Sales Process Audit Made Simple | Clarity From Confusion | Reclaim Control

So, why do sales leaders and CEO’s just like you undertake a Sales Process Audit?

Urban myth or not, we’ve all heard the story of the business who decided to employ a productivity specialist to make the production line go faster.

The aim to make more widgets per hour, so up the production, sell more and make more money.

Now, there were a few managers around the business, including the business expert who said this would actually have quite the reverse impact.

They’d factored in potentially poorer quality, more returns, bigger burden on customer service, storage issues and additional costs.

Well, that’s just the start of the issues.

Regardless their collective voices went unheard.

Post event, when the bones of the business were being picked through, the accountants realised a few truths.

They discovered that by running the machines just 4% faster, caused costs to increase to such a degree that even though the business turned over higher revenues, the profit all but disappeared.

Now, apocryphal story or not, who knows.

It’s a valuable lesson none the less.

Not least because it begs the question…

…is what you do today taking the business and sales in the right direction, or are you really just drilling holes in your boat?

What is a Sales Process Audit?

It’s your starter key!

If you’re leading a sales function, or having to report on sales performance, or looking to introduce a culture of sales performance improvement then a sales process audit can help you drive the sales triggers you need.

It’s a full audit of your sales process. Hit the link Sales Audit link and you’ll be able to see what is involved in your audit.

It’s comprehensive by design because…

You know there are 100’s of sales levers to improve sales results, but knowing you’re working the right levers, at the right time, with the right people to get the sales results improvements you need is critical.

Or, knowing that the lever you’re pulling won’t impact negatively on your sales results further down the line.

The truth is you don’t always know.

Certainly, many things can be more intuitive.

You see, sometimes sales improvement is just 100 mini things rather than a few big things that are done differently

But the question is…

• Just where do you start?
• What levers do you pull?
• What levers do you pull first, or push last, or get rid of all together?

And that’s where you often need an unbiased and independent view of what is really happening in the sales function.

Especially if you’re not getting the results or the answers you want from the sales function.

Take a look at the Morton Kyle Sales Analysis for more details

Can a Sales Process Audit Really Make a Difference?

The short answer is yes!

The longer answer will always be, what are you looking to get from it? Maybe….

• You want to know you’re on the right track
• You need to improve the sales function
• You’re not able to get coherent answers from key questions from within the sales function
• Sales forecast are wildly out of kilter and inaccurate
• You’re looking to sell the business
• You know changes need to me made to bridge the gap from where you are to where you need to be and you need a base line starting point
• You want to have an informed conversation with the business about the sales function and needs stats, analysis and insight to do that
• You want to share with the sales team the nuts and bolts of what’s working and what’s not working and confer some ownership and accountability into the team…
• Or maybe it’s something else…and you just want to see the latent sales potential that’s available within the business for growth, profitability and development…

To help you consider whether a sales audit is for you, I’ve shared further down some of the reasons past clients invested in a sales audit for their business, and some of the benefits they’ve enjoyed – just scroll down.

Build Your Own Internal Sales Process Audit Checklist and Internal Skills Development

Clients also enjoy several other critical benefits from conducting their sales process audit. Namely:

• There is full knowledge transfer to their teams – so their sales leadership teams get an opportunity to upskill, develop their internal sales trouble shooter skills
• The organisation builds an Internal Sales Audit Process Checklist – so that the leadership team can truly adopt a culture of Continuous Sales Improvement, running their own audits as often as needed
• Every organisation creates its own Sales Improvement Dashboard
• Forecasting, and other meaningful sales management information becomes easier to access, understand and act upon

So, the combination of enhanced skills around sales improvement, the internal sales audit checklist, the sales improvement dashboard and the awareness building around a multitude of sales improvement leavers leaves any organisation greatly advanced in terms of building their sales stability, resilience and scale-ability.

Case Studies: Benefits of Sales Process Audits

Software client:

Problem: dramatic drop in sales after a long plateau, is a subscription product so recurring revenue took a hit

Discovery: they’d recently invested more focus, energy and money on new business development than customer service and retention. They had totally dropped the ball with regard to looking after existing customers. Subsequently, ex customers were starting to talk and their credibility was shot.

Solution: power up the customer retention, introduce a formal account management and account development customer retention plan. Explore client training via webinars. Introduce additional products and sticky products and services. Potentially low cost, but provided a tie in solution for the software users. Build a solution for new user training that began a community building process from day 1 – this maintained high levels of usage and reliance.

Business Solutions Client

Problem: loosing 100k+ per month

Discovery: their average sales order value was just 20% of their competitors, they didn’t focus on specific sectors so their sales message was all over the place, sales guys were diverted between sales lead generation internally and new business development externally as well as account management and business contract renewals.

Solution: create separate functions for new business development and account management, pick 3 red hot niches and get s robust ROI to demonstrate value and strong sales value proposition. Restructure the management team.

Result – average order value after 5 months was x3, and team had stopped loosing money.

They also reduced the no-show rate on meetings by over 50%.

And boosted sales conversion from 1:26 to 1:4.

Professional Services Client

Problem: Client retention, poor margins

Discovery: commission structure stopped paying out at 3 months, coincided with biggest client drop off, poor pricing skills based on being unable to demonstrate strong value based ROI

Solution: changed commission structure to reflect a period where the sales person could hand over to customer services/internal team, introduced sign on costs and bulk buy packages. Plus tighter terms and conditions for long term block usage, improved skills on pricing and relaying pricing information and packages.

Client retention doubled.

Sales team were motivated to sell smart and deliver long term solutions as well as price add-ons more intelligently and commercially rather than using them as sweeteners.

Profitability increased by over 50%.

Yes.

Maybe.

Eventually.

Worth the Wait to Find Out?

That’s your call…but why risk it?

A sales process audit with Morton Kyle takes anything from 3-10 days depending on the scope we agree.

It’s tailored to what you want to explore within the audit.

The sales analysis results are typically available within 5 days of completion

It’s the fastest, most effective and easiest way to confirm you’re on the right sales track, or need to readjust your course, and how to make those adjustments. Your sales analysis will form the launch pad for your sales improvement program.

It’s also the fastest way to build a bespoke sales process audit checklist for your business, as well as to upskill your sales function – helping become sales trouble shooters building a sales performance culture to take you way beyond next quarters’ revenue!

So, book your call in to discuss how your business can benefit from our Sales Analysis service.

To discuss how you’d like to improve your sales results, the functionality and performance of your sales team or simply take your competitors out for a walk next quarter – then fill out the contact form below and let’s chat.

A sales process audit and sales analysis is your key to releasing the infinite potential within your sales team…so why wait?

In addition to a root and branch investigation of your sales function you also get your own tailored sales audit process, an internal sales audit checklist, internal skills and knowledge transfer and the ability to introduce a culture of continuous sales improvement

Your sales process audit can be completed in less than 14 days.

If you’d like to book a call to discuss your specific needs then call Carol on 0779 002 1885

Start you sales improvement journey now…