Within the last five years, many companies have begun cross-selling, up-selling, or lead generation (aka, ‘service-to-sales’) campaigns within their traditionally service-only environments.  And when companies establish such programs, they often do so without the luxury of experience to help them design a program that is proven to work for their environments specifically.  As a result, many operate under the assumption that a service-to-sales program will be successful if it emulates many of the characteristics that make traditional sales environments successful.  Specifically, executives often choose to emphasize the “sales culture” and monetary incentives that work for their counterparts in the Sales world.

This approach couldn’t be more wrong.

When CCC surveyed more than 1,000 frontline reps and analyzed their environments—everything from incentives and culture to coaching, training, and technology—as compared to actual sales performance, we made a few surprising discoveries:

1. Coaching is the biggest driver of sales performance: This one actually wasn’t a huge surprise since we already knew that coaching was the best thing to drive performance in a service-only world.  And since we cover the idea of coaching in many different ways on this blog, I won’t dwell too much on it here.
2. Over-emphasis on monetary incentives HURTS service-to-sales: Wow.  Didn’t see that one coming!  The important thing to remember here is that these results are not based on pure rep opinion…given the choice between a cash bonus and public recognition, for example, most people are going to take the money!  Instead, these results are based on regression analysis using actual sales performance. The key to this finding is the “over-emphasis” part.  Some monetary component to your service-to-sales incentive program is actually essential—it just shouldn’t be the cornerstone.  We’ll be blogging more about effective incentive campaigns in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for detailed information here!
3. “Sales culture” is only marginally important:  This was also a big surprise to us, particularly since almost ALL of the companies setting up service-to-sales programs talk about all the things they are doing to actively establish sales culture.  I’ll dig in a little bit here, because there are actually two ways to approach culture.       

–From above: It’s nice to picture big fanfare to launch a new service-to-sales program—maybe including messages from the CEO (or at least senior staff) endorsing how this approach will be good for the business and customers. But in reality, this is more off-putting to reps than it is helpful.  Click on the chart at right to see the full data—negative impact on sales performance for both CEO and senior leader messaging.  (I’ll wait while you recover from that stomach punch…)

–Grass-roots approach: As you’ve now seen the chart at left, you know that the messages and endorsements coming from peers and supervisors make the difference.  And, really, this makes sense.  Your front line connects with these folks daily and likely feels they are more attuned to the realities of the rep role.  Indeed, supervisors can have an extremely large impact on the discretionary effort reps put forth to do their jobs well (sales or not). 

So, to summarize, three things to keep in mind for successful service-to-sales programs:

1. Coaching is the most important component.  Ensure your supervisors are ready for this critical role.
2. Build BALANCED incentives with monetary and non-monetary rewards.  Your reps are not driven by the same things that motivate their peers in sales.
3. Sales culture can be useful when it comes from the right person.  Supervisors need to believe in the program, and it’s helpful to have some “champions” within the rep ranks as well.

Any other things you’d add to this list?  What has been critical to the success of your programs?

Related posts:

1. What Pushes Your Reps to Better Performance?
2. Will Applicant X be a Good Coach? Just ask her.
3. The Hidden Benefits of Rep Certification
4. Getting Personality-Based Service to Stick
5. The Art (not Science) of Coaching