Deloitte our focus is not only on improving the
Provide the processes, Boost individual performance
tools and insight to drive a through development, effectiveness of sales reps and the sales function but
consistent approach to selling, measures, performance also how well the entire enterprise sells in order to
from marketing to customer management and reward
realise maximum benefit. In this paper we outline 12
acquisition and in-life
management essential strategies that will equip your organisation to
achieve competitive immunity in your accounts, capture
greater than your (fair) share of wallet and re-invent
sales for the 21st century.

2
Go-To Market

1. Know where the value is Map the opportunity

Too often key strategic sales decisions are For each micro segment you need an ability to estimate
based on historic performance and gut feel the overall addressable wallet and growth potential.
with a risk of effort being directed in the There are several approaches to achieving this, which
wrong place, opportunities being missed include buying in external data, future projection based
and return on your investment not maximised. In order on past performance and front line sales.
to identify the demand for your products and services,
you must take a forward, analytical and granular view. With a good estimate of the available spend, matching
and mapping the value derived from your customers in
Gather your big data each of the segments will allow you to understand your
Gaining a true view of where the value lies in your current share of wallet and penetration of your portfolio.
market relies on accurate data from multiple sources. This allows clear identification of ‘acquire’, ‘grow’ and
Not only does this data need to be comprehensive, it ‘defend’ accounts within each micro segment:
has to be granular. Analytical modelling combined with
market intelligence and primary research then provides • Acquire: Attractive ‘white space’ accounts with no
the basis for building deeper insight into customer prior business but which have a high propensity to
needs and growth potential. buy your products of services.

Create a micro segment view of your market • Grow: Under-represented accounts where share-of-
Too often organisations approach segmentation of wallet is below average or your portfolio is under-
markets at a macro level and while this may allow you penetrated – these become the focus for your cross-
to scale a sales force overall it provides little insight sell and up-sell efforts.
on targeting your resources. A micro segment view
allows a granular understanding of the variations in • Defend: Accounts with significant existing share-of-
your addressable market and identification of where wallet, and particularly those at risk of being churned
the value lies. Segments should be based on criteria to focus your renewal and retention strategies.
that drive the demand for your products and services
across the addressable market (obvious examples This granular understanding of the value in your
include demographic, location and age for consumers; addressable market, combined with historic sales
industry, turnover and employee numbers for business). investment and competitive landscape, provides an
informed basis for defining clear strategies for how you
should Go To Market.

Consumers increasingly use multiple devices

(PC, laptop, tablet, mobile) to access digital channels
and expect a consistent, high-quality experience
throughout the buying process.

Re-invest sales for the 21st century 3

 2. Exploit the digital and mobile • With the advent of multi-channel operations
opportunity customers are now experiencing break-points in the
As with any technological disruption, buying/sales cycle which were previously invisible
new channels bring fresh opportunities – organisations must be multi-modal, or give an
and threats. Device proliferation, high quality mobile integrated multi-channel experience.
connectivity and cloud services are now mature enough
to allow you to extend your reach, enhance your value • Sales reps are often at the bleeding edge in
proposition and improve customer loyalty. But again, terms of technology adoption and application, as
as with any other technological disruption, you need to opportunities need to give them an advantage over
correct your business and sales model. the competition, improve life for their customer and
make their own lives easier – a successful digital and
• Not all types of sales and sales interactions are mobile strategy must accommodate and embrace
suitable for automation on-line or mobile support. innovation in the field without slowing it down.
Bespoke solutions via websites, from sales to multi-
national enterprises are unlikely – digital selling • New data-driven customer analytics and decision-
solutions must be designed around a combination making technologies provide opportunities to
of offering and customer need to deliver maximum maximise the value of digital interactions at every
value. stage of the customer lifecycle – analytics strategies
must provide intimate support and accommodate
• A s the online channel becomes more valuable for all channels.
business, it is vital that organisations ensure the
customer journey is as pain-free and seamless as
possible – underlying sales processes must be stable
and data needs to be accurate.
As with any technological
• Consumers increasingly use multiple devices (PC,
laptop, tablet, mobile) to access digital channels
disruption, new channels
and expect a consistent, high-quality experience bring fresh opportunities
throughout the buying process – a consistent,
branded customer experience is required across and threats.
all channels.

