Managing to stay ahead of your competitors is a constant struggle. Very few companies are able to stay consistently ahead of their competition. Let alone establish a clear strategic advantage that they use to propel their business ahead of their competitors.
Mutual Action Planning is the tool that establishes a strategic competitive advantage and provides superior results. Implementing an engaged sales strategy is a requirement to achieve exceptional sales performance and capture high customer satisfaction. Establishing
a growth oriented Mutual Action Plan yields additional long term business performance. How do you implement Mutual Action Planning quickly and without introducing change to your existing business? The simple answer: not possible. If you are looking for quick
results that will get you a neat little boost to short term profits, there are plenty of quickie sales methods you can employ. Don’t expect any of them to stick. Mutual Action Planning is not for the faint of heart. You must be willing to get 'dirty' and engage
your sales channel. The first step making a Mutual Action Plan work is skin in the game. If you are not willing to put your skin in the game, why should you expect your sales force to do the same? To get a sales representative, account manager or business
development executive to change his behavior requires a let's get it done together attitude. Changing your sales people is certainly easier when you step up your game and bring your critical action items to the table. Quite frankly for long term organizational
change this is a requirement. Forever. Not just the next three months. The second step changing your sales performance to great is providing a formal periodic review medium. For many businesses the personal face to face meeting every quarter cannot be replaced.
Not if you want your most vital future business contributors to change with you. There are ways now to achieve maximum results with properly targeted web based review formats. However you must kick off Mutual Action Plan in a face to face setting. This establishes
the credibility and allows both sides to set a base line from where to move forward. Thereafter formal review can take place via teleconference, video chats or interactive webinars. The key word is interactive. Even if you engage via internet communications,
the actual Mutual Action Plan formal review must allow for both sides to communicate live. Third step in the MAP process is to commit to a specific strategy such as a growth based business strategy. Many companies need a strategic harvesting business strategy.
And for many a mix of the two, new business growth and managing existing customers, is the right way forward. The requirement is simple: both parties, management and sales must provide an action item to move the sales process forward. Making the commitment
to a Mutual Action Plan as your cornerstone sales & marketing strategy starts setting your company apart from your competition. Most companies get stuck in day to day activities that take away from engaging your sales people. And many companies that actually
do have frequent information flow from their sales channel get so much noise it is difficult for them to realize any significant benefits. Establishing critical two way field communications is a huge competitive advantage that your company can turn into a
core strategy. Following the three step process laid out here will provide a critical turning point to exceptional business performance. One that will turn your company into the standard your competitors will measure up to. We will explore each Mutual Action
Planning step in detail via upcoming The Pease Group newsletters.