Shingo Examiner Feedback on “Sales Process Excellence”
Submission Title: Sales Process Excellence Author Name(s): Michael J. Webb A team of Shingo examiners has provided the following feedback. The team rated the submission based on the following categories. Content Contribution to new knowledge and understanding of operational excellence Michael Webb has articulated the why and how of continuous improvement in a context and […]
Why Sales and Marketing Needs Operational Excellence – Four Principles That Make Sales Funnels Flow Faster
Every year CSO Insights (a research company for chief sales officers) conducts a study on sales management1. In 2014, the average win rate of forecasted deals across all companies was 45.9 percent, virtually the same as the 45.7 percent achieved in 2013. In other words, the average CEO would be better off placing “pass” bets […]
What is the most effective way to get sales leadership to buy into lean process excellence in sales?
A reader asked: What is the most effective way to have sales leadership buy into lean process excellence in sales? This is an important question, and I’ve answered it before (link1, link2, and link3). An interesting experience with an editor recently relates directly to this issue. The fellow did not have much background in B2B […]
Do Highly Successful Companies Use Process Management Tools in Marketing and Sales?
Do highly successful companies use process management tools in marketing and sales? You bet they do. Whether they know they are doing it is another matter, however. In fact, when companies TRY to apply lean and process tools to sales and marketing, they often get it wrong. Read this and you’ll get it right.
How Does Lean Apply to Marketing?
Wikipedia defines “Lean”, as “A production practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination.” The American Marketing Association defines “Marketing” as “A set of processes to create, deliver and communicate customer value and manage […]
How To Diagnose What Is Going Right – And Wrong – In Your Sales Production System
Lots of companies feel pressure at some time or another to improve the effectiveness and productivity of their sales force. Unfortunately, instead of diagnosing what is really going on, they just jump in with presumed solutions instead: sales or negotiation training, CRM software, lead generation, or some other of the Usual Fixes. Unfortunately, the success […]
How Do You Map A Sales Process?
Mapping a sales process (or designing it) is pretty simple, at least at first. The difference with a sales process is that it must benefit both you and your customer simultaneously. The key is to keep your customer in mind at all times.1. Prepare to map the process.Despite the stories about salespeople out on the […]
What Distinguishes Sales Process Excellence from Sales Process Engineering?
The term “sales process engineering” was defined nicely in a paper written by Dr. Paul Selden in 1994: Sales process engineering is the systematic application of scientific and mathematical principles to achieve the practical goals of a sales process. Engineering is practical. It applies whatever scientific knowledge is available and relevant to a given problem. […]
Sales Process Mapping Ideas to Consider
By Michael J. Webb Process mapping, in general, is a technique for creating a common vision and shared language among team members within an organization or project with the goal of improving business results. I have seen management training and development firms realize that people working in their sales department had cross purposes. The results […]
Five Assumptions that Prevent B2B Sales and Marketing Improvement – And How Process Excellence Avoids Them
by Michael Webb Improving sales and marketing productivity can be maddeningly difficult. There are so many different points of view – so many competing theories and motives. And, how do you even measure it? Most executives struggle to improve sales and marketing, because of some pesky things called assumptions. Unfortunately, if you start with the […]
