Barbara Rogoff, owner of Synthesis, Inc., a company dedicated to providing accounting, database and sales support, introduces Benchmarking, the concept of World Class Organizations and their relationship to High Activity Selling.

In 2007-2008, Barbara and two colleagues spent several months studying World Class sales performers in three categories:  Businesses with less than 5 employees, businesses with 6 – 24 employees and businesses larger than 25 employees.

These businesses met the Diamond Level of Success as outlined in a three-year research and testing process by the University of San Diego and Warwick Manufacturing. The World Class Diamond articulates four areas that identify World Class organizations:

• Operational Excellence
• Strategic Fit
• Capability to Adapt
• Unique Voice

Barbara’s intensive survey and resulting straw poll focused attention on the sales teams for these World Class Organizations. Her survey defined specific benchmarks to High Activity Selling – how many calls lead to appointments, lead to proposals, lead to close. These benchmarks are teamwork at its best, measuring value against efforts.

Each FOUNDATIONS class benchmarks (anonymously) your personal performance against World Class sales teams. We also benchmark your weekly performance against others in your group. This spirit of healthy competition keeps everyone accountable and moving toward the goal of increased sales.

Week 7: How Do I Benchmark? - Identifying World Class Phone Skills & Face-to-Face Selling Skills
Week 8: Results of Our Benchmarking – Keys to Getting Through to Decision Makers; Enhancing Phone Skills
Week 9: Results of Our Benchmarking – Closing Techniques and Overcoming Resistance to Success

At the end of the nine-week course you will have created a targeted marketing piece, formed a business case for implementation and benchmarked your High Activity Selling success.

FOUNDATIONS classes for large Corporations only (over 25 employees):
Jennifer Taloney, owner of TargetPractice Marketing, joins Barbara in Weeks 8 & 9 to discuss psychographic segmentation – techniques to mine and segment your current database, determining which markets net the highest sales return.

For small- (less than 5 employees) to mid- (6-24 employees) size businesses, during Weeks 8 & 9, Barbara focuses on specific sales techniques to sharpen phone and face-to-face skills. The goal: To move the sale quickly down the pipeline to close.