September 30, 2008 – Hopkinton, MA - Guaranteed Better Sales launched its new website today (www.getbettersales.com) offering free access to sales improvement tools and sales management best practices. The new website holds a library full of useful content that managers can use freely as training modules, get answers to most frequently asked questions, shares timely updates through its blog, and access powerful programs and resources.

“The goal is to increase the number of companies which can develop incremental growth for at least three years on a row,” Guaranteed Better Sales CEO, David Hamacher explained. “Our research shows that only 5% of companies meet that standard today; being able to grow sales incrementally for three years in a row,” he said.

Guaranteed Better Sales (GBS) creates sustainable growth with simple and permanent solutions which are customized for each business and can be implemented now. Its proactive management practices significantly grow top line performance and bottom line results by increasing sales performance, improving customer satisfaction, and providing long-term stability.

The GBS Sales Pipeline Model gets every one on the sales team using the same approach to move more sales to a successful close. Business owners and executives who are charged with new business development and have fiscal responsibility for bottom line performance will profit from GBS services.

About Guaranteed Better Sales
Guaranteed Better Sales is a wholly owned subsidiary of Communicon Consulting Group, Inc., which has been providing sales improvement services to businesses in most industries since 1994 through the use of management best practices and technology integration. GBS continues to increase the number of businesses that develop sustainable growth.

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We were called in this week to meet with the president of a highly regarded business because year-to-date revenues were way off. And competition had flourished, significantly reducing market share. The board was demanding significant changes now, and the president was just in her second week on the job.

The sales team consists of a senior sales producer (who was also fulfilling the sales manager’s role), a more productive person new to the industry, and junior person relegated to inbound calls only. Quick review of sales operations showed an absence of job desciptions with nothing more than an offer letter given to the producers. The letter specifically detailed base salary levels and bonus payouts with levels of achievement and payment terms. The bonus payouts are based solely on monthly team achievement.

Once again, another business focuses on expanding head count without a strong foundation of managing mutual expectations, clearly defining specific measures of individual achievement with a real-time tracking system, and consistently providing coaching support.

We couldn’t find any other documents defining mutual expectations or guidelines for measuring individual productivity. The revenues suffer from seasonal cash flows. and product pricing constantly fluxuates. This makes individual bonus payouts challenging to calculate.

The manager’s base compensation (which seems to curb activity) was nearly twice that of the younger producers, and creates friction with other team members. This prospect has several ways to respond to the board’s directive. They could start with developing different Job descriptions that define different positions (management; individual producer; inside sales, etc.). They could draft individual performance objectives that bind each producer to specific results in other areas of the company. It’s not just closed sales that drive production, it’s all the other duties; networking, participating in sales meetings, consistent prospecting, updating CRM systems, etc.

So, play the role of this president…what are the first three things you’d do? Leave your comment here.