4
 3. Actively manage your Next you need to consider your addressable market
customer portfolio and your current foothold within it. What is your
How many sales leaders ask penetration in the most profitable segments? Which
themselves: do I have the right segment do you want to acquire more of? Which
customers? Your customer portfolio segments are worth defending and growing and which
is more than just a collection of opportunities and do you not want to invest your limited resources in
accounts. Each organisation you do business with will retaining?
have its own combination of products and services,
price and commercials, behaviour, lifetime and Modelling these scenarios, along with the associated
Product,
associated risk. Combining these factors with ‘cradle to acquisition, discount and retention costs needed to price, usage,
grave’ management costs determine the profitability of achieve them, will allow you to build a picture of your behaviour and
your customer base. Actively managing this portfolio optimum customer portfolio and the contribution it risk will vary
will result in greater ROI from your sales organisation will deliver.
and a significantly improved contribution to the overall
greatly across
bottom line of your organisation. Optimise your channel mix your customer
Identifying your optimum customer portfolio and base.
Track costs as if they were revenue acquisition/retention targets is one thing. Executing it
Making informed decisions about customer, product is another. The channels you deploy to go to market
and channel profitability requires more than tracking directly impact the effectiveness of your sales strategies
and managing costs at the headline level. Information and the profitability of the business you win. Digital,
about the costs to acquire, grow, retain, discount and social, direct, indirect, managed and un-managed
serve is needed at individual proposition, channel and – they all have unique characteristics, performance
customer segment levels. and costs depending on what you sell and who you
are selling to. A channel that has the lowest ‘cost to
Determine the optimum customer portfolio acquire’ does not mean it is right for every opportunity.
The combinations of product, price, usage, behaviour Leading sales organisations understand and manage
and risk will vary greatly across your customer base. their channel mix to achieve better customer, revenue
To be able to effectively manage your portfolio, and cost targets whilst delivering the experience
particularly with large customer numbers, you need to customers feel they deserve.
understand how these vary at a segment level along
with the associated profitability.

How many sales leaders ask themselves: do I have

the right customers? Your customer portfolio is more
than just a collection of opportunities and accounts.

Re-invest sales for the 21st century 5

Structure

4. Build the integrated, multi-channel, For example:

selling organisation
The explosion in channels, availability of • Marketing and sales activities being fully aligned and
information and buyer sophistication means driving actionable results for the sales force to follow
customers are progressively demanding in the ways up on.
they wish to do business. In short, you need to be able
to sell the way the customer wants to buy. This means • Customer service staff identifying a customer
breaking down traditional sales channels and models, interaction that can lead to an upsell/cross-sell
spotting opportunities in all your customer interactions opportunity and being able to provide the most
and seamlessly consolidating across the lot. appropriate ‘next best offer’.

Master the integrated multi-channel sales • Field service based staff being able to spot and
Many sales organisations operate multiple sales qualify a lead, capture it and allocate to the right
channels however the ability to effectively orchestrate sales channel for follow up.
and close a single sale for a single customer across
them is a challenging. Typically, a customer may wish Equally, it is hugely benefical for sales reps have access
to research your company’s offer on-line before calling to collaboration tools within effective CRM systems to
you in for a sales pitch and then closing some technical tap in to collective intelligence and customer insights
and commercial aspects with your telephone account across the whole organisation in order to understand
team. Similarly once a large framework contract is the opportunity.
signed your customer may not want to see unnecessary
high touch on-going field sales reflected in the price Sell the value of the whole organisation
of your products and services. Many organisations are To create advantage in competitive environments,
either not ready or not willing to address the need to organisations need to extract maximum value out of
master this, although it improves customer experience, their enterprises that can be focused on the customer.
sale ownership, compensation, and technology Sales forces need to consider the value the whole
challenges. Progressive sales organisations use deep organisation can bring when building customer value
customer behavioural insight and understanding propositions:
of their unique buying processes to offer a flexible,
smooth sales experience across all their channels. • Customer service: Differing service levels that map to
The trick is to continually maintain this malleability of your segments.
shifting demands and expectation without losing the
ability to track and manage the opportunity. • Finance: Smart commercials and flexible Ts & Cs.

Make selling everyone’s accountability • Logistics: Variable distribution options and customer
Selling is most effective and profitable when you branding of packaging.
mobilise your whole enterprise in developing,
managing and retaining customers. You need to be • Product development: White label and customer
able to spot the opportunity in all your customer specific product/service flavours for re-sale.
interactions and act on it where appropriate.
• Marketing: Joint sponsorship opportunities.
This means your entire customer-facing functions must
understand their role in the sales process and have the Not only will this add more significance to your offering
wherewithal to exploit it. but it represents a fuller partnership relationship with your
customer. This means you become more involved in their
business and your competitive position is strengthened.

