1. point of view
Six Essentials for
Sales Force Success
Authored by
Jeffrey Baker
Sales organizations face some tough challenges these “There is no ‘magic bullet,’ but building on
days. Among them is the fact that, while CEOs and boards
of directors are expecting ever greater performance, the basics works.”
customers are carefully managing risks and demanding —The Forum Corporation,
“How Sales Forces Sustain Competitive Advantage”
greater value.
To deliver on shareholder demands for stronger EPS The Forum Corporation has been helping sales
growth, sales and marketing executives are under pressure organizations improve effectiveness and performance
to increase revenue, profitability, and market share. They for 40 years, primarily through building the skills and
are tasked with: holding onto and expanding business knowledge salespeople and their leaders need to
with current customers while at the same time finding and consistently win in their markets.
winning new customers Our research and client experience reveal that, while
in existing markets; skillful, engaged salespeople and sales managers are
“Business growth is entering new markets; and critically important, they alone are not sufficient for a
the No. 1 concern of defending their turf against complex commercial selling organization to achieve its
CEOs in the U.S. and known competitors and goals in today’s fast-paced, hypercompetitive markets.
unforeseen threats. Today’s successful sales organizations understand the six
globally.”
Leaders are examining essential dimensions for sales success (see Figure 1).
—The Conference Board, the effectiveness of every
“2011 CEO Challenge” Figure 1
aspect of their companies
like never before—even
extending into the sales and marketing realm, often for
the first time. Furthermore, as CEOs and CFOs scan for Six Success Dimensions
the best use of capital, many are unsure of the return they
should expect for an investment in their sales organization. 1. Strategy and Structure
2. Customer Knowledge
What kind of ROI commitment should the head of sales 3. Talent
make to her CEO? What areas of investment are likely 4. Climate
to yield the best return? Would more salespeople, better 5. Processes
training, newer technology, or perhaps a whole new sales 6. Support Systems
strategy do the trick? The answers to these questions
lie in fully understanding the operational effectiveness of
the sales force. By analyzing the many interdependent
elements of a sales organization both systemically and
contextually, executives can make confident decisions on
where to invest their energy, talent, and money to gain the
greatest lift in performance.

2. point of view
The interdependent nature of these six dimensions is With a clear and common understanding of their
illustrated in Figure 2 (below). Moving from left to right, business strategy, the heads of Sales and Marketing
we see that Business Strategy necessarily precedes and their respective senior teams can develop a sales
and informs the other elements of a sales organization’s strategy, sometimes called a go-to-market strategy,
process as it flows toward Markets and Customers, that addresses these key elements:
the ultimate focus of a sales organization. Information Customer Segmentation. Segment or group
from Markets and Customers flows back into the sales customers according to a shared set of
organization and is captured and sorted as Customer characteristics.
Knowledge (VOC, or Voice of the Customer) and Business
Intelligence, both of which provide important feedback to Value Proposition. Establish compelling value
all other elements of the process. propositions for each customer segment.
A healthy and consistently successful sales organization is Account and Territory Assignments. Create a
constantly adapting its strategy, capabilities, and practices sales channel plan by assigning types of sales
to its customers and markets. resources (for example, general sales reps, key
Figure 2. The Sales Organization account reps, inside salespeople, independent
resellers, distributors) to each customer segment
Marketing Department Marketing Communications by territory.
 Customer
Sales Force Size and Structure. Determine the
Segmentation
 Value
Sales
Management
Direct
Sales
number of sales resources to assign to each
Proposition
customer segment in each territory (specifically,
 Account and
Business Sales Territory
Assignments Customer Care Customer
Markets how many and which customers each salesperson
Strategy Strategy and
(Go-to-Market)  Sales Force
Management Care
Customers will be responsible for). Determine the number
Size and
Structure of sales resources each sales manager will
 Commercial
Policies
Channel
Management
Indirect
Sales supervise and direct as well as the number and
 Compensation
Plan types of resources available to support individual
Customer Knowledge (VOC) and Business Intelligence salespeople or sales teams.
