|
Beyond Insurance
Transforming your sales culture
What are the key elements propelling high-growth firms?
By Gary Abram
Over the past 10 years, the fictitious HiGro Agency has achieved double-digit organic growth, while the imaginary Stuck Agency has struggled to maintain flat growth. A close examination of the two agencies reveals striking differences, but even the casual observer notices the high energy of HiGro and the gloominess of Stuck. How did HiGro create its optimistic culture while the Stuck Agency labors under a cloud of worry and stress?
The Stuck Agency (to their credit) determined that they needed a major overhaul of what they concluded was their “sales culture.” An organization’s “sales culture” is comprised of many facets: people, process, leadership style (or lack of), and business model.
Although the HiGro and Stuck agencies are fictitious, their strengths and weaknesses are common among agencies analyzed by Addis Intellectual Capital. Although our research indicates there are at least 20 characteristics that high-performing agencies have in common, following are nine elements of “sales culture” that stimulate dynamic organic growth. We’ll use our friends at HiGro and Stuck to contrast those eight elements:
Let’s break down HiGro’s success factors one by one and contrast them with the Stuck Agency to learn what created their dynamic sales culture.
Strategic vs. random
With a Super Bowl champion, excellence is not accidental; nor is it with agencies and strong sales cultures. The best agencies have a well-conceived vision that dictates their strategy, which, in turn, aligns their process and structure. They spend time away from the everyday issues periodically to create strategic plans. Typically, they’ve analyzed their business practices and value proposition, streamlined their workflows, created realistic budgets, and positioned themselves for sustainability regardless of market conditions.
On the other hand, being random and haphazard (Stuck Agency) results in spasmodic efforts that are expensive and inefficient; growth plans with delusional goals; a frustrated staff that wonders whether leadership has a clue; high turnover; and low customer satisfaction.
Transformation tip: Spend some time away from the day-to-day office environment to create goals, playbooks and action plans.
Branding strategy
Great sales cultures and agencies really stand out! They are talked about differently; they are referenced more frequently, and their value proposition is understood internally and externally. Imagine an agency transformed from a “dialing for dollars” strategy to one focused on referrals and a magnetic value proposition.
Branding is not accidental or random. It starts with really understanding how the agency creates value for its customers. It then crafts all of its messages to create a clear and sticky imprint of that value. None of us has any fuzziness about the “imprint” of brands like Lexus, Nike, Coke, Tiffany, McDonald’s, Southwest Airlines or GEICO.
Granted, those companies have huge ad budgets, but aren’t there dozens of creative ways you can increase the “fame” of your agency in your marketplace? An agency here in our town gained invaluable ink in The Kansas City Star by announcing they were closing for the day to work on dozens of community projects.
Transformation tip: Use the collective creativity of your agency to create new and novel ways to broadcast your value proposition.
Scorekeeping vs. weak accountability
This segment deserves additional detail since the use of scoreboards and dashboards is an essential ingredient for nurturing a “motivated” sales culture.
Organizational guru Charles Handy is correct when he writes that the most important factor in raising performance is formal goal setting, and that performance improves with the quantity of feedback. Scoreboards and dashboards are the perfect format for goal setting and feedback. Let’s look at their differences.
Today’s scoreboards in sports arenas are techno-miracles with abundant stats, replays and scores from around the league. A newer model car has a dashboard that looks like the telemetry of a jet. The scoreboard has gigantic visuals (the new one in Dallas is the world’s largest at 11,000 sq. feet, while the dashboard is visible only to the driver and the passenger—think producer and sales manager. The scoreboard’s function is to report what has happened, while the dashboard reports what is happening.
Let’s consider two actual agencies. The first is an agency in the Southeast with a dynamic, growth-focused sales culture. It uses scoreboards very well to stimulate performance. Theirs is very public and very visible to anyone walking into their office lobby. They have created three “clubs,” and membership is granted only to those whose annual or career “stats” are stellar.
