Your organization’s sales force should be a competitive advantage. Your sales force communicates your message, builds relationships, and represents your company. Are they properly equipped? Think of each of your sales reps as if they were Batman. What gadgets would they carry in their utility belt so that they are prepared for all situations?
We’ve seen many organizations that provide their sales reps with cell phones, blackberries, perhaps modem cards, Wi-Fi access, fax numbers, home office landlines and long distance service, and the list goes on. In these organizations the sales reps aren’t satisfied. They still want more services; they need more tools, better software, etc. Why? Because the organizations haven’t understood the requirements and provided hardware and software that met those requirements. New services have been added to the toolkit over time as technology has evolved. If your sales force toolkit looks like this, you must re-evaluate and consider your entire mobility management program.
Re-evaluating or even creating a sales force toolkit has four main stages.
- Current State Evaluation
- Sales Force Toolkit definition
- Vendor Selection / Negotiation
- Implementation
Each stage is equally important and should be followed in this order to ensure your sales team’s needs are met, and you achieve the best possible service rates.
Current State Evaluation
The first stage of a Sales Force Toolkit project is understanding your current state. What services are provided and what is your organization spending? Understanding the spend of a large organization can be complicated by the number of expensed services.
To gather spend data, you’ll need to look at your company provided services and expense reporting data. Depending on your expense reporting data you may not have a clear picture of what is expensed. If you aren’t able to get to the details, I suggest conducting a survey of your entire sales team. Make the survey anonymous and you’ll get more honest answers.
The Sales Force Toolkit is much more than wireless service, so be sure your current state evaluation considers all possible expenses:
Wireless Service
- Individual and Corporate Liable (don’t assume because the company provides wireless service that reps aren’t expensing as well)
- Voice, Data, and features
Landline Phone Service
- Local Service
- Long Distance
- Fax
- How many lines?
- Features and services such as call waiting, etc.
Internet Access
- Home Office Broadband (are they paying for the more expensive business class?)
- Remote paid Wi-Fi Access (hotel, airport, etc.)
When conducting your survey you’ll also want to ask what types of tools the sales team is looking for. This will help when you begin defining the solution.
Sales Force Toolkit Definition
After you understand the current state, you’re now ready to define your organizations Sales Force Toolkit. There is a difference between what a sales force wants and what a sales force needs. The purpose of the toolkit is to meet your sales team’s needs, have a common presentation to your customers, and have the most efficient cost.
To adequately define the Sales Force Toolkit you’ll need to consider the following:
Services to Consider
- Wireless voice and data service
- Fax solution (eFax, or similar)
- Broadband internet
- Fixed Mobile Convergence
Hardware to Consider
- Laptop
- Wireless voice and data hardware (smart phone)
- Modem Card. You may be able to use your smart phone as a tethered modem, but there are limitations and little to no cost savings. This may change in the future and will need to be evaluated for your company.
- Femtocell (if there is poor coverage at a rep’s home office). The big three carriers (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon) each provide a solution.
- Multi-Function Printer/Scanner
- iPad?
Excluded / Discontinued Services
By providing comprehensive toolkit, there are redundant services that should only be offered on an exception basis.
- Landline local and long distance
- Dedicated Fax line
- Remote paid Wi-Fi
- Miscellaneous redundant charges
The biggest thing to keep in mind is that the toolkit must satisfy the sales team and the company’s requirements. Your sales force may initially be upset about losing services, but remember the point of this exercise is to better equip the sales force, not cut costs. If done properly, you can achieve both, but be sure to focus on the enhancements and added functionality. Focus on the benefit.
Vendor Selection and Negotiation
Once you know what the toolkit will include, it’s time to negotiate with potential suppliers. Depending on your existing wireless service, the negotiations can be informal conversations, or full blown RFPs. No matter how complex your negotiations are, you will be introducing new services which equates to new revenue that your carriers will want. Don’t forget about the hardware when you’re selecting vendors. It’s not a good idea to go to Office Depot and buy 300 printers. Work through your organization’s IT and Office Supply contacts to negotiate your hardware prices. Sometimes working with one of the manufacturers directly is the best bet, but don’t forget about the retailers like Office Depot, Staples, or CDW. Also, don’t forget about the consumables like toner.
How you approach service providers will depend on your current situation. If you’re six months into a three year agreement with Sprint and AT&T, it’s better to focus informally with these two carriers rather than bringing in a third or fourth bidder. These two carriers (knowing their current position in your organization) will generally fight hard for the new revenue. If you’re coming to the end of your wireless agreements it’s a good idea to conduct a formal RFP for your complete wireless program.
Because you evaluated your current state (you did, right?) and understand the future solution, you are in a perfect position to negotiate for the best rates and equipment prices.
Implementation
After evaluating your current state, defining your sales force toolkit, and negotiating the best rates, you’re ready to implement the toolkit. Make no mistake; an implementation of this scale is complex. There’s more to rolling out your toolkit than just sending out equipment. You must, at a minimum, ensure the following tasks are complete:
- Understand who is getting what. Who needs new equipment, who needs services cancelled, etc.?
- Updating HR or your user database with the new equipment. Asset management is critical to maintaining a clean program.
- Make sure your IT support organization is prepared to support any new equipment and services
- Determine how new equipment will be rolled out. Are you able to deploy new equipment and services on-site, or will everything be handled remotely?
- Leverage your carriers. Work with your carriers to make sure all services and equipment can be activated with little to no user interruption.
- Set your communication plan. Make sure your communication is proactive and clear. Let your sales team know what they’re getting, how, and when. Make sure all activation instructions are easy to follow and accurate (again, leverage your carriers).
- Assign responsibilities. Identify people to manage each phase of the implementation as well as ongoing maintenance.
- Define timeline. How many services can you activate in a day? Are you implementing to the toolkit in one day, or staged over weeks?
- New Hire On boarding. What is the process for new sales reps? Who provisions the services, and how to they get their equipment?
Once all of these items have been defined, you’re ready to implement your new sales force toolkit. There’s always going to be a few snags, but with an effective plan you will mitigate risk and be able to respond quickly to any issues.
Defining a Sales Force Toolkit is not a simple project and it should be part of your overall mobility management program. However, you’ll be surprised at the competitive advantage, sales rep satisfaction, and savings this project will bring. At 3 Red Shells we’ve helped organizations like yours implement toolkits. Contact us if you could use some help with your project.
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