Theotintenklecks.De
  • Sales Management
  • Business
  • Marketing
  • Resume
No Result
View All Result
  • Sales Management
  • Business
  • Marketing
  • Resume
No Result
View All Result
Theotintenklecks
No Result
View All Result

Home » Sales Management » Creating a Lean Sales Process

Creating a Lean Sales Process

June 9, 2022
in Sales Management

Creating a Lean Sales Process (1)

Background

This Transportation Equipment Distributor’s CEO had a successful growth strategy that saw sales increase by 400% in just a few years. This is a remarkable sales performance. Even more remarkable was his realization of the fact that the company’s Sales and Support Process had outgrown itself.

RelatedPosts

7 Things You Can Do Today to Avoid Costly Sales Hiring Mistakes

7 Things You Can Do Today to Avoid Costly Sales Hiring Mistakes

July 16, 2022
What Makes a Great Auto Sales Manager

What Makes a Great Auto Sales Manager

July 16, 2022
5 Ways to Get Your Sales Staff Fired Up, Not Fired

5 Ways to Get Your Sales Staff Fired Up, Not Fired

July 16, 2022

Although he knew that this growth was causing inefficiencies in his sales process, he didn’t know how he could fix them. Sales representatives should be working with customers to add value and close deals. Instead, he saw them completing a lot of paperwork.

Lean tools were used to eliminate administrative work that was not value-added.

Lean Versus Reengineering

There are two options for redesigning a process. You can start with a blank piece of paper and create the process you desire. This idea was popularized by the book “Reengineering the Corporation” published in the 1990s. It was trendy, but it quickly died.

This approach has many flaws. The first is that the design of the new process can take too long because everyone wants to defend their turf. Re-engineering projects can take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years to complete. The second reason why the new process didn’t work was that it did not integrate with the existing information systems of the company. It’s too difficult to begin again.

Lean is simpler and more efficient than traditional methods. The Lean method maps the current process and then identifies and eliminates the non-value-added actions. The aging process is simply the new one with the removed non-value-added step. Lean projects can be completed in four weeks and provide lasting improvement.

See also  Cherry Picking Leads - How and When To Use in Lead Distribution

Current State Process

Flow Mapping This diagram shows the sales process for this Distribution Company.

Making proposals
Configuring orders
Standard products can be customized to meet customer requirements (coming from the manufacturer).
Delivering
Billing
Accounting for payment and commission payments
Sales Representatives
Sales Management
Sales Support
Parts Department
Service Department
Accounting
After the Current State Process Flow Map had been completed, we examined each step and asked two questions.

Is the customer satisfied with this action?
Are Sales Reps being prevented from spending more time with customers because of this?
We consider it unnecessary or inefficient if the task is not of value to the customer or prevents Sales Representatives from selling.

These non-value-added tasks were removed from the Process Flow Map. We then created action items to eliminate or reduce their time. We then quantified each step in order to calculate how much time was being saved by the Sales Representatives as well as the Sales Manager. These are the actions items.

Sales Managers Save:

Sales Manager approves payments to vendors – Should have been handled by Accounting (13.8 hours per year saved).
Sales Manager reviews leasing information to Sales Reps. Sales Support can do this (1.7 hours per year).
The sales Manager checks the prep sheet for insufficient information. This information should be entered into an IT system and not paper. It takes 2.5 hours to save (2.5 hours annually).
Save on Sales Representatives

Sales reps are responsible for writing proposals, mailing proposals, filling vendor-option forms, bid info sheets, financing forms, mailing contracts, and updating the used equipment database. They also complete market share forms.
All this can be done through Sales Support Admin.
Sales reps prepare bids based on customer specifications manually
IT System can be used to generate a bid based upon customer specifications.
By eliminating these ten tasks, we eliminated 219.8 hours of work per Sales Representative.

See also  Proposal Outline 101

Results

Eliminating Sales Representatives performing administrative work using company information systems or moving tasks over to Sales Support Administration
Each sales representative was allowed to sell an additional 5.5 weeks per year.
In the two years that followed, gross profit margins grew by 40%
The project involved identifying non-value-added tasks Sales Representatives perform and moving them to lower-paid sales support personnel. A Sales Representative was required to complete ten tasks for every customer inquiry. These were removed from their workload. Although this may not seem like a lot of steps, it created 5.5 weeks more selling time for each Sales Representative.

Sales representatives should focus on selling and not just filling out paperwork. The Lean project allowed this company’s sales representatives to spend more time talking with customers, understanding their needs, and adding value. They closed more deals with higher profit margins.

Previous Post

Needs Analysis – Proposal Generator

Next Post

A Golden Nugget of New Business Development

Related Posts

7 Things You Can Do Today to Avoid Costly Sales Hiring Mistakes

7 Things You Can Do Today to Avoid Costly Sales Hiring Mistakes

July 16, 2022
What Makes a Great Auto Sales Manager

What Makes a Great Auto Sales Manager

July 16, 2022
5 Ways to Get Your Sales Staff Fired Up, Not Fired

5 Ways to Get Your Sales Staff Fired Up, Not Fired

July 16, 2022
Establishing a Trade Show Headquarters Command Post

Establishing a Trade Show Headquarters Command Post

July 15, 2022
Partner Relationship Management (PRM) - Hype Or Hope

Partner Relationship Management (PRM) – Hype Or Hope?

July 15, 2022
How Does Inertia Suck the Life Out of Your Small Business

How Does Inertia Suck the Life Out of Your Small Business?

July 15, 2022
Next Post
A Golden Nugget of New Business Development

A Golden Nugget of New Business Development

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Post

7 Things You Can Do Today to Avoid Costly Sales Hiring Mistakes

7 Things You Can Do Today to Avoid Costly Sales Hiring Mistakes

July 16, 2022
What Makes a Great Auto Sales Manager

What Makes a Great Auto Sales Manager

July 16, 2022
5 Ways to Get Your Sales Staff Fired Up, Not Fired

5 Ways to Get Your Sales Staff Fired Up, Not Fired

July 16, 2022
Establishing a Trade Show Headquarters Command Post

Establishing a Trade Show Headquarters Command Post

July 15, 2022
Partner Relationship Management (PRM) - Hype Or Hope

Partner Relationship Management (PRM) – Hype Or Hope?

July 15, 2022
How Does Inertia Suck the Life Out of Your Small Business

How Does Inertia Suck the Life Out of Your Small Business?

July 15, 2022
Selling in an Economic Downturn

Selling in an Economic Downturn

July 14, 2022



Archives

  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021

Categories

  • Business
  • Marketing
  • Sales Management
  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
No Result
View All Result
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy