August 2002 Track Selling Times World Class Sales Management
 World Class Sales Management:
Getting Company Communication on 'Track'
by Joel Mahupin
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(From November 2000 Track Selling Times)
Joel Mahupin works in inside sales for Seattle, Wa., based LizardTech. LizardTech develops imaging software and solutions that simplify and enhance the distribution, management and control of digital images and documents. LizardTech is focused on innovative solutions that provide users of all levels with bandwidth optimization and instant access to high-resolution, multipurpose digital images and multimedia content. LizardTech is an industry leader and has been voted the most promising company by the Washington Software Alliance. For more information, please visit www.lizardtech.com.
Clarity in internal communication is one of the greatest obstacles in any organization. It's common for individual departments to design their own communication processes and establish parameters specific only to their needs. Doing so works great for intra-department communications but can make murky inter-department dealings.
With this in mind, we wanted to implement the most seamless communication tool possible for our newly implemented database. Our company believes one its most important success factors is our willingness to invest in our people and infrastructure. Therefore, we train our sales people in the Track Selling System, highly valuing its seven steps. Additionally, we've implemented a powerful, highly scalable customer database with a price that demands ensuring maximum value.
When we began implementing the database, we realized we had a challenge. We were having difficulty communicating coherently across all departments. This was particularly magnified within our telesales department where our reps weren't sure where a prospect was in the in the sales cycle.
Since our salespeople were all versed in the Track Selling System, we decided to incorporate it into the database. Doing so would allow all of our people to check the status of a lead and know exactly where it was in the sales pipeline. This has been a tremendous help in forecasting the potential of each lead. Because we established different values for each stage of the sales cycle, namely using Track Selling's seven steps, we can now also forecast the probability of winning the account. For example, if a prospect is at step six, our "Act of Commitment" stage, we can forecast an 80% probability of closing the sale.
By implementing the steps and principles of the Track Selling System internally, we believe our people are communicating using the same language. It's being transformed from purely a sales tool to a corporate communication tool with the benefits being increased efficiency and improved lead tracking that will result in more sales.
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