Processes and Standards Commercial Policies. Establish commercial
Metrics and Feedback
practices and policies governing pricing, contract
terms, order management, order fulfillment,
The six essential dimensions that sales executives must reporting, and so forth.
integrate and frequently tune to drive consistently high
Compensation Plan. Set compensation rules for
performance are outlined below:
each salesperson who achieves specific sales
1. Strategy and Structure results. Have similar rules for sales teams and
sales managers, as appropriate.
Achieving consistently successful sales results
requires a clear—and clearly communicated—sales A very quick test can help executives determine the
strategy based on the company or division business strength of their Strategy and Structure dimension:
strategy. Such a strategy also is essential for adapting Simply ask a few salespeople and/or sales managers
to inevitably changing market conditions, whether to describe what they are accountable for, how they
confronting threats or pursuing new opportunities. select which customers to call on in their assigned
Think of the strategy as the rudder of a ship, territories (to meet their accountabilities), what
maintaining direction under all weather conditions. their value proposition is, and how that proposition
addresses their customers’ needs better than the
A company or division strategy must articulate three competition does.
components: a key business goal (such as growth,
profit, or market share), the market in which it Crisp, clear answers that are consistent across
competes (target customer and geography), and its several salespeople and managers indicate a clearly
competitive advantage(s).1 communicated and supported sales strategy. Anything
less reveals an opportunity for improved sales results
“In an astonishing number of as well as vulnerability to competitive threats.
organizations, executives, frontline
employees, and all those in between
are frustrated because no clear strategy
exists for the company or its lines of
business.”
—David J. Collis and Michael G. Rukstad,
Harvard Business Review, April 2008 2

3. point of view
“Only 50 percent of According to a Forum Onboarding and transitioning of new hires and
salespeople rated their study of salespeople newly promoted salespeople, sales managers,
selling complex and senior leaders. The transition period from
company sales strategy products or services start date to “fully productive” is expensive and
as ‘very clear.’” in the U.S. and the time consuming for any sales organization. Yet the
U.K., only 50 percent most effective sales organizations don’t hesitate
—The Forum Corporation,
2008 study
of salespeople rated to invest in formally equipping their new hires for
their company sales success before they make their first sales call and
strategy as “very clear.”2 What percentage of your ensure they gain a strong foundation for ongoing
sales force can clearly describe your sales strategy? development.
Training and development of salespeople, sales
2. Customer Knowledge
managers, and senior leaders. Aberdeen Group’s
To find, win, and keep customers, sales organizations 2010 global study of 835 sales organizations3
must work to continuously understand current and found that best-in-class sales organizations
prospective customer needs. An effective sales (which represented the top 20 percent of
organization must have a robust and reliable means Aberdeen’s sample) train their people twice as
of collecting and analyzing data about its customers’ much as average and low-performing companies.
buying behaviors and motives. This includes knowing Regular, consistent talent development addresses
not only quantities and purchase frequency, but also knowledge of not only company products and
why and how they make buying decisions. services—but also of selling skills, tools, and
In addition to getting a glimpse into the “mind of methods; coaching skills; and senior leader skills.
the customer,” effective sales organizations must High-performing sales organizations create and
understand use competency models and career pathing linked
“Best-in-class performing the dynamics to sales strategy and priorities to guide formal and
sales organizations train of the industry informal training curriculums. Well-planned, well-
and market(s) executed talent development builds confident,
their people twice as much their customers high-performing sales teams aligned with their
as average and laggard- compete in as well company sales strategy.
performing companies.” as the competitive
To identify skill gaps and motivate salespeople
forces they face.
