IT Staffing Sales Best Practices Self Assessment & Industry Benchmark
		This is an excellent tool for sales representatives to do a self-assessment on their sales behavior and performance. Then (along with their manager) they can use it as their blueprint for continuous improvement.   First, in order to understand why we are doing this benchmarking assessment, let’s take at look at the challenges we face………….   Our industry is characterized by intense competition. Due to the low barriers to entry the industry is oversaturated with service providers. The lines of differentiation have blurred to the point where traditional, bench-based Systems Integrators and large “Big 5” consulting firms once known for exclusively providing deliverable based work and strategic consulting services are now providing staff augmentation services. As a result, traditional IT staffing companies have to sell against senior IT practitioner’s who have far greater technical knowledge and hands on implementation experience.  VMS & Workforce Management software tools are flooding the market, further commoditizing our business.  There is little to no customer loyalty. Service differentiation is very difficult to achieve Customer’s expectations continue to rise at an unprecedented level.  Our customers expect us to deliver resources faster and with greater accuracy.  They want “A” players and they want them yesterday.  Closing deals at 35%+ GP margins with average bill rates over $100.00/HR requires a deeper sales skill set than simply “filling job requirements.”     To meet the demands of the market and be at the top of our profession we have to hold ourselves accountable to best practices.  Taking short cuts simply doesn’t work.  In fact, it always comes back to bite you in the end.   Outlined below is the IT Staffing Sales Best Practices Self Assessment & Industry Bench Mark.  In the left hand column are all of the tasks and activities for a Sales Representative in the industry to complete.  In the middle column is a description of all of the best practices associated with that task/activity.  In the far right hand column is where you assess yourself against each of the best practices within each given task/activity.   These are best practices based on industry experience, and observation.  This is what the top sales people in our industry are consistently doing to ensure they succeed.  This is what your competition is doing everyday. Use this is as your blue print to success.   Use the following (Scale 1-5, 5 indicating you are very strong, 1 indicating you’re weak) to assess your ability against IT Staffing Sales Best Practices.     Activity Goal Rate yourself on a scale of 1-5 (5 being the highest) Territory Planning & Development Understands which existing accounts (customers) represent upside (will buy more from us in the future), which accounts will remain level, and which accounts will decrease in revenue in coming months/year. Understands and demonstrates how to grow existing accounts and has documented strategy. Properly identifies and targets new prospect accounts within territory that are aligned with overall recruiting plan and strategy Analyses and understands the territory including industry leaders, market drivers, technology trends and accounts that are a good match for our organization based on sales and recruiting strategy Identifies and qualifies accounts that can yield sufficient revenue and GP$ to attain financial goals.  Accurately forecasts sales revenue Develops and documents goals for each account including strategy and underlying tactics and financial goals Manages time effectively within territory Dedicates 20% of time (about 15 hours) per week to prospecting (cold calling) for new opportunities.     Pre-Call Planning Before calling into a new account/new hiring manager, Sales Rep has the business acumen and understands: ·      How the company makes money ·      the most recent financial statement ·      Most recent & relative press releases ·      Most recent 10K statement to uncover key initiatives and strategy, business issues ·      Technologies the prospect is using & why ·      The prospect’s job title and general area of responsibility ·      Gathered account and prospect information from other sources (web, newspaper, magazines, etc..) ·      Has talked/met (at least attempted) with current and past /employees working at targeted account ·      (If existing account) demonstrates ability to find new sales opportunities via relationships with current contractors billing   Introductory Call/Cold Call Consistently and effectively displays ability to disarm the prospect and obtain their approval to move the call forward beyond introductions and into the qualification phase to determine if fit exists between services offered and prospects IT requirements.   