The Weapon

Guest post by: Todd Youngblood
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“The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.” - By Todd Youngblood

A highly functional CRM system is not the only tool required by a modern sales team (or more precisely an effective, modern sales team), but it is certainly the most central. Without one, it's not really possible to get the most out of the other core sales tools or the professionals using them. Thinking about your CRM as "The Weapon," that is, the key supporting infrastructure for a sales team's process, metrics, knowledge, skills and experience can have a dramatic impact on results produced - both short and long term.

Sales Process & Tools

Consider the accompanying diagram starting with reports "The Weapon" can produce using "Open Opportunity" data combined with year-to-date actual performance. (down & left in the diagram) With that information, a valid, supportable forecast can be developed. That forecast will tell me in a heartbeat if I do or do not have enough in my funnel to reach my targets.

If I don't have enough to get there, the "A" items in my Prioritized Action Plan will be aimed at finding more opportunities. If I do have enough, those actions will be focused on advancing deals through the pipeline.

Concentrate on those 4 boxes at the top. (Do it!) Think through and follow your work flow. Seems like exactly what the mythically ideal sales rep/manager/executive should be doing every day doesn't it? What the heck else could be more important? (...except, of course, actually executing the action plan!)

Well OK, that takes care of the tactical stuff, but what about the more strategic & long term issues? With other reports from "The Weapon," a sales manager (or conscientious rep) can quickly and clearly identify skill deficiencies and use your Sales Knowledge Mine to help plug those gaps. (You do have a keyword-searchable Sales Knowledge Mine that stores all of the "tribal knowledge" accumulated by your sales pros over the years, right?)

Concentrate on those 3 boxes at the lower left. (Do it!) Seems like a no-nonsense, disciplined approach to self-improvement and sharing best practices, doesn't it?

And of course your regularly conduct Opportunity, Territory, Win and Loss Reviews to beef up action plans and peg down what works and what doesn't. Everything you learn from these reviews - the good, the bad and the ugly - gets translated into action and also stored in the Sales Knowledge Mine. The actions that "sound great, but don't work" get avoided and the "counterintuitive gems" get implemented again and again. Concentrate on those 3 boxes around the lower right hand corner. (Do it!) Removes all the fluff from the concept of "coaching," doesn't it?

At the risk of going too "liberal artsy intellectual," I'll quote Oliver Wendell Holmes. "I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity." I think this flow chart qualifies as one that made it to "the other side of complexity."

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“The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.” - By Todd Youngblood

About the Author: Todd Youngblood

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Todd Youngblood is passionate about sales productivity. His 30+ year career in Executive Management, Sales, Marketing and Consulting has focused on selling more, better, cheaper and faster. He began his career in 1976 as a Marketing Representative with the IBM Corporation and for fifteen years progressed through a wide variety of field and staff assignments. He then founded and operated an Information Technology Outsourcing firm providing Software Development and Maintenance Services. In 1994, he joined an electronic commerce firm serving the insurance and healthcare industries, as Vice President of Sales & Marketing. He established The YPS Group, Inc. in 1999 based on his years of experience in Sales Process Engineering ï¿½ that is, combining creativity and discipline in the design, implementation and use of work processes for highly effective sales teams. Todd has worked extensively with firms in the Distribution, Manufacturing, Insurance, Services, and Telecommunications industries. He is the author of two sales management books, The Dolphin And The Cow and Think About Itï¿½ He is married, has two daughters, enjoys cycling, is a second degree black belt in Choi Kwang Do and serves on the board of the Cobb Symphony Orchestra.
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