—Aberdeen Group, and sales leaders to up their game, 360-degree
Today’s commercial
2010 study feedback (including customer viewpoints) is
buyers expect
frequently used in sales organizations.
sellers to bring useful industry knowledge and insight
to the table to help improve their business. Sales Coaching salespeople and coaching the coach
organizations that fail to continually integrate customer (sales manager) is one of the highest-impact
understanding with industry insight in order to offer activities a sales organization can implement to
ever-increasing value propositions will be swept aside boost sales performance–if coaches have the right
by more agile and information-savvy competitors. skills and tools. Forum’s study of 111 senior sales
executives around the world found that one of
3. Talent the four major categories that distinguish high-
The sales force—salespeople, sales managers, senior performing sales organizations is developing their
sales leaders and sales support—ultimately must sales managers in three particular areas: coaching,
execute on the sales strategy and bring unique and setting strategic direction, and motivating
compelling value to customers in order to generate the salespeople. In a follow-up study, Forum found
revenue the company is counting on. To find, retain, that only 30 percent of salespeople rated their
and grow talent, sales organizations focus on four managers as highly effective in these three areas.4
broad areas: Finally, developing senior sales leaders using
Recruiting and hiring new sales talent. Work a combination of formal training, executive
with your HR team to establish an ideal profile for coaching, and developmental assignments is an
each sales role, and insist that sales managers investment that can boost sales performance
actively participate in your company’s recruiting throughout the organization.
and hiring process.
3

4. point of view
Retention strategy and succession planning. What makes climate so powerful is that
Replacing fully productive salespeople is not only
expensive, time consuming, and revenue lowering,
it is both manageable and linked to
it also can leave customers and territories performance.
vulnerable to advances from the competition. A highly engaged sales force has the energy and
Highly effective sales organizations deliberately commitment to persevere in the face of all kinds
seek to learn what it takes to retain the people they of marketplace challenges. This is a very stong
want and put measures in place to accomplish advantage, especially during volatile, uncertain
this. Growth and natural employee attrition (due times. A recent Forum study8 revealed climate as
to retirement, for example) dictate that effective one of four main categories that distinguish high-
organizations continuously identify candidates performing sales organizations from moderate
for promotion and systematically prepare them to performers.
assume greater responsibilities. As a pioneer in organizational climate research, The
Talent management is one area sales leaders cannot Forum Corporation has helped many clients improve
delegate completely to others, be it HR or a training their climate over the past 40 years. Climate can be
department, if they expect their sales teams to measured with a good deal of precision via surveys
outperform the competition and consistently deliver that gauge employees’ perceptions of six factors.
excellent results. Sales executives should partner with Sales managers can learn to apply specific practices
in-house specialists from HR and training or an outside to strengthen these climate factors. The six climate
sales training company to clarify priorities and set factors are:
performance standards for hiring and developing their Clarity: Salespeople are clear about what is
people. expected of them.
Sales leaders at all levels must actively participate in Standards: Management sets high performance
recruiting new talent and in training, coaching, and standards and challenges people to improve.
reinforcing what their people must know and do.
According to the Aberdeen Group findings5, the senior Commitment: Salespeople are dedicated
executives of a full 80 percent of best-in-class sales to achieving goals and contributing to the
organizations are highly involved and supportive of organization’s success.
sales training efforts. Responsibility: Salespeople feel personally
responsible for their work and accountable for
4. Climate solving problems and making decisions without
Employee engagement drives high performance, and a relying on others for direction.
positive work climate increases engagement. Although Teamwork: People feel that they belong to an
all can sense the climate in their organization and organization characterized by cohesion, mutual
within their own team, few leaders understand that warmth, trust, and pride.
climate is manageable and linked to performance.
Recognition: Salespeople feel that excellent
“A positive work climate is not a fun-filled performance is recognized and rewarded.
place, a lot of warm, fuzzy stuff, or a place 5. Processes
for relaxation; it is a positive, supportive There are four core processes all sales organizations
climate, which is conducive to creative, must fully define and consistently follow to ensure
high levels of effectiveness:
productive work.”
