Sales process engineering is the systematic design of sales processes done in order to make sales more effective and efficient.
[.]
It can be applied in functions including
sales
Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods sold in a given targeted time period. The delivery of a service for a cost is also considered a sale. A period during which goods are sold for a reduced price may also be referred ...
,
marketing
Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce.
Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...
, and
customer service
Customer service is the assistance and advice provided by a company to those who buy or use its products or services, either in person or remotely. Customer service is often practiced in a way that reflects the strategies and values of a firm, and ...
.
History
As early as 1900–1915, advocates of
scientific management
Scientific management is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineer ...
, such as
Frederick Winslow Taylor
Frederick Winslow Taylor (March 20, 1856 – March 21, 1915) was an American mechanical engineer. He was widely known for his methods to improve industrial efficiency. He was one of the first management consulting, management consultants. In 190 ...
and Harlow Stafford Person, recognized that their ideas could be applied not only to
manual labour
Manual labour (in Commonwealth English, manual labor in American English) or manual work is physical work done by humans, in contrast to labour by machines and working animals. It is most literally work done with the hands (the word ''manual ...
and
skilled trades
A tradesperson or tradesman/tradeswoman is a skilled worker that specialises in a particular Trade (occupation), trade. Tradespeople (tradesmen/women) usually gain their skills through work experience, on-the-job training, an apprenticeship prog ...
but also to management, professions, and sales. Person promoted an early form of sales process engineering. At the time, postwar senses of the terms ''sales process engineering'' and ''sales engineering'' did not yet exist; Person called his efforts "sales engineering".
[.]
Corporations the 1920s through 1960s sought to apply analysis and synthesis to improve business functions. After the publication of the paper "
If Japan Can... Why Can't We?", the 1980s and 1990s saw the emergence of a variety of approaches, such as
business process reengineering
Business process re-engineering (BPR) is a business management strategy originally pioneered in the early 1990s, focusing on the analysis and design of workflows and business processes within an organization. BPR aims to help organizations fund ...
,
Total Quality Management
Total quality management (TQM) is an organization-wide effort to "install and make a permanent climate where employees continuously improve their ability to provide on-demand products and services that customers will find of particular value." ...
,
Six Sigma
Six Sigma (6σ) is a set of techniques and tools for process improvement. It was introduced by American engineer Bill Smith while working at Motorola in 1986.
Six Sigma strategies seek to improve manufacturing quality by identifying and removin ...
, and
Lean Manufacturing
Lean manufacturing is a methods of production, method of manufacturing goods aimed primarily at reducing times within the Operations management#Production systems, production system as well as response times from suppliers and customers. It is ...
.
James Cortada was one of IBM's management consultants on market-driven quality. His book ''TQM for Sales and Marketing Management'' was the first attempt to explain the theory of
TQM in a sales and marketing context. Todd Youngblood, another ex-IBMer, in his book ''The Dolphin and the Cow'' (2004)
[.] emphasized "three core principles":
continuous improvement
A continual improvement process, also often called a continuous improvement process (abbreviated as CIP or CI), is an ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes. These efforts can seek " incremental" improvement over time or "brea ...
of the sales process,
metrics
Metric or metrical may refer to:
Measuring
* Metric system, an internationally adopted decimal system of measurement
* An adjective indicating relation to measurement in general, or a noun describing a specific type of measurement
Mathematics
...
to quantitatively judge the rate and degree of improvement, and a well-defined sales process.
Meanwhile, another executive from IBM, Daniel Stowell, had participated in IBM's project known as the "Alternate Channels Marketing Test." The idea was to incorporate direct response marketing techniques to accomplish the job of direct salespeople, and the initiative was quite successful.
Paul Selden's "''Sales Process Engineering, A Personal Workshop''" was a further attempt to demonstrate the applicability of the theory and tools of quality management to the sales function.
Rationale
The
sales decision process
Sales decision process is a formalized sales process companies use to manage the decision process behind a sale. SDP “is a defined series of steps you follow as you guide prospects from initial contact to purchase.” This method includes pla ...
is a formalized sales process companies use to manage the
decision process
In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be either rati ...
behind a sale. SDP "is a defined series of steps you follow as you guide prospects from initial contact to purchase."
[Marketing .o.Strategic Marketing Process eBook. Moderandi Inc., 2009]
Reasons for having a well-thought-out sales process include seller and buyer risk management, standardized customer interaction during sales, and scalable revenue generation. Approaching the subject from a "process" point of view offers an opportunity to use design and improvement tools from other disciplines and process-oriented industries.
See also
*
Sales management
Sales management is a business discipline which is focused on the practical application of sales techniques and the management of a firm's sales operations. It is an important business function as Sales (accounting), net sales, through the sa ...
*
Theory of constraints
The theory of constraints (TOC) is a management paradigm that views any manageable system as being limited in achieving more of its goals by a very small number of constraints. There is always at least one constraint, and TOC uses a focusing p ...
References
Bibliography
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*
*
* {{Citation , last=Kreindler , first=Phil , year=2016 , title=Customerized Selling®: Learn How Customers Want You To Sell , publisher=Infoteam Sales Process Consulting AG , isbn=978-3-033-05471-4 , postscript=.
*
Customer experience
Process engineering
Sales
Personal selling
Promotion and marketing communications