Innovation Architects'
partners - Michael Clingan, Mary Louise Majewski, and Michael Roglen - are specialists in the areas of innovation, leadership, sales, constraints, and marketing. The company provides unique consulting, training and speaking programs that point companies towards greatness by helping them develop extraordinary internal and external relationships as well as effective leadership, marketing, and sales programs.

Through its extensive experience in the corporate and nonprofit sectors, Innovation Architects’ partners have consulted, managed and held key positions with over 100 organizations, achieving strong results, including improved profitability, revenue growth, enhanced staff productivity and an increase in marketing and sales effectiveness.

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IN THIS ISSUE...
Welcome to Strategic Innovation, the email newsletter that shares best practices on organizational development, sales, leadership, and marketing. This month we look at ways to best manage the relationships between your sales team and your customers. We also point you in the direction of some great articles you shouldn't miss reading.

Five Ways to Measure A Sales Person's Effectiveness
Did You Read This One?
Why You Need An Account Management Plan

Five Ways To Measure A Sales Person's Effectiveness
Are your sales people doing all they can to build lasting relationships with customers? You’d like to think so, but the fact is that many don’t research a prospect’s needs before a meeting, take the time to understand the person they’re sitting across from during a meeting, or put together a solid post-meeting or post-sale plan.

Without constantly shadowing your sales people, how can you know whether they’re making strong connections or missing golden opportunities?

1. Check your customer satisfaction index
The only way to ensure your customers are getting top service is if you ask them. Create customer surveys that gauge the quality, and depth, of the relationships your sales team is creating. Set a customer satisfaction goal, track results consistently, and take action when the numbers dip.

2. Account penetration
If a sales person only gets 10% of your product line into a company that uses 60% of the products you sell, take a closer look at what’s going on. The customer might get a great deal from another company. But it could mean that your sales person hasn’t gotten close enough to the customer to find out their needs. Worst case? The customer lacks faith in your sales person’s –and your company’s—services or products.

3. Well-aged accounts
If sales people have a high rate of account turnover, they might need more training on how to fulfill customers’ needs. Look for a mix of both new and long-term accounts—somewhere around 20% new and 80% established clients. Always having new clients is a trademark of one-sale-wonders—sales people who don’t build long-term relationships.

4. Hit the road
For strong relationships, the VP of Sales should interact with customers. Pick up the phone and call customers to show that your company cares. Better yet, take the client out to lunch—even if you have to get on a plane to do it. While you’re there, you might as well spend some time with the region’s sales team. Tell the regional manager which sales people you want to work with and the specific clients-- some strong and some weak--you want to meet.

5. Bring in outside help
If you’re trying to find out what your sales team is doing right—and what it might be doing wrong—bring in consultants who have no agenda other than improving your bottom line. A fresh, objective vision can help a company create a plan for ongoing relationship building.

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A Feel for Leadership (Darwin Magazine)
If you are in tune with your emotions during the important passages in your life, you'll be a more consistently effective leader.

Innovation Awards (Fast Company)
How do you quantify corporate imagination? Meet the top companies on the first-ever Fast Company /Monitor Group Innovation Scorecard -- firms where new ideas are a competitive advantage.

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An account management plan is a tool that helps your company communicate with the account and with those who need to serve the account by outlining who the customer contacts after the sale is completed. With it, the salesperson and customer know who supports the customer in areas such as service, billing, operations, and delivery.

Here are a few things to keep in mind about Account Management Plans:

>>To make an account management plan work, the VP of Sales needs to have an outstanding relationship with the heads of other departments: such as the CFO, VP of Services, and VP of Operations. If you don’t have buy-in from everyone involved, the customer may not get the service they need and your sales people will spend time answering post-sale questions instead of selling more widgets.

>>Share the plan with all departments that might—or should—have contact with the customer, as well as with the customer. Schedule a meeting so that the customer can speak with all parties they might need to contact. You want them to associate a name, voice, and personality with the different kinds of help they might need. You’ll save time and money when the customer calls the right person the first time.

>>Individualize the plan for each customer and include a customer profile. Update it on a regular schedule. As a company becomes more successful they’ll have different needs and different contact people.

>>Keep your client abreast of any changes that might affect their service. If your parts department is planning a move to a larger facility, and won’t be available, all of your customers need to know.

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