New customer acquisition. High-performing
—Paul T. P. Wong, Ph.D., sales organizations consistently follow an explicit
“The Positive Psychology of Climate Management”6
business development process. This begins with
some kind of lead generation or prospecting
Numerous studies confirm that the actions of an plan and activities for finding qualified sales
employee’s manager are the main determinant of opportunities. The process continues on from
climate. Daniel Goleman’s study of the behavior initial opportunity to proposal, close, and
of 3,781 leaders found that those whose style has follow-up. This is sometimes called a selling
a positive effect on climate have decidedly better methodology or selling system.
financial results. His analysis suggests that climate
accounts for nearly one third of the results.7
4

5. point of view
Low-performing organizations allow their of salespeople and sales managers (Success
salespeople to follow whatever process they Dimension 3) for application and continuous
want. High-performing organizations implement improvement. And, as with any process, each
and continuously improve a consistent and one should include key metrics and performance
reliable selling process across their entire sales targets.
force.
6. Support Systems
Existing customer retention and growth.
High-performing sales organizations invest in
Similar to new customer acquisition, effective
support practices and systems to boost the
sales organizations follow an explicit process for
engagement and motivation of their sales teams
managing customer relationships in a way that
and ensure salespeople are well equipped to
builds value from the customer’s viewpoint and
serve customers, compete successfully, and work
enables the salesperson to uncover and develop
productively. The following core support systems are
new sales opportunities. This process typically
found in such organizations:
includes regular customer review meetings to
discuss supplier performance and perceived Competitive intelligence. Best-in-class sales
customer value. Again, high-performing sales organizations collect and analyze intelligence
organizations insist that all salespeople follow about the competition and provide their
the same reliable process. salespeople with summaries that include
advice on how to position against competitors’
Opportunity management (funnel or pipeline
strengths and vulnerabilities. They identify the
management). This core process is for sales
top two or three competitors in each market
managers who are directly responsible for
and monitor their account activity, seeking to
salespeople. It serves several crucial purposes:
understand and exploit their sales strategy. They
–– Generates a reliable forecast of orders anticipate and prepare for emerging competitors
and revenue required for both financial and pay close attention to their customers’
management and production planning moves to produce products/services themselves
–– Enables sales managers to assist in so that they can develop value propositions to
advancing a sales opportunity toward closing defeat these moves.
and allocate sales support resources to Sales support personnel. McKinsey reported
various sales opportunities in 2009 that, during the most severe recession
–– Ensures consistent application of the selling in 80 years, high-performing sales organizations
processes described above maintained (and even increased) their level of
sales support to optimize customer contact time
–– Reveals situations for coaching salespeople for their salespeople.
in performance improvement
According to McKinsey, the key to sizing sales
Customer service/customer care. This
support is to “examine the customer portfolio.
process ensures products and services are
How much effort really goes into each customer
delivered to customers as promised, revenue
and transaction? Which services does each of
flows as forecast, opportunities to increase order
them need? What are their real profit margins?
size and/or sell new orders are recognized and
Which customers and markets are growing, and
immediately acted upon, and customer problem
which are shrinking? Understanding customers
reports are fixed promptly.
allows companies to focus sales resources
This process may be managed outside the sales where they are needed and to cut waste, not
organization, but it is nevertheless critical that value.”9 Determine the percentage of time your
sales leaders ensure it works consistently and salespeople spend preparing for and meeting
effectively. Customer loyalty, additional sales, with customers, and consider how to increase
and referrals to new prospects depend on high- this percentage through more effective sales
quality customer care processes. support.
To be most effective, all four processes must Performance management (including
integrate a company’s sales strategy (Success standards and accountabilities). Set clear,
Dimension 1) with its customers’ buying achievable performance goals in at least two key
process (Successs Dimension 2). Further, these areas: sales quota and sales activities. Ensure
processes depend on the skill and discipline they align with the overall sales organization
5

6. point of view
goals and strategy. Measure performance and products, services, pricing, methods, policies,
provide feedback to salespeople and managers procedures, and so forth. Rather than having
regularly (at least monthly, although daily and sales reps spend precious time trying to learn
weekly reporting can be effective for some and remember ever-growing amounts of
goals). Apply standards consistently throughout company information, shift to a system that
the organization, and hold people accountable. enables them to quickly find what they need,
Conduct formal employee performance reviews when they need it.
