How to Maximize Account Penetration and Jump-Start Sales

Maximizing account penetration is one of the most critical functions in sales. Why? The depth of account penetration has an enormous impact on revenues and profitability.

Think about it ? if every one of your company's salespeople sold every product and service in their portfolio to every business unit, department, and division of every account, what kind of number would they produce? Something huge, right?

From a sales management perspective, few things are more frustrating than having a bunch of "one trick ponies" on a sales team. These are salespeople that have developed a comfort level with one product or service, and that product or service makes up 80% to 100% of their sales.

I used to work for a computer distributor that had numerous salespeople that fit this mold. They would congratulate themselves for selling servers to an account, completely oblivious to the fact that the very same account was also buying storage, networking equipment, software, and professional services. The distributor's salespeople only scratched the surface of the total available opportunity in most accounts.

Here is a second huge frustration for sales managers and executives -- salespeople that don't produce "traction" with new products and services.

When your company introduces a new product or service, you make a pretty sizeable investment to train your salespeople to sell the new product or service, right? Doesn't it drive you crazy when only a fraction of your salespeople actually sell the new product or service? The return on your sales training investment stinks, and your company never sees the revenue boost it expected to receive from the new product or service.

Why do I bring up lack of account penetration and lack of sales traction for new products and services in the same article? Because the same problem is often at the root of both issues! That problem is an excessive focus on technical details.

Many managers and salespeople believe that salespeople need to become experts in order to sell a product or service effectively. To develop this understanding, companies invest enormous amounts of time and money in exhaustive training to educate salespeople on product features and benefits, performance characteristics, industry information, pricing guidelines, promotional activities, available collateral material, etc.

Unfortunately, when salespeople leave these training sessions, they often have no idea how to find or qualify opportunities for the product or service they were just "trained" to sell! This leaves the salespeople frustrated, as they feel the time spent in training was wasted. Management is equally frustrated with their sales team's inability to gain traction with new products and services, and their inability to learn to sell their company's entire portfolio of products and services.

This mutual frustration results from a lack of recognition of one very important fact:

When a salesperson identifies a qualified opportunity, there is usually no shortage of knowledgeable resources that can assist the salesperson with converting the opportunity into a sale.

These resources may include technical or other specialists from the salesperson's own company, or similar resources that are employed by suppliers or channel partners.

If salespeople have access to product/service experts, why should they spend time learning technical details? Instead, why don't they laser-focus their learning on how to find and qualify opportunities?

Your company can facilitate this kind of focused learning by redesigning product and service training curriculums to address the following topics:

• Product/Solution/Service Overview: What does the product or service do (in plain English)?
  
  
• Differentiation: What are a few key differences between this product or service and competitive products or services?
  
  
• Business Problems: What business problems does the product or service solve?
  
  
• Qualifying Questions: What questions should salespeople ask to determine whether a prospect or customer has the business problems that the product or service can solve, and to quantify the impact of these business problems?
  
  
• Expert Resources: What expert resources are available to help salespeople manage technical details?

If your salespeople have access to product/service experts, you can turn them into prospecting and qualifying machines by focusing your company's product/service training curriculums on how to find and qualify opportunities. This strategy will help your organization maximize account penetration and jump-start sales for new products and services.

Copyright 2005 -- Alan Rigg

Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Selling: Why Most Salespeople Don't Perform and What to Do About It. To learn more about his book and sign up for more FREE sales and sales management tips, visit http://www.8020performance.com.

---

How We Build a 90% Failure Rate into the Sales Process

I recently began doing training in the banking industry. Across... Read More

The Effective Executive

What does it mean to be an "effective executive"? Well... Read More

Snuff Out the Competition Without Leaving a Mark!

Does the competition drive you crazy? Are they relentless about... Read More

Finding A Sales Force That Pays For Itself

The elements involved in building a sales force, especially one... Read More

Drop Discounts and Earn Top Dollar

Every dollar you discount is a dollar of pure profit... Read More

The Nine Warning Signs that You Need a Sales Video

Corporate videos are an important sales tool that can often... Read More

Five Steps to Maximize Success in Targeting For Growth

Targeting is the process of selecting high potential customer accounts... Read More

Project/Program Management Best Practices for Success in ANY Industry!

Where is our success? Although there have been improvements, over... Read More

Shorten Sales Cycles in Complex Sales Environments

Help buyers discover the answers they need to understand and... Read More

How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Sales Performance -- Part 2

Another key reason why companies suffer from 80/20 performance is... Read More

Online Sales: Secret To Increase Your Sales By Bundling Your Products

Microsoft has used this online sales secret to become a... Read More

The Top 5 Issues Facing VPs of Sales

A recent study of 2,663 sales organizations by Think Training,... Read More

3 Steps To Getting A Sales Meeting

The best way to get a new customer is to... Read More

How You Can Raise Your Business Earnings By 50% With An Age-Old Magic Truth

Imagine increasing your business earnings by 30, 40, or 50%.... Read More

The Art of Sales (And Tips On How To Manage Your Sales Team)

Selling. Cold calls, introductions, interviews, appointments, proposals, referrals, call cycles,... Read More

Make Time, Not Excuses

There are four primary activities that successful salespeople engage in... Read More

How To Have A Successful Retail Sales Event

In the 30-plus years I spent working in advertising and... Read More

How to Sell Strategically

If you want to maximize your sales performance, take a... Read More

Ten Awesome Ways To Incease Your Sales In Holidays

Everybody thinks that the businesses will slow down a bit... Read More

A Fracas in the Franchise - Keep Your Customers by Keeping Your Workers

As a previous owner of a Franchise I know the... Read More

Do You Know How to Fire Up Your Sales Staff (When Money Isnt Everything)?

Money is the only thing that motivates a salesperson, right?... Read More

A Coachs Handbook For Sales Managers

This article may be reprinted in its entirety with express... Read More

Leadership - How To Turn The Vision Into A Reality

Be clear about where you are now. Audit your strengths... Read More

Sales Coaching... Fact or Fiction?

The old adage in selling has always been, "Find out... Read More

The ACCOUNTABILITY Challenge for Today?s Business Management

In today's 24/7 driven business word, accountability is becoming a... Read More

How to Sharpen Your Sales Message with Do-it-Yourself Focus Groups - Small Business Power Tools

You've probably heard of focus groups. It's a tool that... Read More

To Increase Your Sales and Revenue Make Sure To Add Value

What are you and your company's services and products worth... Read More

Energize Your Organization

No matter what you do, it seems, your employees do... Read More

Hiring--A Vital Key In Sales Management Success

Recently, I was asked to spend some time on the... Read More

How to Develop a Proactive, New-Business Sales Team!

I don't know about your business but in my experience... Read More

The Benefits of Catalog Sales For Your Business

Things to watch out for when selling your product in... Read More

Overcoming Sales Objections for Small Business Networks

Do you need help overcoming sales objections? Do you sell... Read More

Discounting Your Way Into Sales Oblivion

I don't even like saying the word d---------g. I have... Read More