Staying Ahead with a Coverage Plan

Staying ahead of the competition is the goal of any successful sales organization. And to be able to reach that, it is best to make sure that your company is better than the competitor in areas important to the client. But because of a dynamic business landscape these days, many businesses have alreadyreached parity on features, production costs, as well as other areas of cost efficiencies. In other words, it just gets increasingly difficult for some organization to finda significant differentiation, a sustainable competitive advantage. What is often overlooked as a competitive advantage is the sales coverage model – are you really covering your market as effectively and as efficiently as possible? Some even fail to realize that having a sales coverage model that meets the clients’ needs canalready be their differentiating factor.

The sales coverage model is very significant as it helps the companies make sure their sales effortsare aligned with their company financial goals. Get it right and the rest of the dynamics become clear. Get it wrong and it is a recipe for chaos and dysfunction.Indeed, this overall coverage model should be totally appreciated and clearly understood by each of the company’s sales people. This coverage model must then be reflected at each salesman’s coverage plan. The coverage planis a crucial tool for any salesman since it works to maximize output, minimize cost, and of course, drive sales productivity. It sets an organized attack to make sure every client, every customer, is accounted for. It minimizes cost (i.e. transportation, etc.) as the salesman gets to plan his route and schedule, among many others, beforehand. Note that field sales representative is typically the company’s most expensive channel. Therefore, if a salesman follows nothing, there might be more temptation to slack off leading to inefficient use of time and effort, failure to reach sales targets, and worse, dissatisfaction of customer. Indeed, the sales coverage plan is beneficial to optimize all the given resources towards achieving – and even exceeding – the desired sales objective.

Given the magnitude of both sales coverage model and plan,it is important to consider several critical success factors. First, one must consider internal factors such as corporate-established sales processes and role designs. Of course, for any company,it is critical that the right sales resources are doing the right things. And so, even before deployment, a salesman must know his sales job content, his functional accountabilities (including the territory assignment), and the organizational reporting relationships so as to avoid any form of misalignment and confusion.If this is already firmly established, then the sales person can proceed withthe assessment ofthe market situation. Here liethe external factors necessary to device the right and appropriate coverage plan.Given the assigned territory, there is a presumption of area familiarity Thus, it is an advantage if one is familiar with the environment – including the existing and potential clients, as well as the competitors operating within the same area. For the customer aspect, it is important to know the customer segmentationwithin the area of assignment as this yields specific and relevant insights about their buying habits and needs. Analysis of the customers’ buying preference (e.g. the most convenient way, time, frequency, and place to do the transactions) is critical in devising the best coverage plan, creating and providing more “value” for them.Also, knowing this can help the salesperson assign priorities and determine which customers merit the most resources.Of course, it is also critical to determine competitive activity in the areato better understand what customers are experiencing in the marketplace. Assessing the competitive landscape can determine who sets the standard in the area of business, what standard it is, and consequently, what adjustments are necessary to make to surpass them.

By keeping a close eye on these factors, one can actually come up with the most appropriate coverage plan to achieve the desired sales objective. But here’s the rub: it doesn’t end there. As markets change rapidly, continuing to modify the coverage strategy and plan in a thoughtful, fact-based plan is essential. There are a lot of game changers in the market – and one of them is the consumer’s increasing access to information. Because of this, they can challenge standard practices, and can even demand changes to the design and delivery of products and services. Responsiveness, therefore, is also as critical. Again, all these must be reflected in any salesman’s coverage plan, because as some fail to notice, competitive advantage can be at hand through that very plan.