Sales and Operations Review

KappaWest has been helping client companies to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their sales organizations since its inception 1974.

Increasingly, this experience has reinforced the importance of evaluating the full range of a company’s sales operations to ensure it is addressing all the right issues in the right order.  

It is especially important to conduct a rigorous evaluation before a company makes a major investment in its sales force, for example in the development of new training programs or in the implementation of Sales Force Automation.

Purposes and Outputs of a Typical Sales Operations Review
A Sales Operations Review is usually aimed at identifying ways in which the performance of a company’s sales force’s can be increased significantly in support of its higher level business and marketing strategies, and at developing specific recommendations and plans to effect improvements.

• The specific objectives and outputs of a particular Review are defined with the client before the project begins. However, they are likely to involve some mix of the following examples:
• Identify opportunities that could be exploited to improve the strategic, operational or tactical performance of the sales force.
• Identify obstacles that are reducing the effectiveness or efficiency of the sales force.
• Identify best practices that are being used in one part of the organization and which could or should be implemented elsewhere.
• Identify how the company’s sales methodology should be modified to take greater advantage of a planned move to Sales Force Automation.
• Develop specific recommendations and/or plans to deal with each of the Review’s key findings.

The overall scope of a Sales Operations Review is defined and confirmed with a client before the project begins. Depending upon the purposes set for it, the specific areas to be studied during a particular Review might involve a mix of the following:

• Sales strategy, doctrine and methodology
• Sales skill and product knowledge levels
• Sales methodology…processes, tactics and tools
• Levels of market and competitive intelligence
• Pre- and post-sales support
• Recruiting, selection and training processes and standards
• Sales compensation and incentive plans
• Win/loss review processes
• Sales aids
• Sales planning at the territory, account and opportunity levels
• Sales administration processes
• Sales forecasting and status reporting
• Morale and attitudes of the sales force
• Relative productivity… compared to competitor and peer sales forces
• Intra-company relationships with Marketing and other functions.
• Quality of sales management…support, coaching and direction
• Opportunity qualification processes and standards
• Opportunity development processes…proposal writing
• Customer and prospect opinions
• Conformance to Corporate Marketing doctrine and guidance.

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