Increase sales and profits by 5% - 20%
Improve territory balance
Improve first line manager capabilities, especially coaching
Increase access to key customers
Focus marketing resources on most valuable customers
Improve targeting to increase market coverage without increasing investment
Increase call frequency on key customers
Decrease call frequency on prospect or low value physicians
Improve sales call message impact

Identify opportunities to increase sales
Design the process to continuously track and improve effectiveness
Maximize return on available sales and marketing data
Assess current sales force effectiveness
Identify the key factors that influence selling results

The process and timeline for a sales force effectiveness project depend on the needs of each individual client. We have conducted projects of varying sizes and scope -- from focusing on a single regional sales force to managing improvement efforts for a project that spanned 30 countries. Project objectives have ranged from simply assessing the quality of market coverage to completely re-inventing the sales process.

Below we have outlined a 'typical' 3-month sales force effectiveness project.

Our unique process -- involving cross functional teams with real time field experience -- typically generates insights that functional managers operating independently would miss. Often, uncovering these insights and acting on them generates the most significant sales results. Below, we've listed several insights that recent clients identified as critical to improving their sales performance.

District managers’ responsibilities are too narrowly defined
Training role plays don’t properly prepare reps for real world selling, e.g. short details
Poor sales and marketing coordination leads to ineffective program implementation
Available, valuable data is not shared with reps
Compensation systems discourage team selling and best practice dissemination
Reps resist implementing targeting strategies they don’t understand or don’t have confidence in
Sales managers focus on tactics and techniques rather than territory management

Customer selection (targeting) processes are often poorly defined, understood, or implemented
Target selection is often based on ease of access or current sales, not on total market potential
Sales force automation systems are often poorly aligned with the business process and inhibit effective selling activities
Metrics drive sub-optimal performance -- the calls per day metric encourages reps to visit easy-to-see rather than high-value customers

Sales managers are not adequately trained to coach on key sales drivers such as targeting and territory management

Sales force effectiveness analysis is a key part of every sales force effectiveness project. We determine what analysis to perform based on the unique market conditions faced by each client and on the availability of results and activity data. The following analysis from a recent RMCI project with a U.S.-based top 20 pharmaceutical manufacturer provides an example of the kind of analysis we might perform for you.

In the following example, RMCI helped to assess the quality of sales reps’ customer calls for a two-product sales team. Each customer is ranked according to the volume of sales within the product class, where D10 indicates the highest value customers and D01 represents the lowest value customers. The client was surprised to learn that 36% of customers visited by sales reps were low value for both product classes. As a result, the client eliminated calls on low value customers and increased calls on high value customers.

Based on our work with hundreds of sales forces worldwide, we've identified several factors that predict sales effectiveness success:

Organizational commitment and buy-in at three levels: sales reps, first line managers, senior sales and marketing management

Productivity “champion” is a long-term responsibility
Sales managers are trained in coaching skills
Field travel is a top sales manager priority

Management conducts regular reviews and workshops to train and assess rep and management skills
Managers design, track, and report appropriate metrics
The firm compensates and recognizes productive behavior