Use your sales force to build your brand

There's an interesting paper in the September 2006 Harvard Business Review, The New Science of Sales Force Productivity, that talks about focusing on sales force productivity to boost the performance of sales people.

The authors describe 4 levers that can increase sales performance, boost sales and improve performance of top reps while having the greatest impact on moving laggard sales people toward the middle of the curve.

Briefly, the 4 levers described by the authors to boost sales force productivity are:

1) Target offerings
Tailor offerings to the needs of target markets and make sure your sales reps are selling the right way to the right prospects.

2) Optimize automation tools and procedures
Bolster technology and productivity tools while bringing discipline and careful monitoring and review to a clearly-defined sales process.

3) Performance management
Incorporate metrics, skills development and incentives while properly and fairly rewarding high-performing reps in a differentiated way.

4) Sales force deployment
Strategically distribute sales reps and organize sales assets according to customer needs and the requirments of complex sales rather than simply by geography.

The days of "putting more feet on the street" to reach ever-increasing sales goals are over. Managers no longer can simply take a sales goal increase and evenly spread it across products and/or sales reps. They must evaluate how and where they can get the greatest gains.

This is a good paper that focuses on improving the performance of your existing sales force. I especially like this approach as it focuses on investing in your brand by investing in those who present your brand to the outside world. The paper also advocates seeking out new customers rather than focusing on selling more to existing customers. Although the authors do not specifically call this what it is, they are prescribing a fresh approach to expanding brands beyond traditional target markets by focusing on investments in the sales force.

The approach also injects more science into sales.

I champion the effort to label marketing a science with a relatively small portion of it being art. Since sales is part of the marketing function, doesn't it make sense that the scientific approach should trickle down to the sales force?

This paper is good reading for anyone interested in more effectively utilizing their sales force to help increase the value of their brands and increase sales. As we all know, branding should also live outside the walls of the marketing department.

The Poor Man's Shortcut (or small business's) Way to Measure Brand Strength

As I'm sitting at my desk this evening continuing to tweak an equation I'm developing to measure brand strength in an easier and more straight-forward manner than other complicated methods currently available, I'm struck by one factor in my equation that looks like it will make the cut.

This factor can readily and easily be used by just about any organization to help gauge the strength of its brand(s).

And what is this factor?

The ratio of customer complaints to customer kudos.

If you do no other brand-based measurements, then at least use this simple ratio to track your brand's strength over time.

Upset customers will contact you to complain about your brand. Extremely happy customers will contact you to let you know how thrilled they are with your brand. Of course, the vast majority of all customers will fall somewhere in between and you will never hear from them.

Truly outstanding brands will have significantly more unsolicited kudos than ordinary brands. Conversely, weak brands will have a much higher occurrence of complaints.

Strive to constantly improve this ratio and you will find yourself aligning your entire organization around building a powerhouse brand.