A leveraged sales force—a sales force redesigned for optimal use in a multichannel selling environment—is one that is oriented towards:
- Narrow participation in the marketplace
- Greater emphasis on acquiring and building key account relationships
- Integration with other channels to increase productivity
The idea of a leveraged sales force is simple i.e., focus your sales force on a small number of key accounts that require a personal touch and leave the smaller opportunities for other channels as shown in the figure below. By focusing your sales force on large, complex accounts you gain an instant boost in productivity.
It is not always an easy task to redesign your sales force to focus on key accounts. Most sales forces have longstanding systems and processes in place that reflect a bias toward broad, undifferentiated coverage of the marketplace. This bias can get in the way of an effort to increase leverage and productivity. For example:
- Traditional sales processes tend to involve field reps in every step of the sales process, from lead generation all the way to post-sales support. As new channels are added, the sales force often continues to perform this "do-everything" role, fighting for a share in every account and dominating every step in the sales process. As a result, companies find their newer channels bumping up against, and competing with, the field sales force throughout the selling process, leading to margin-reducing and brand-damaging channel conflicts.
- Traditional compensation systems tend to reward sales reps for short-term revenue production. This encourages the sales force to sell into any and all accounts, which contradicts the primary goal of the leveraged sales force i.e., building long-term profitable relations with a few key accounts.
- Traditional sales training programs teach sales reps to close accounts aggressively and fast, often in a manipulative manner. This approach makes sense when the sales force's goal is to sell as many products as possible in as many markets as possible. Key account selling, on the other hand, is different. It requires a consultative and cooperative approach.
The list of outdated systems goes on and on. The point, though, is a simple one. To build a more effective and well-leveraged sales force, sale force processes, systems and skill development programs must be re-evaluated and in many cases redesigned. Let me give you a battle-tested approach to migrating a sales force from its old role as "owner" of all sales activities to a new role as a specialized and high-impact participant in the sales process.