Qualify Prospect/Opportunity Determines entire process for how the account hires IT contractors. Determines if they can work directly with IT hiring managers or if contact is not allowed between Sales Rep and IT End User/Hiring Managers. Determines if and how many IT contractors they hire annually (average) Determine process for hiring IT contractors Determine role & responsibility Determine team size including # of IT contractors on staff vs. FTE’s Determine current and future key projects Understands technical environment Uncovers name & title of prospect’s boss Consistently obtain referrals                         Uncover Challenges (when no pre-defined job order/description exists) Asks situational/discovery questions to understand challenges or business issues  with current projects Asks 2nd, 3rd, 4th level questions to further understand issues and determine impact of each issue Qualifies the issues Prioritizes the issues Determines if prospect is committed to solving the challenge and has budget to fix the issue Determines impact/consequences if issue is not resolved   Develop Needs Diagnose/develops a vision of the solution biased to service offerings Re-confirms commitment and determines ability to buy Gains agreement to move forward   Take Statement of Work (SOW) Determines what budget has been approved and signed for (If open, pre-defined job order)Establishes and understands the urgency on behalf of customer to hire FTE/Consultant Uncovers how long & why SOW has been open, # of interviews completed, # of offers extended and # of vendors currently working on SOW and why to all the above. Establishes day to day responsibilities Understands biggest technical challenge consultant/employee will face Determines interview process and who is involved Determines the hiring process and who is involved Determine the decision making process and who is involved Uncovers the ultimate decision maker Understands and can articulate the overall scope of the project including project goals, milestones, business drivers and deliverables Determines the technical environment Determines the required and desired skills Establishes technical tradeoffs Includes in the job description an overview of what the company does, how they make money and how project/role fits into client company’s strategic direction When taking SOW, obtains 3 separate interview time slots in which the client can interview candidates, before ever submitting a candidate Enters the job order into CRM system and posts if/when/where necessary Works effectively with Recruiting team to fill order. Recruits and interviews when necessary. Conducts references on candidate before candidate goes on interview. Has reference information available as a rebuttal to any concerns client may have of consultant.     CRM Documentation Adds every qualified account being pursued to CRM system including company name, location, phone, strategic initiatives, etc. Adds every qualified prospect to CRM system including name, title, phone, and email. Adds every sales opportunity to CRM system & manages the opportunity in the CRM system until closed, won or lost. Documents every conversation (over the phone, email, face to face meeting) in CRM system to aid later in sales process For every contact/relationship being pursued, has an open activity/task with a detailed description of the goal and date of the next conversation to ensure the relationship and sales process is moving forward     Sales Activity Goal Rating   Averages 85+ phone calls per day to new prospects Average 20 emails per day to new prospects Average 25 calls per week to existing customers Average 15 emails to customers per week Fully qualify 3+ prospects per day and add contact and company information to CRM system including follow up step Add 15 new qualified prospects to CRM system each week (750/year) Develop and maintain a sales opportunity pipeline 2.5X’s your revenue goal Averages 3 face 2 face meetings per week with current customers Averages 7 face 2 face meetings with new qualified prospects Regularly meets with active consultants (those on billing) monthly     Account Development/Management Develops organizational charts for every account being pursued from the CIO down Develops organizational charts for each project uncovered For every project/opportunity being pursued the IT and business stakeholder is uncovered. Understands & documents exactly what the client is doing in the areas of CRM, ERP, Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, Storage, and Application Development, desktop support, help desk and infrastructure services, etc. (all services offered by your organization) Understands & documents the IT and Business drivers of each project identified Is aware of the top 3 initiatives taking place in each account, who the IT and Business sponsors are for those projects and how these projects support the overall company strategy Sells into and builds relationships with the business community including Finance, Sales, Marketing, Manufacturing, Supply Chain etc. Builds relationships with current contractors out on billing. Consistently demonstrates ability to get contracts extended with current contractors or reassigns them to a new project. Overall account revenue and GP grow steadily year over year. Personally interviews 1-2 existing customers and develops 1-2 new reference story/case study each month. Personally interviews 1-2 active consultants each month and develops a new reference story.     MISC Analyses and documents all sales win’s and losses for self improvement Participates in regular (at least weekly) role play Subscribes to at least 2 industry publications and reads regularly Participates in at least 2 networking events per month Belongs to at least 3 professional/industry associations for networking and professional development   Results Generates at least $25K in weekly Gross Profit     What do you feel are your strengths?   What are the top 4 areas in which you are struggling with today?   Which areas do you feel you need to improve in the most?   Why?   What is your self-improvement plan?   How will you track your progress?		See Dan Fisher's Content Featured on: Selling IT Staffing Services (Read Article) Identifying Real Job Orders: Part 1 Qualifying Hiring Managers to Save Time (Read Interview) Master the Art of Patience to Yield Big Results (Read Article) See Dan Fisher Speak at:
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