Complex services and solutions don’t exactly sell themselves. The sales process is long, and sales representatives generally rely on an array of sales tools to move prospective clients through the typical stages of a relationship (Figure 1). Yet sales representatives often don’t have or don’t know how to access the right tools to help them move prospects along. The result can be slower sales cycles, more tension between marketing and sales, and lost deals.

Figure 1. The Relationship Life Cycle

Source: ITSMA, 2003

A sales support assessment guide can help both marketing and sales create a more effective and usable set of tools to employ throughout the sales process. The guide provides a simple way to map all available sales support tools to each of the different relationship stages.

Developing the guide will help you identify critical gaps and new tools you can create that will have the most impact on sales. Once the guide is developed, you can use it as the foundation for a sales support directory (e.g., a portal on the corporate intranet) that will help sales representatives quickly find the most useful tools for their immediate situations.

Developing the Guide

The illustrative sales support assessment guide (Table 1) provides a template you can adapt to map your sales support tools. Developing the guide requires three major steps, as follows.

1. Identify all available sales tools relevant for each offer.

2. For each tool, identify the relationship stage for which it is most useful. (Some might be useful for two or more stages.)

3. Grade the quality of the tools available for each offer and each relationship stage. A simple green-yellow-red system works well. Use green to indicate that you have a number of tools that can be used effectively in moving prospects to the next stage. Use yellow to indicate that you have some tools available, but overall they might not be adequate (in quality or quantity) to help move prospects to the next stage. Use red to highlight a critical gap that needs attention. Red could mean that either no tools are available or existing tools are seriously inadequate.

Table 1. Sales Support Assessment Guide (Sample Template)

Source: ITSMA, 2003

When developing the guide, be sure to include all available tools. Along with traditional data sheets and brochures, the guide might include such tools as:

• Prospect identification and qualification criteria
• Advertisement and campaign schedules
• Value proposition guides
• Opportunity planning guides
• Presentation templates
• Proposal generators
• Pricing tools
• ROI/TCO calculators
• Competitive positioning guides
• Business issues guides
• Customer intelligence guides
• Reference management guides
• Account expansion and relationship management guides

As you move through the process, you might need to modify the format so that it best suits the way you organize your business and your information. Invest the time in getting sales input about which tools are really effective to make sure the grading is appropriate.

Using the Guide

Once you have populated the guide, you can assess problematic shortcomings and create plans to remedy them. Focus on the most critical gaps and on potential new tools that can best address your biggest sales challenges.

After completing the guide, you have the opportunity to provide this information as a directory for your sales force(s). You might want to use the Web, a playbook, or some other presentation format. The key is to create a directory that is easily understandable and usable. Sales representatives should be able to quickly view the directory and know exactly how to obtain the appropriate tools. By showing the full range of available tools, the directory can also help sales representatives consider the most appropriate next steps in building relationships with prospects and moving them toward the sale.

For more information about this assessment guide or about sales support tools in general, contact Ajit Maira, Senior Vice President, at +1-781-862-8500, ext. 145, or amaira@itsma.com.