6
 5. Allow sales staff to spend
time selling
Your sales staff are generally the first
point of contact with your customers.
They articulate and embody your brand and are
your front-line in managing on-going relationships.
Customers will naturally come to them if they are not
getting the response they think they are entitled to
from your organisations. Equally sales staff will often
feel a duty of care to take ownership of customer
requests in order to safeguard current and future
revenue streams (and their commission payments!).
Processing orders, chasing payments, dealing with
billing queries and validating poor qualified leads all eat
into the time available for what your sales force should
be doing.

Sales leaders need to invest the right support to

mobilise the rest of the organisation and take a zero-
tolerance view of how their sales staff spend their time.
This means:

• Clearly articulating levels of service to the customer

to manage their expectation.

• Identifying and removing non-value-adding activities.

• Moving non selling activities from sales people with

clear handoffs and accountabilities.

• Establishing dedicated resources focused on high

quality lead generation, qualification and distribution.

• Rationalising reporting activity to what is critical, and

stamping on shadow reporting.

• Making pay plans simple and transparent and

providing a timely and accurate view of commission
earned.

Implementing these steps may not make you popular

with the wider organisation but it will ensure that your
sales staff are doing what they should be: Earning
money for themselves and your company in sales
conversations with your customers.

Re-invest sales for the 21st century 7

 6. Structure your sales organisation Understand the shape of complexity
around delivering value Just as different customers require different sales models,
Knowing where and how to allocate the breadth and complexity of your offering portfolio
precious sales resources to extract will impact the way you sell, how long it takes and the
maximum value is arguably the most capabilities required to close it. Clearly, lengthy sales of
critical decision sales leaders have to make. Providing bespoke solutions to multi-nationals will have differing
the right level of support to front line, and partner sales requirements in terms of numbers, roles and skills of
channels while maintaining commitments to the right sales resources to simple products sold to consumers –
of the organisation requires changing the way you with the associated impact on cost of sales.
think of some traditional roles.
Defining a small number of key sales models
Align channels and resource to customer value (i.e. solution, volume, transactional) based on the
Equipped with a data driven, granular view of where complexity of both the customer and offering
the addressable value lies in chosen markets, sales portfolios will bring clarity and structure to the shape
leaders are in a position to effectively allocate resources of the sales pipeline and allow more informed planning.
based on future value and ROI and not average historic Governance, activities, roles and skills can then be
performance. aligned accordingly to each model. Forecasting,
based on volume rather than revenue provides better
• ‘Rainmaker’ hunters targeted at high value understanding and allows the sales force to be sized
whitespace. appropriately.

• Key account management to grow and defend the Sales operations as a competitive advantage
largest established accounts. Good sales operations teams provide a comprehensive
range of services covering reporting, planning, bid
• Telesales and digital allocated to profitably acquire management and order processing in a practical and
and grow mid range opportunities. productive manner. The best sales operations teams
continually build capability in the sales force, reduce
• Partners focused on attractive high growth potential and manage risk, provide compelling insight and clearly
markets where this is currently little direct sales deliver value to the customer, as well as the sales rep.
coverage.

Just as different customers require different sales

models, the breadth and complexity of your offering
portfolio will impact how you sell, how long it takes
and the capabilities required to close it.

8
Productivity

7. Insight based selling 8. Align pay with strategy

Recent research has shown that customers The days of using straight revenue as a
typically complete most of the buying process valid measurement to base performance
before having any contact with sales staff. related pay for sales, are gone.
For you, as a supplier, this means reduced win Organisations are using more sophisticated measures
rate, less profitable business and less opportunity to which are better indicators of financial health and
build lasting, valuable relationships at the right level. reflect the ‘quality of revenue’ – profitability, margin
Some industries
have seen a

100%
and volume, among others. In some industries, we have
A new approach is needed to get you setting the seen a complete decoupling of financial metrics and
agenda rather than reacting to it, which positions a 100% swing towards subjective measures, because
you as a top table adviser and not just supplier of these are seen as a better match of the company swing towards
commodity services. The selling process and the objectives and strategy.
way you manage your relationships therefore needs
subjective
to change: There is an increasing realisation in the marketplace measures
that some existing sales force pay models are broken.
• Target the right customers – organisations that have Major institutions are experiencing significant and
a burning (ideally unrecognised) reason and need to lasting reputational damage, fines and other direct
change require your time. costs as a result of transaction driven reward models.

