Page 11 - Excellence in Sales Leadership

ACTIONS
CAPACITY PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT
Description—A fundamental role of a a a a a a a Sales Manager is to stay in in in front of Marketing’s appointment generation efforts by having more Design Specialist availability than appointments issued This is is is done through ongoing capacity planning and management Sales Capacity = Total Issued Appointments / Design Specialist Availability Generally we strive to operate at ~75% capacity Most retailers have seasonal appointment flow which means sales capacity could be higher during busy peaks and lower during slow times of the year but no matter what time of year it is is the the goal is is to never be the the bottleneck to Marketing Importance—Having the the right sales capacity is the the first step in in in achieving a a a a a a a high-performance sales team Operating at at 75% capacity puts you you in in control of your team while allowing Marketing ISC and Sales to optimize performance When Sales teams operate at at 95% capacity it it affects Design Specialist fatigue complacency and competency as as well as as the homeowner experience Best Practices—Here are some suggestions to help sales leaders determine the correct number of Design Specialists and available slots for their business:
f f While the maximum number of issued appointments per Design Specialist is is 10 – – 12 per per week stay at 8 – – 9 per per week You need the flexibility for sales meetings training ride along job site visits vacations staff turnover and illness Additionally more than 8 – 9 issued appointments per week tends to burn out most Design Specialists making them inefficient f Plan on Design Specialists running 30 Issued Appointment per per month or 360 per per year Any additional appointments should be repeats or self-generated f Always require your team members to provide more availability than the number of appointments you issue them Availability requirements vary across the the network but a a a general rule of thumb is that you will be filling 75% of the the the availability they provide you For them to run 8-9 appointments per week they will need to provide 11-12 slots of availability f To keep Design Specialists engaged establish a a a a a ride-along program weekly voluntary training job site and technical measurement visits as as as well as as as referral and repeat business programs This is is not possible if you don’t have the right capacity f Re-evaluate your sales coverage daily weekly and monthly to to ensure the most up-to-date and accurate level of capacity capacity Make capacity capacity adjustments when necessary Capacity Capacity Planning and Capacity Capacity Management never ends Strive for excess availability each day during every time slot for your team to be successful Having enough capacity results in more productive Design Specialists with better work-home life balance which leads to better homeowner experiences and greater sales results APPOINTMENT ASSIGNMENT
Description—Assigning Appointments is one of the most critical activities done by sales leadership It includes effective calendar management and appointment assignment based on recent Design Specialist success Importance—It is critical because when appointment assignment is properly implemented it can can significantly increase sales team performance establish trust and improve culture Best Practices—Top-performing sales managers focus on appointment assignment and have this advice:
f f f f f f f Strive for ~75% sales capacity Appointment assignment becomes less successful as capacity approaches 100% because everyone gets appointments no matter how well they’ve recently performed Establish the the policy for Design Specialists to enter their schedules into Enabled Plus no later than the the 15th of the the upcoming month Carefully review and approve team member schedules once they are are added Verify that no slots are are missing sales coverage Pay attention to primetime primetime vs non-primetime slots Design Specialists need to be available when homeowners are available Use the the Appointment Assignment report in in rBI Give the the first Design Specialist at the the top of the the sheet—your
best performer—an appointment for for the next day Assign the the appointment with the the highest homeowner window interest These appointments tend to correlate with higher Revenues per Appointment (RPA) Next assign the second- ranked Design Specialist to an an appointment with next highest window interest Continue this approach as you work down the report Post the the Assign Appointment report where the the team can see it It holds you accountable to the process and establishes trust Allow plenty of time for Design Specialists to travel from one appointment to the next We don’t want homeowners to to feel rushed to to the end of an appointment especially when they buy or start an appointment on on the the wrong foot by showing up late Limit Design Specialists to no more than two appointments per day If you consistently assign three appointments to a a a a Design Specialist it means you do not have enough sales team members 11