Execution involves the day-to-day activities of the salesperson, for most industries, this entails both planned, proactive tasks and opportunistic, reactive events that the salesperson uncovers by doing the right things in the right place at the right time. 

It’s critical that the progress of the tasks in target action plans is carefully monitored to avoid surprises.  This is the equivalent of monitoring your daily exercise before the effects start to show up on the scale. 

The Sales Effectiveness Process (SEP) circumvents the most common mistake made in business today: trying to manage results.  You must manage activities because it’s the activities that produce results. 

Once the results are in, the horse is out of the barn and everything you do from that point on is reactive.  If you proactively manage the activities, the expected results will follow.

Feedback

The feedback process is where the real magic of the Sales Effectiveness Process comes in.  A universal scorecard is essential for creating competitive energy within your sales force and motivating them to focus on strategic objectives.  The scorecard should include a small number of well-designed metrics that are regularly updated. 

This information is extremely valuable for:

• Identifying the best opportunities for performance improvement
• Creating a level playing field
• Driving continuous improvement
• Providing performance feedback
• Encouraging and measuring cross functional selling
• Offering key information for the review process