The situation
A field sales team of eight account managers serves fixed regions. Everyone is fully booked, but revenue is not growing. On closer inspection, many visits go to customers who have been buying the same thing for years, while customers with growth potential get little attention.
The approach per building layer
- Building layer 1 · Sales foundation. An account matrix that sorts customers into A, B and C by revenue and potential.
- Building layer 3 · Activity matrix. Contact cadence per class, region days and prospecting norms, so the week gets a fixed shape.
The first 90 days
- Week 1 to 3. Sort customers into classes based on revenue and an estimate of potential.
- Week 4 to 7. Set the contact cadence per class and the region days, and check whether it fits in the week.
- Week 8 to 12. Add prospecting norms per region and discuss the rhythm in the weekly sales meeting.
What you have then
A division of attention that you can explain and adjust. Every account manager knows which customers come first this month, and in the quarterly check you see whether the rhythm is being met.
Further reading
This is a scenario: a recognizable situation, not an account of a specific customer.