Capgemini Consulting

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Sales Effectiveness
Optimise your sales organisation and increase your profitability

Introduction and overview The challenges for todays sales organisations are growing. The globalisation accelerates the competition resulting in increasing options for the customers.The consequences are higher customer demands and a more unpredictable buying behaviour. This will be further encouraged by better access to information and tools to search different products, e.g.Internet sites with price comparisons. The tendency of increasing buying professionalism can also be found in business-to-business industries where the purchasing organisations have made significant progress. The sales department plays a key role in winning the customer. Yet, in todays complex and changing environment many sales managers recognize that their sales organisation

is not performing optimally. There are a number of typical issues that these companies face: The sales strategy is unaligned with the corporate strategy which results in an unclear definition of sales strategic focus and objectives. The sales processes are not integrated with the sales organisation and experience a lack of defined roles and responsibilities. The sales qualification remains the same although the requirements of the sales organisation have changed. The IT systems do not reflect the sales process. The follow-up of sales activities is not target-oriented and has time lags.

Companies increase their focus on Sales Effectiveness initiatives Supported by the good business cycle, many companies have had a strong growth and expanded their business during the last years. To keep operational efficiency and manage market opportunities, companies have prioritised and applied different initiatives in their sales organisations. A European survey made by Gartner shows that improving up-sell and cross-sell activities was one of the top CRM business priorities in the last year. Also, for the years to come research shows that the focus on Sales Effectiveness initiatives will continue to increase. For instance, around 70% of the 250 largest Swedish companies state that they want to increase efficiency and structure of their sales work in 2008 (Kundbarometern 2007, a yearly Swedish market research from CRM-Fretagen). Some of the major initiatives mentioned concern the introduction and improvements of sales support systems and also integration of available sales channels.
Figure 1 Examples of levers to increase value within a sales organisation
Levers to increase value Increase Revenue Volume Price
Target and grow profitable segments/ customer Increase effectiveness of customer acquisition and retention Increase share of wallet through better addressed customer needs Improved price realisation Improve qualification of sales force Cut unprofitable segments of customer or product portfolio Get the sales force size right Improve sales processes, reduce non-value adding time Use outsourcing/partnering opportunities for sales force Improve efficiency through adequate systems support

approach focuses on both revenues and costs, and some examples of levers to increase value can be found in figure 1. Sales Effectiveness is about applying a holistic approach to the management of sales Capgemini address Sales Effectiveness as the effective management of sales with strategic, controlling, process, organisational, employee-oriented and technological elements. The modular offering Sales Effectiveness was developed to meet the most important challenges of a sales organisation and has a holistic view. The framework consists of five modules (see figure 2) which are closely linked to each other. The first module is the overall sales strategy which sets the strategic framework and the objectives in alignment with the corporate strategy. The second module, sales processes and organisation, the third module, qualification and change management, and the fourth module, sales technologies and tools, are used with the purpose to increase the operational effectiveness of the sales organisation. The last but not least important module, sales controlling, is used to ensure an effective follow-up on these elements. Module 1. Sales Strategy A clear sales strategy is the starting point for a successful sales organisation. The design of a strategic framework and sales objectives should be aligned with the corporate strategy. The approach for achieving this is to first review the existing sales strategy and then to analyse where the organisation wants to be in the future. The result would then be a sales strategy assessment, aligned with the corporate strategy, a roadmap (framework with strategic actions) of how to get there and also a supporting business case. Module 2. Sales Processes and Organisation To achieve a more effective sales organisation, an alignment between the

Increase Profit Employee costs Reduce Cost Material costs Depreciation

Sales Effectiveness a potential to achieve sustainable profitability Organisations that address the effective management of sales have the potential to achieve sustainable profitability growth and increased customer satisfaction. The Sales Effectiveness

Capgemini Consulting

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sales processes and the organisation is key. The basis is an analysis of the existing processes and the connected roles and responsibilities regarding strengths, weaknesses and improvements potential. This can be supported by a detailed analysis of the activities and the resource allocation within the sales organisation and benchmarks. Based on these input the to-be solution will be designed, including processes, responsibilities, necessary organisational changes, defined improvement targets and an initial action plan. Module 3. Qualification and Change Management One of the major challenges when implementing new ways of working in an organisation is to get all employees onboard. That is why the transition needs to be supported by a number of selected methods using a holistic change management concept. This does not need to address only the rational aspects of changes, but political and emotional as well. It includes change management activities with the purpose to inform about the changes as well as to provide the employees with the necessary new qualifications and to ensure a high level of mobilisation to adopt the new ways of working. A monitoring concept will be used to track the improvements within the targeted areas of change.