• Provide unique and compelling insight – provide There is building concern with some organisations
a provocative point of view regarding a significant that metrics and sales force behaviours are leading to
challenge or opportunity that has ideally gone poor performance which will harm growth targets and
unnoticed by the customer. This should have specific ‘tomorrow’s sale’. As part of this, organisations are
resonance to the stakeholder you are targeting. reviewing their pay for performance practices – what is
paid for and why.
• Generate the need – with the challenge/opportunity
identified, work with your client to quantify the Any organisation which takes steps to re-model its
impact on their business which should allow you to approach to reward, remove transaction bias and
scope out their need (suitably tailored towards your consider desired behaviours, will be taking proactive
products and services clearly!). steps to protect and enhance its reputation; and thus
brand value and profitability, over the longer term.
• Articulate specific business value – with the need
established you are in position to articulate how your
product or service will address it, specifically. This
needs to be in terms the customer will understand,
be quantified based on data supplied and validated
by your coach.

The insight based selling approach requires deep

understanding of your client, their strategy and
operations, their industry and the ability to craft a
compelling message. This implies a transformation in
the way most organisations sell, the capabilities the
business needs to provide, and the skill and mindset
of sales staff. This is a significant change, but one
that positions you from commodity supplier to high
value adviser.

Re-invest sales for the 21st century 9

 9. Build the high performance
sales culture
A high performance sales culture is a
The days of using straight
serious source of competitive advantage
and long term value for sales leadership. A sales force
revenue as a valid
with the right motivation, mind-set and behaviour
will drive better business; it will enable the business to
measurement to base
achieve and sustain its long term ambitions. An agile performance related
organisation is vital to quickly adopt new behaviours
and capabilities in response to technological, market pay for sales, are gone.
and customer demands.
Organisations are using
Although sales cultures vary and are exclusive to each
individual organisation, great sales organisations share
more sophisticated
common characteristics that can be implemented and
managed:• 
measures which are
• Mission – a long term goal of where you are heading
better indicators of
with a clear role for each member in achieving it. financial health and
• Leadership – sales leaders being visible at front line reflect the ‘quality of
customer meetings and management being central to
delivering and managing change. revenue’ – profitability,
• Performance management – improving the
margin and volume,
performance of the ‘middling’ sales reps upwards
through better development programmes and on the
among others.
job coaching, setting rainmakers free and managing
out the laggards.

• Organisation – hierarchies, structures and

accountabilities that are optimised to bring the
right resources (and decision making) to the right
opportunities at the right time.

• Talent pool – a sales team that is dynamic and

restless, promoting on merit and ‘buying in’ new skills
and behaviours where needed.

• Measures – planning and managing consistent KPIs

across the full sales lifecycle (from campaign activity
to sales against forecast) ensuring line of sight down
to individual rep and account level.

• Pay plans – rewarding the right behaviours and

clearly incentivising performance.

For sales leaders with eyes on the longer term view,

defining, achieving and managing a high performing
sales culture requires formal attention.

10
Enablement

10. Build the sales factory • Appropriate governance safeguarding profitability,

Like any other function in your and managing risk but does not present a bottleneck.
organisation your sales force will
benefit from efficient processes, • A comprehensive, accurate and consistent view
quality data and appropriate levels of automation. of your pipeline where opportunities are actively
Unlike other functions in your organisation, sales has managed and resources effectively allocated.
traditionally been slow to adopt ‘lean’ techniques either
through the mistaken belief that sales is ‘an art not • Clear line of sight of sales performance from
a science’ or that customer data in the CRM system enterprise leadership down to individual sales rep
results in loss of control over the relationship. The best and account level with consistent metrics covering
sales organisations have reaped the benefits from the end to end sales cycle from campaign through
building lean, mean sales machines that transform the to realised revenue and activity.
way they sell. These includes:
• A holistic view of the customer giving clear visibility
• Sales strategies and actions are proactive and insight of interaction history and all products currently taken.
driven based on robust analytics capability.
• Automation of core sales process where appropriate
• Prospects that are treasured, actively managed and and provision of tools to both the direct sales force
include full contact history. and channel partners.

