Lean Sales

How to improve commercial action in terms of both efficiency and effectiveness

The application of Lean principles to Sales & Marketing processes can yield surprising results in terms of improved business performance.

However, there has always been a kind of scepticism about applying Lean principles to Sales and Marketing issues, as there is still a widespread opinion that everything to do with these functions is more related to the empathy and creativity of salespeople than to a standardised process that can be likened to production.

The five principles inherent in the Lean philosophy, which form the basis of the actions related to Sales and Marketing are:

Value

Value for the customer as the driver for defining the company's Value Proposition in the new sense of moving from selling the product to being useful to the customer.

Map

Understood as the identification of the value stream, i.e. the actions required to enhance and convey the company's Sales Proposition to the market, eliminating all unnecessary activities and related waste.

Flow

Putting in place business processes and an organisation geared to “facilitate” the flow of activities that create value for the customer. Creating sales flow means proposing products in line with customer needs and managing consistent sales (sell out).

Pull

Having the whole business system “pulled” by the customer by working with the same and knowing its needs.

Perfection

Pursuing perfection through the constant application of the PDCA cycle to support continuous improvement activities as well as implementing learning experimentation in the Sales area.

The Lean Sales approach integrates a set of processes, behaviours, tools and best practices aimed at converging the Sales Value Stream towards the Customer Journey.

A method to make your organisation more competitive in terms of customer care and general performance. This will make it possible to:

Create more value for your customers
Increase the value-added time that salespeople devote to “real” sales activities
Reduce Sales “Cycle Time” (Contact to Contract)

Lean Sales&Marketing: Considi's approach

The Lean Sales approach developed by Considi makes it possible to work on the Sales Funnel by making it a Lean Sales Funnel that represents the path of the potential customer, from when the same comes into contact with the company to when it becomes (and remains) a full customer.

This is achieved by acting on three levers:

The Value Proposition: to direct value towards the customer. It allows us to focus on what our customer recognises as value in our company. If our proposal is more closely aligned to its needs, the number of closures and conversions in the funnel will be amplified.
Efficiency: increasing the value time-added time spent by the sales force. This has an impact both on the organisation of the salesforce's activities - time management - and on the management of the processes involving it - process management.
Standardised Work: to make the process flow rapidly. Through Standardised Work (... not work standard ...) one documents “best practices” and methods for carrying out the various steps of the sales process. Applying standardised work does not mean “stiffening” the sales process but creating a basis of culture and sharing that drives sales force activities towards continuous improvement.

The Lean Sales approach is not only based on theoretical applications. In fact, the method introduces a real monitoring system that is not only linked to indicators aimed at the past (product turnover, number of new customers, etc.) but plans the future of sales through improvement projects linked to the three levers Value Proposition, Efficiency and Standardised Work with the aim of increasing the performance of the Sales Area.