Module 4. Sales Technologies and Tools In order for a sales process to reach its full potential, it needs to be based on integration of IT systems. To be able to recommend the optimal systems, an analysis of the current architecture, infrastructure and applications needs to be made. Also, other complementary activities are usually; defining possible future status (design architectures, application standards, middleware standards and data exchange standards), conducting a gap analysis of applications and architecture as well as a system and software selection. The results can be a high-level IT architecture, a vendor and software recommendation or an implemented sales system. Module 5. Sales Controlling An effective follow-up on sales performance is key for reaching visibility and control. The design of sales performance measures and controlling instruments is made through a number of activities: analysis of objectives, identification of key performance indicators, comparison with Best Practices, Levers to increse value a definition of target group specific re Target and grow profitable segments/ ports and an implementation plan. To customer design a Sales Governance structure Effective customer acquisition and retention Increased share of wallet through better for how to manage and drive desired addressed customer needs sales behaviour can be important in Improved price realisation Qualification of sales this module as well. force

An effective follow-up on sales performance is key for reaching visibility and control.

Figure 2 The five modules of the Sales Effectiveness framework

Sales Strategy

on tro

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Sales Processes and Organisation Qualification and Change Management

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Sales Technologies and Tools

Figure 3 Typical issues within the five modules and examples of tailor-made solutions

Module Sales Strategy

Typical issues
No explicit sales strategy or no alignment with corporate strategy Unclear definition of strategic focus

How Capgemini can help (examples)

Definition of the strategic objectives Design of a sales transformation map Review/development of Business Cases Design of processes, roles and activity descriptions Design of a sales organisation in alignment with the processes Review of sales qualifications and training needs Development of sales trainings Design of Change Management activities IT assessment and software evaluation Integration/Implementation of sales relevant tools and CRM software Definition of Key Performance Indicators Review of sales reports Introduction of Sales Scorecard

Sales Processes and Organisation Qualification and Change Management Sales Technologies and Tools

Lack of clear processes with defined roles and responsibilities Organisation is built around people Gap between existing qualifications and new requirements Introduction of new processes and systems without accompanying measures Too many process steps are done via workarounds IT systems dont reflect the sales process Missing target-oriented sales activity analysis Sales management activities only imprecise and with time lags

Sales Controlling

Capgemini offers tailor-made solutions The five modules of Capgeminis Sales Effectiveness framework are closely linked with the issues that companies often face. Due to the module character Capgemini is able to support companies according to their specific situation and their individual needs (see figure 3). In many cases the issues are highly linked to each other so that it is necessary to apply at least two or more modules.

About Capgeminis Sales Effectiveness experience Capgemini has comprehensive experience with Sales Effectiveness projects in a wide range of industries in the Nordic countries as well as globally. For numerous years Capgemini has helped companies to achieve superior results with initiatives like better aligning the sales strategy with the corporate vision, creating a global crossfunctional sales process applicable for different channels and customer segments, re-designing the sales support organisation, creating a transformation programme for changing the selling behaviour, developing tools to better support the sales operations and improving the Sales Governance.

For more information, please contact: Capgemini Consulting Practice Marketing, Sales & Service Claudia Nylund Tel: +46 (0) 8 5368 4918 claudia.nylund@capgemini.com Gustavslundsvgen 131 P.O. Box 825 161 24 Stockholm Sweden

About Capgemini and Collaborative Business Experience Capgemini, one of the worlds foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services, enables its clients to transform and perform through technologies. Capgemini provides its clients with insights and capabilities that boost their freedom to achieve superior results through a unique way of working the Collaborative Business Experience and through a global delivery model called Rightshore, which aims to offer the right resources in the right location at competitive cost. Present in 36 countries, Capgemini reported 2007 global revenues of EUR 8.7 billion and employs over 83,000 people worldwide. More information is available at www.se.capgemini.com
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