• Confidence in the volume and quality of leads across Taking a focused, appropriately automated and
all sources coming into the sales force. persistent approach from lead generation to order
entry will lead to a reduction in operating costs,
• Formalised and consistent qualification of improve net margin, decrease time to revenue, improve
opportunities and leads that ensure cost of sale is customer retention and instil discipline in the sales force.
known and predictable.

Re-invest sales for the 21st century 11

 11. Turn big data into big insight
The variety, volume and richness of data
coupled with the availability of powerful
Taking a focused,
analytical tools provide a new world
of opportunities to sales. Never before has so much
appropriately automated
information been available on markets, competitors,
customers, their behaviours and their needs. Big
and persistent approach
data will allow you to do more than perform the from lead generation to
micro segmentation of your markets from driving real
time personalised offers to calculating account level order entry will lead to
profitability and lifetime value. The secret is seeing the
wood for the trees and turning the forest of big data a reduction in operating
into actionable insight that leads to profitable sales.
costs, improve your net
• Take a holistic approach to data – in order to
identify forward looking patterns in customer buying
margin, decrease time
behaviour sales organisations need to leverage the
full data landscape. This includes internal CRM,
to revenue, improve
external market data from providers, social media customer retention and
feeds, and unstructured news stories. Enrich your
big data sets through building deeper insight into instil discipline in the
customer needs through primary customer research,
market intelligence and analytical modelling. sales force.
• Be analytical and empirical – big data driven
theories remain just theories, until tested in the real
world. Firms should invest time in trialling targeted
campaigns, road-testing offers and focus grouping
approaches to calibrate analyses and optimise their
effectiveness. Equally intuition of seasoned sales
professionals can be tested using your analytical and
data resources before too much capital (monetary or
customer trust) is expended.

• Make big data operational – invest in the tools that

allow analytics to become business as usual and build
an insight function within your sales operations team
with the accountability to turn it into value.

• Ensure insight is actionable – provide insight driven

information, guidance leads and support to sales
staff in a language and format they understand and
can use in order to enjoy the fruit of your analytical
labours.

12
 12. Social selling – it’s not a To exploit the social media opportunity requires a
spectator sport new mindset from your sales reps coupled with new
Your customers are more knowledgeable; capabilities to support them.
moving from static on-line research to
social media to get candid views from their peers. • Be present – ensure your reps have consistent up-to-
They are seeking advice on new initiatives, complaining date presence and profiles on the social media sites
about your competitors, wanting to be educated and that are relevant your clients, products and markets.
asking for advice on your company, your products
and your services. And where are you? Social media • Be active – be prepared to provide points of view,
provides an exciting new opportunity for generating help and insight without immediately obvious return.
new business, interacting with clients and improving Your organisation needs to be geared up to regularly
internal collaboration. provide valuable gems to your sales reps that they
can share with their on-line communities i.e. common
• Prospecting – social media provides real time visibility best practices and innovative ways for using your
into the needs of a prospective customer as they are product to generate value.
emerge and can get you back into the very start of
the buying cycle where you can influence rather than • Be aware – you need to be able to sort the valuable
react. Similarly, (and depending on the quality of their wheat from the social chaff. Targeting high value
experience!) customer advocacy on-line means the terms and exploiting social media monitoring tools to
customer is doing your lead generation for you. keep constantly on top of what is hot and what
is not.
• Building relationships – social media allows you
to both broaden and deepen client relationships • Be professional – there are risks associated with
through personal information available about them social media sales that do not apply in traditional
on social media sites such as LinkedIn (particularly if channels. Transgressing either good business or, more
they have accepted an invitation). This rich source of challengingly, social media etiquette could result in
research can be equally helpful when preparing for the opposite outcome to the one you were seeking.
a pitch or research to make cold calls warmer and
better targeted.

• Collaboration – large organisations and departments

are typically structured into independent functional
or product focused silos, often with little co-
ordination between teams. When applied to an
organisation’s internal processes, social media can be
used to break down departmental barriers and foster
more collaborative, innovative practices.

Re-invest sales for the 21st century 13

Key contacts

Giles Warner Paul Thompson

Partner Partner
gileswarner@deloitte.co.uk pmthompson@deloitte.co.uk

Gavin Norwood Russell Fisher

Partner Senior Manager
gnorwood@deloitte.co.uk rufisher@deloitte.co.uk

14
Too often key strategic
sales decisions are based
on historic performance
and gut feel with a risk
of effort being directed
in the wrong place,
opportunities being
missed and return on
your investment not
maximised.
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