Good Sales Qualification Discipline is Lean in Action.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Target #6: Lean Applied to Market Intelligence Feedback<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n

Sound strategy cannot be developed without current and accurate market intelligence. Rapid response to market intelligence feedback is critical to business success. That intelligence may comprise some or all: competitive moves, customer satisfaction, barriers the sales people keep running into, the health of the customers\u2019 markets, usage idiosyncrasies and a host of other informational tidbits. The sales team must be at the forefront of gathering this market intelligence. The sales team is the one company asset that is in the most frequent communication with customers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are some thoughts about making your market intelligence gathering Lean:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
• Create a market intelligence section as part of your sales person\u2019s weekly or monthly sales report or presentations<\/span><\/li>\n
• Train your sales people how to question, listen and observe when they are in front of a customer \u2013 not just spew the benefits of your product<\/span><\/li>\n
• include providing market intelligence in the sales compensation plan and sales position descriptions<\/span><\/li>\n
• provide the ability to award spot bonuses for the most timely and important pieces of information that come your way<\/span><\/li>\n
• read the market intelligence reports; think about and acknowledge them by calling back the sales person who provided the information, thanking them and getting more information<\/span><\/li>\n
• Understand what pricing pressure means. Pricing is typically a symptom of a bigger strategic problem, centered on customer-perceived value. Make your actions value-delivery related, not pricing related.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  Rapid Collection and Response to Market Intelligence is Lean in Action<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

  Conclusion:<\/span><\/h3>\n

  The application of Lean principles to marketing and sales requires no major cash investment. In fact it saves cash. A firm of any size and market can deploy Lean in marketing & sales and begin to reap the economic rewards quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n

  Lean principles assure that customers receive the best value possible \u2013 and in return, consistent with the law of economic value, your business optimizes its own economic performance.<\/span><\/p>\n

  *****<\/span><\/p>\n

  Copyright Jerry Vieira, CMC and The QMP Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved<\/span><\/p>\n

  For more information on the application of Lean principles to Marketing & Sales, call Jerry Vieira, CMC at 03.318.2696 or visit the QMP Group website at<\/em>www.TheQMPGroup.com<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  In our previous blog post, \u201c3 Guiding Principles for the Application of Lean in Marketing & Sales\u201d, we offered a trio of overriding Lean commandments. In this post, we point to specific Marketing & Sales targets for Lean that will simultaneously increase customer received value and marketing and sales ROI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,33,12,105,21],"tags":[97,101,24,28,93,27],"yoast_head":"\n