Imagine you were to awaken one morning suffering from a strange disorder: one that rendered your eyesight unreliable. When you open your eyes, your bedroom appears roughly as it did the night before. Your bed is below the open window, and your dresser is still adjacent to the door. However, a second look reveals that [...]

Applying the Theory of Constraints to the design, resourcing and management of the sales process [Presented at: TOCICO Conference, Miami 2004] Introduction The traditional sales process is hard to manage and all but impossible to scale. This paper introduces a radical new approach to sales process design, resourcing and management. The result of this approach [...]

I’ve discussed in the past that an assumption that underpins the design and management of most sales processes is that conversion (rate) is the primary driver of sales. The Sales Process Engineering method recognises this assumption as erroneous. In most all sales processes, opportunity flow (volume) is the primary driver, not conversion. It’s quite easy [...]

I just had a call from a client who owns a make-to-order manufacturing firm (building materials) in New Zealand. Chris was agitated because he had just realised that, last week, across his sales team, 20 appointment slots had gone unfilled, due either to cancellations or a failure to schedule appointments. He had calculated that these [...]

Question: What’s the primary driver of conversion rate? Answer: In most cases, it’s not sales skill! The primary driver is most often what we call Opportunity Cycle Time: the time it takes to close an opportunity. What that means is that, if you want to improve conversion rates, you should look for a way to [...]

I was impressed to see Gordon Ramsay explain TOC basics to a failing restaurateur in his new reality show “Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares” the other night. Ramsay is the gruff, Scottish, Michelin-star-winning, celebrity chef. His show tracks his attempts to knock poor-performing restaurants into shape with his unique mix of screamed expletives, gentle reasoning and some [...]