The Tailored Opportunity Management Programme.

A tailored training and coaching programme to deliver the 15 Second Sales Review and many more benefits will based around our Opportunity Management methodology... Read More

Our Opportunity Management programmes have three core fundamentals for success.

1. a reliable focused methodology and tools for qualifying, managing, tracking and forecasting sales opportunities;

2. a consistent sales management approach that adds value to progressing the sales opportunities;

3. a competency based skills assessment to identify and feedback individual performance, therefore allowing any skills shortage within the teams to be addressed.

We deliver tailored programmes - not just training - designed specifically for you which will be based on your environment and our best practice sales processes and tools that deliver behavioural change. The proposed program consists of three phases; Discovery, Education and Coaching which First Border will deliver against the corresponding behaviour for the sales team of Prepare, Learn and Act.

Discover: To establish a professional approach to Opportunity Management, which sets and publishes standards of best practice for all Sales Management, Sales Executives and Sales Support professionals.

Educate: To provide the frameworks and coach Sales personnel in a professional approach to Opportunity Management, which develops the skills and best practices necessary to obtain the Results. To provide the inspiration for sales personnel to continue to use the processes, methods and tools post workshops.

Coach: Implementing change is not a one off process. Implementing process change and training will not deliver the required results without a series of reinforcement interventions. The objective of the Coaching Phase is to ensure the training and processes are implemented and deliver the required results. The exact nature of the coaching required will be determined during the Educate Phase of the programme.

Discover Phase

Time required - This phase typically requires 2 days from Firstborder.

Objective:

To establish a professional approach to Sales Effectiveness, which sets and publishes standards of best practice for all Sales Management, Sales Executives and Sales Support professionals.

Activities:

1. Review sales team and structure, current clients, sales targets, commission plans, targeted clients, targeted industries, perceived competitors, how the best deals were won and why deals were lost.

2. Review current sales systems and processes - to identify current best practice within your organisation and to determine scope of required expansion to achieve best practice across all processes.

3. Review your offerings and determine the advantage statements (why do business with your organisation?). Apply the 'so what' and prepare the list of Advantage Statements for input into Educate Phase.

4. Review contents of current funnel and pipeline. Select a cross section of deals to put through Firstborder's review process - this is to position the team for the Educate Phase of the program.

5. Review and agree required result from programme. Determine ability to measure the result and determine baseline measurement guidelines.

Educate Phase:

Time required - Each group of 6 delegates require 1 training day.

Objective:

To provide the methodology and tools through structured training workshops to enable delegate to take a professional approach to Sales Effectiveness, which develops the skills and best practices necessary to obtain the results. To provide the inspiration for sales personnel to continue to use the processes, methods and frameworks post workshops.

Activities:

There are two workshops for delegates to attend. Each workshop is 3½ hours duration with a maximum of 6 delegates attending. Short workshops ensure the minimum time away from work at any one time, maintains delegates attention span and therefore improves interest levels. Skills are learnt in small chunks and as there is a 2 week gap between each workshop, the delegate has time and opportunity to apply the new skills before learning more skills. The small number of delegates per workshops means fewer people are out at any one time and allows for greater tutor attention per delegate.

Although the workshops will be structured, they will have an informal feel about them, not lecture style, but active participant style. Delegates will need to bring in real life and real examples to the workshops. Delegates will be actively encouraged to practice the learning back in the workplace with 'homework' being set, so delegates have to apply what they have learnt - on the job - between each workshop and then be prepared to discuss and hone their new skills at the next workshop. Between workshops, they will need support and coaching and therefore this will be an important role for the manager.

Coach Phase

Time required - Each group of 6 delegates requires 3 days of coaching.

Objective:

The objective of the Coaching Phase is to ensure the training and methodology is implemented and delivers the required results. Implementing process change and training will not deliver the required results without a series of reinforcement interventions.

Activities:

1. Working with sales managers to develop their pipeline management skills with their teams.

2. To coach the sales managers in developing their business based on the Firstborder sales methodologies.

3. Pipeline surgeries based on the opportunity management methodology.

4. Deal qualification surgeries looking at Business Imperative, Value and Relationships.

Results

Over the Line Increase Working on the right deals - at the right time - means time and resources are not wasted on deals that cannot be closed. This increases the number of people hitting target.

Win Ratios Increase In Focus, pipeline coverage needs to be only 1.8 times target rather than the conventional 3 times. With less time required to build the pipeline, there is more time to spend on closing. As fewer deals need attention, more time can be dedicated to the deals that can be closed.

Forecast Accuracy Increase Forecast accuracy, when measured after five (5) weeks into a thirteen (13) week quarter, is in excess of 99%, quarter after quarter

Profit Margins Increase Working on the right deals at the right time, increasing the win ratio, and increasing forecast accuracy means better control. This reduces the need to pull deals in at the end of the quarter through deep discounting and results in increased profit margins.

Behaviour Change

Showing all Deals Focus is a personal tool and because it is linked to targets and commission it encourages people to enter all their deals. This is particularly true for sales leads. This in turn increases the accuracy of the corporate systems.

Managing the Business Focus shows you in real time how your performance compares with your target and how you will finish the quarter. It is, above all, a planning tool that shows how you will make your number.

Managing the Deals Having created a plan of the deals to win, the strategies for winning them can then be reviewed. The reasons that the customer must buy, why they must buy from you, deal qualification, next actions and relationships must all be considered and planned.

Measuring Success

Measuring improvement will depend on both the starting point and the current trends within the company. For measurement to be successful, we will need two groups; an active group, who are part of the program, and a control group.

We will need to record the result & behaviour trends of both groups from the previous 12 months and then record the trends going forward.

By measuring the trends of the active group against the control group, the success of the program can be measured.