Have you Ever wondered what is thing you personally call success? What makes you feel good about yourself, is it to be rich to be famous to be approved by people to be loved or even to be hated?

Part One: Inventory

Part Two: Accounts Receivable

Next Week: Accounts Payable

We’re sprinting toward that million dollar mark...and we’re only a couple strides away…

Decreasing inventory carried us over first hurdle, and last week reducing Accounts Receivable sped us through half-way mark. We’re making great time, so let’s bring on next mile marker – marketing and sales.

Increasing Overall Sales and Marketing Effectiveness

If you are an organization spending $500,000 or more on marketing expenses (e.g. advertising, trade shows, print materials, direct mail, etc.) then STOP! We found it again. Why you ask…? Because marketing has greatest potential of being very unproductive. In fact, many marketing programs struggle to break even, and actually frequently lose money. So if we increase overall effectiveness, then we can eliminate 50% or more of your wasted marketing efforts, which translates into $250,000 in cash.

So now, let’s see how this actually works in a real-life scenario.

Sales and Marketing Company Policy Case Study

An organization with $500,000 in marketing expenses needed assistance. We examined their sales and marketing process to understand and quantify lead flow, follow-up, and demand forecasting issues. Then we designed and implemented a process to improve their sales cycle efficiency and tie it closer to their customer’s buying cycles. After marketing reductions, we then reinvested $100,000 back into new processes for public relations and Customer Relationship Management (CRM), both of which were suffering badly.

The metrics we developed reduced their marketing expenses by 60% overall and increased their sales cycle efficiency from 40% to 60% within 6 months of implementing new procedures. With these new processes and reports, company now tracks sales cycle efficiency and life-time value rather than just sales quota achievement, as measure of their sales & marketing effectiveness. The result: an extra $300,000 in cash plus a 50% increase in process capability (capacity).

As we have seen time and time again, time can be our best friend, if only we let it.

Methods to Design New Sales & Marketing Process

•Improve Follow-up. Only about two percent (2%) of sales occur on first contact. Eighty percent (80%) of sales will require five to eight contacts before sale closes. This means that if you are contacting prospect less than five times or more than eight times, then you could have a problem with follow-up.