Depp: Automating Outdated Process Equals Faster Mistakes

John Wolz

Take a look at your past before rushing into a high-tech future, Debbie Depp told the New England Fastener Distributors Association autumn educational seminar.
�If you automate an outdated process, you�ll only make the same mistakes faster,� Depp pointed out.
Most sales managers are using a process designed by National Cash Register Co. in 1873. �That�s right,� Debb exclaimed. �Our standard ways of managing leads, salespeople, territories and accounts hasn�t changed much in 120+ years.�
Sales manuals from the 19th century show sales techniques haven�t changed, except that then it was only men, and they traveled by train and smoked cigars, Depp noted.
�Before you automate, reinvent your sales process,� she advised.
Create a sales process that lets you �touch� your prospects and customers until they buy or die.
�Technology in search of a problem rarely solves anything.� Depp advised. �You need to balance high tech with �high touch� to get higher sales.
Touch includes any kind of customer contact. � a letter, e-mail, fax, visit or phone call. �Studies show it takes 6.7 of these touches before a customer will buy,� Depp reported.
Yet typical salespeople devote only 29% of their time to contacting customers or prospects, Depp finds. �The rest of their time is spent tending to non-sales activities. Our research shows salespeople spend 34% of their time doing administrative tasks, 32% waiting or traveling, 5% making service calls, 15% with customers and 14% prospecting.�
�The average business purchase decision involves three to five people, which means the rep has to make 20 to 30 touches per account,� according to Depp. �Multiply that by the number of accounts each sales rep is chasing, and the numbers quickly strain resources. The well-known No. 1 reason for sales failure is that the salesperson is not �there� when the customer is ready to buy.�
Depp said 48% of all salespeople give up after the first contact, another quarter of salespeople give up after the second, 12% quit trying after the third and 5% give up after the fourth contact.
However, Depp says 80% of all sales are closed after that crucial fifth contact.
To get a handle on the value of your salespeople�s time, calculate your revenue per sales hour and then track how salespeople are spending their hours. Have salespeople record their activities every 15 minutes for five consecutive business days. At the end of the week analyze those activities to determine which are revenue-producing and which are revenue-wasting.
Depp cited letter-writing as an example of a revenue waster. �Many salespeople don�t type well, yet one company spent a fortune on laptops so salespeople could key-in their own correspondence. After calculating its sales revenue per hour at $1,800, the company discovered that this particular chore was costing about $900 per letter! They realized they had automated the wrong process and quickly transferred typing back to typists.�
�When you transfer non-selling activities to lower-cost resources, such as secretaries and telemarketers, you save in another way. You allow salespeople to concentrate on what serves the company best � selling.�

Editor�s Note: Depp can be contacted at Fenemore Group, 88 Sears Rd., Southborough, MA 01772. Tel: 508 481-0076 Fax 508 624-5533 Web: fenemoregroup.com \ �2001 FastenerNews.com