Lack of an optimized sales organization reduces sales…along with your asking price

It’s hard to pick up any business article and not see the terms 3D printing, autonomous vehicles, and Industrial 4.0 to name a few.  All of these game changing innovations have changed the way we buy, sell, and make goods. And, we have undergone Lean and Six Sigma training all in a quest to make higher quality products with less waste.

However, in our enthusiasm to reduce waste streams in our production, too often sales organization optimization is overlooked. Every owner (as well as any buyer) needs to be able to see with clarity these critical sales activities:

• Current and past sales trends
• Pipeline to be shipped
• Quotes (with probability)
• Future sales (with probability)

We often see prospect contact info stored in sales representatives mail programs such as Outlook, quoted companies contact info located on an Excel quote log, and only those that have purchased located in a company’s accounting system.  Having an antiquated system such as the one described hinders the ability to target new business and lacks any ability to show a potential buyer where future growth will come from.

All of these important sales answers should be coming from a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool or advanced Contact Manager.  A CRM tool will detail forecasted revenue for you to see exactly where future growth is estimated to be coming from.  Additionally, a CRM will help a sales manager know where the sales team is focusing its efforts and ensure accountability of your entire sales staff.

To the company looking to sell, you will benefit from a more accurate picture of your company’s future and demonstrate that that your sales organization is just that; a team with accountability and not a group that is micro-managed by the owner or the crisis of the day. You’ll get the added benefit of a higher asking price too.

The key to any CRM, is the ability for everyone in the sales team to update it on a daily basis.  This leads to better forecasts, better accountability, and stronger database management.  Better database management leads to having the ability to easily target your message by prospect, customer, or industry. Your sales team will appreciate this as much as a prospective buyer of your company.

The discipline to do this is paramount – not only when it comes time to sell your company but for you to manage it as well.  You have every reason in the world to get this process going—as just like buyers want to be able to qualify future revenue from top customers—so do you!

All CRMs today are online, making updating after every account call really easy.  And, these systems come in a wide range; from stand-alone systems to modules that are easily integrated with your current accounting package. Furthermore, you can begin with a really inexpensive system to get started and graduate to more complex systems after you have outgrown it.

The old adage ‘we have never done it this way’ doesn’t really hold any water in today’s environment.  If we can install autonomous robotic work cells; surely adopting a sales system to record account results on a daily basis can’t seem that hard.

All buyers hate risk. A CRM reduces risk by showing how your sales team performs and by projecting the company’s future revenue.  The more risk you can avert, the better a buyer will want your company, at a more attractive price.

By Gerry Chadwick.  CEO at Sunbelt Business Advisors of Southwest Ohio.

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