In the realm of sales, understanding the “what” is straightforward—you know what your sales team does. However, many sales leaders struggle to articulate the “how.” Often, these leaders come from distant areas within the business, away from the field or direct customer interactions, and sometimes even from outside the industry. While commercial leadership at this level focuses on leading rather than managing, being forensic about how your sales team operates can reveal the obstacles preventing your brand and strategy from succeeding in the market.
The most successful sales operators, at any level, recognize that sales is a repeatable process. Executing this process consistently yields superior results compared to other methods. They understand that each step can be measured, monitored, and improved. Unfortunately, the pressures of running a sales team—such as meeting revenue and cost budgets—often cause us to lose sight of the “how” and focus solely on the “what.” For instance, consider the common practice of pushing sales to distributors at the end of a period. This approach may fill distributors with products, but it blocks orders for the beginning of the next period and creates internal pressure. I once witnessed a business that had pushed this method so aggressively that distributors had eight weeks of stock on hand but only two weeks of credit terms, leading to arrears, order blocks, and conflict—all because the business was fixated on hitting period-end numbers with one methodology.
By examining these issues structurally, you can identify problems through how you work, rather than just what you do. Are you struggling to build sales for a new product? You know the goal is to build distribution, and your sales teams are acquiring new stores constantly. However, if overall volume remains low and reordering is nonexistent, it’s time to be forensic. Understanding the how and where of distribution is crucial. Do you have a new stockist process that supports trial and visibility in-store? Does it ensure products are available and staff are trained? Is there a clear path to the second and third orders? Are your products in the right types and locations of outlets? Who in your organization understands the model outlet and can communicate this, or did you simply hand over new product development to sales and let them determine where it works?
Grasping the “how” of your sales process can pave the way to success when combined with understanding the “why” and “where.” Firstly, it enhances outcomes through improved effectiveness. By understanding and measuring how something is done, you can improve the skills, processes, or tools involved. Secondly, it boosts efficiency. As your outcomes improve, so does efficiency—not just through reduced sales time and effort, but also through the halo effect of getting it right the first time with your customers.
At Sales Capability Forensics, we delve deep into the mechanics of your sales operations, identifying and eliminating the blocks that hinder your brand’s market success. By focusing on how your sales team works, we help you achieve better effectiveness and efficiency, ensuring your commercial strategy is executed flawlessly.
Being Forensic is understanding the how not just the what
You can easily tell us what your sales team do, but not all sales leaders can tell us the how. In fact many sales leaders are hired into the business far away from the field or from customer meetings. Perhaps from outside the industry. After all commercial leadership at this level is all about leading and not supposed to be about managing. Being forensic about the how your sales team works is going to help uncover the blocks to getting your brand and strategy into market.
The best operators in sales, at any level, understand that it is a repeatable process, one that if you execute it again and again gets results, better results than other ways of working. They understand that each step of this process can be measured, monitored and improved. Unfortunately the business of operating the sales team, the pressures of speed of action, of beating budget both with revenue and costs mean we lose sight of the how and concetrate on the what. For example; I think we’ve all seen the focus on sales to distributor at period end. Filling them with product that blocks orders for the beginning of the next period and creating that internal pressure one again. I once saw a business that had pushed this method so often that the distributors had 8 weeks of stock on hand and only two weeks credit terms. This created arrears, order blocks, conflict. All because the business became addicted to hitting a period end number.
If you look at these problems structurally, then you can see the problems through how you work, not through the lens of what you work. Struggling to build sales of a new product? You understand what you need to do, build distribution, the sales teams are gaining new stores all the time but it’s not working, over all volume is low, reording non-existant. Be Forensic, it is important to understand the how, the where of the distribution. Do you have a new stockist process, does it support trial and visibility in store? Does it ensure the prodcts are available and the staff are trained? Is there a path to the second order, the third order. Is it even in the correct type and location of outlet. Who in your organisation knows the model outlet and can communicate this, or did you just hand over the NPD to sales and let them tell you where it works.
Understanding the How of your sales process can open up to paths to success when combined with why and where. Firstly it can improve outcomes through better effectiveness. You can improve the skills, the process or the tools once you know how it is done and measure if it works. The second part is efficiency, this improves as your outcomes improve, not just the reduciton in sales time and effort, but also the halo effect of getting it right first time with your customers.