They have the “$100,000 Club” and the “Quarter Million Club.” Once either is achieved during the calendar year, a brass nameplate is added to a plaque. The plaques remain in the lobby permanently so that those achievements are forever evident. Naturally, producers strive hard to make the clubs and to make them every year. The third club is for career stats, and the producer is required to have a book of more than $1 million in commissions to make the lifetime club. They also have a plaque for the “$2 Million Club,” as well.
A Midwestern agency has perfected a very effective dashboard that they call “PQM—Prospect Qualification Matrix.” This dashboard provides up-to-the-minute data for the producer and the sales manager. In real time, the PQM tracks prospects, in-depth prospect data, critical relationship information, stage of the sales process, and scheduled next steps. Both the producer and manager have access to this feedback mechanism that is meant to keep both focused on performance rather than the fiction that sometimes creeps into the sales process.
Transformation tip: Build dashboards and scoreboards.
Active business development vs. account retention
Here’s the dilemma: How much time should producers spend nurturing or protecting their book of business as opposed to playing offense to increase its size? Recent best practices statistics suggest that a high-growth agency’s producers spend only one-third of their time servicing their book, while this percentage is dramatically higher in agencies that struggle to grow.
Transfer the service part of the relationship to a competent and caring account manager to free up selling time. It’s ironic that many agencies’ best talents relegate themselves to the service of their book, leaving the growth objectives of the agency to the less talented or less experienced.
Retention of accounts is vital. Creating referrals and cross-selling opportunities is vital. However, teaming with other talented members of the agency can free up the unique abilities of the proven sales person.
Transformation tip: Consider the allocation of resources and budget to free up your best talent for growth.
Professionalism vs. inconsistent standards
Maybe you wish to create a brand that stands for professionalism, trusted advisor, best in class. However, your materials, presentations, Web site, professional dress, etc., say “amateur hour.” Immediately begin a transformation to the first-class brand you aspire.
Transformation tip: Cast a critical eye across your brand and ask what impression it leaves. If you’re unsatisfied, consider a marketing firm or internal creative types to help improve the image of your products (including the professionalism of the producers).
Human capital really matters
This component of the sales culture is so vital that it deserves another article on the topic. In the meantime, here are some best practices:
1. Hire those who best represent your brand and make you proud.
2. Make the interview process arduous enough to really understand at a fairly deep level whom you are hiring. (Testing can help avoid those who only look like sales people vs. those who can make it through the tough early days.)
3. Because relationship capital (connectivity) is really important, make sure your producers can open the right doors.
4. Have a training and mentoring process in place to get the highest ROI on your human capital investments (or bets).
Transformation tip: Being strategic with your producer (and all staff) hiring strategies will accelerate growth and protect your budget and sanity.
A sales culture deserves sales management
It’s surprising how many agencies lack sales management—no dashboards or scoreboards, branding strategies, or mentoring, for instance. Of the critical flaws in casual sales management, lack of accountability is particularly grievous.
Transformation tip: Create a professional sales team using accountability systems that won’t allow mediocrity to masquerade or survive.
A competitive environment vs. a mediocre one
The very best sales cultures don’t tolerate alibis and excuses. They’re also reluctant to allow producers to go into defensive mode on their book of business rather than utilizing their gifts and abilities to grow their business.
Transformation tip: It’s okay not to tolerate mediocrity.
A powerful prospecting engine vs. panic
When it all comes together—-brand, talent, urgency, scorekeeping, professionalism with a strategic system to be constantly prospecting, the results are remarkable. The alternative—panic—is very draining and stressful. Create prospecting expectations and maintain a consistent effort around those goals.
Transformation tip: This appears to be an important missing link. Be relentless in your expectations that producers spend a great deal of time “connecting” to the marketplace.
The creation of a HiGro sales culture will help propel your agency to the top of your market. If you’re there, congratulations and good luck. Unfortunately, if you’re like the Stuck Agency, you’ll need lots more luck.
Remember, we’re all transforming (changing), but are our changes strategic or random? Great sales cultures are choosing strategic.
The author
Gary Abram is the director of Agency Transformation with Addis Intellectual Capital. He communicates with and coaches agencies that have adopted the Organic Growth Engine as a method to improve performance.
|
