Sales: Efficient Vs. Effective

(2 minute read)

Efficient means doing things well. Effective means doing the right things well.

Sales leadership requires us to take an intellectually honest approach to the process and systems we are asking others to operate within. If we, as leaders, stop short of the effective measures, we are likely to get lots of activity or low success percentages of success as compared with the results from measuring effective behaviors and steps.

All is not lost. Even if you are only measuring efficiency, the turnaround point is within reach for all sales leaders and there is an easy button. Focus on quality of action, which is doing the “right things” well.

How do we identify efficiency focused activities?

Start with the stages of your sales process and simply look at the number of initial activities and how many of those move to the next sales stage (note: not marketing stage, this is for the prospects that have moved from marketing to a sales process). One of the common culprits in B2B sales pops up when there are a large number of discovery meetings but very few conversions to an initial scope/pilot/proof of concept stage. Someone may be efficient at gathering data but ineffective at using that data to define pain in a way the comples a prospect to want to relieve present pain.

Salespeople can slip into habits and think they are operating and executing on goals but can miss the mark when controls and oversight are missing from the process. Oversight does not have to involve layers of management or big-brother tactics. Oversight can simply be personal-oversight where your sales organization is comprised of you and only you. The key point is to take the time to review the actions and activities and first ask yourself: am I doing the right things to execute on the goals. Then you can move to the question about efficiency in the process.

Test for effectiveness.

Find the stages for how a client buys and then determine how to move a prospect from one stage to the next for your process. Each business will differ in the approach to defining the stages. However, the next step in building better sales systems is defining the effective steps, not the efficient volumes. For your organization, adapt the buying process to the needs of your sales culture, customer preference, project size or scope, and other industry specific characteristics.

When in Doubt?

Ask for help. It’s why I am in business, because I like solving sales challenges for B2B focused businesses. I receive lots of questions about sales operations, sales systems, coaching, and skill development. If you have a challenge you are wrestling with and could use some outside help or insight, I invite your questions and we can see if I can be a resource for you.

To you selling success!