at least annually. –– Business intelligence. This is a collection of
Rewards and recognition. These include systems (and arguably another process in
finding opportunities to formally and informally its own right) that helps sales professionals
recognize outstanding contributions to the make use of data from three areas: customer-
business and establishing written sales incentive specific buying patterns, industry-specific
compensation plans consistent with the overall trends, and macroeconomic trends. At a
sales strategy and goals. An achievable quota minimum, salespeople should have access
within their assigned accounts or territory to basic customer and industry data to
is critical to motivating and retaining good prepare them to speak knowledgeably
salespeople. during customer calls. High-performing
Business scorecard with predictive metrics. What return should a sales leader
Establish and publish a scorecard that reports
the “critical few” measures: financial, customer promise the CEO for investing in the
behavior (such as wins, retention rate, and so sales organization?
on), sales activities (pipeline quality, quantity,
velocity, and so on), and sales force engagement sales organizations are gaining competitive
or climate (Success Dimension 4). Salespeople, advantage by crunching customer-proprietary
sales leaders at all levels, and sales support data with more widely available market
teams should all receive regular scorecard information to generate insights for their
reports that are relevant to their accountabilities customers and to uncover new opportunities
and clearly linked to the sales strategy. to help their customers create more value.
Information systems. All management systems
rely on timely, robust information to operate
Is Your Sales Organization Ready for
effectively. Sales leaders should require their Tomorrow’s Challenges?
information systems to supply actionable data in CEOs want more predictable results from their sales
at least the following key areas: organizations. Gone are the days (if they ever truly
–– Financial data. Provides a picture of total existed) when a sales leader could simply hire lots of
revenue and profitability (at least gross profit) high-energy outgoing sales reps, turn them loose to make
that can be sorted in any number of ways, customer calls from morning to night, and be assured of a
including by customer, sales rep, sales team, predictable, ever-increasing revenue stream. Commercial
region, industry, channel, weekly, monthly, selling is as demanding today as other business functions,
and yearly. Financial data also should including finance, marketing, RD, and supply chain
supply sufficient cost information for use in management—yet in many companies sales force
managing sales force productivity. management and sales force effectiveness lag significantly
compared to other business disciplines. Very few business
–– Customer relationship data. SFA/CRM (sales schools have caught up to the needs of commercial sales
force automation/customer relationship executives. The Forum Corporation is ready to help you
management) platforms have become a must now.
for any company selling multiple products in
multiple customer segments. They allow sales Contact Forum to discuss how our sales force
reps and sales leaders to track and maintain effectiveness assessment can illuminate opportunities to
sales activity and customer interaction increase the performance of your sales force. If you have
history, and they house extensive customer already determined how to improve your sales organization
contact infomation. and are in the process of either designing or implementing
changes, Forum can help you rapidly execute those
–– Knowledge management. This should be an changes and sustain the gains from your investment.
easily searchable current repository of all
available information regarding a company’s
6

7. point of view
Endnotes:
1. For an excellent straightforward discussion of strategy, see “Can You Say What Your Strategy Is?” by David J. Collis and Michael G. Rukstad,
Harvard Business Review, April 2008.
2. “Sales Force Effectiveness: A Street Level View,” research report, The Forum Corporation, 2008.
3. “Sales Training: Deploying Knowledge, Process and Technology to Consistently Hit Quota,” research report, Aberdeen Group, 2010.
4. “Sales Force Effectiveness: A Street Level View,” research report, The Forum Corporation, 2008.
5. “Sales Training: Deploying Knowledge, Process and Technology to Consistently Hit Quota,” research report, Aberdeen Group, 2010.
6. Paul T. P. Wong. “The Positive Psychology of Climate Management,” president’s column, International Network on Personal Meaning, August 2001.
http://www.meaning.ca/archives/presidents_columns/pres_col_aug_2001_climate-management.htm.
7. Daniel Goleman. “Leadership That Gets Results,” Harvard Business Review, March-April 2000.
8. “How Sales Forces Sustain Competitive Advantage,” research report, The Forum Corporation, 2004.
9. Anupam Agarwal, Eric Harmon, and Michael Viertler. “Cutting Sales Costs, Not Revenues,” The McKinsey Quarterly, 2009.
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