Our numerous case studies illustrate the success of these measures. If you have any further questions, please visit our social media channels (Xing, Linkedin, Instagram) call us at +49 (0)641 984 46 – 0.

Der Beitrag Deploying freed-up resources in sales erschien zuerst auf Dastani Consulting.

„40% of sales resources realize 95% of sales“ – this statement simulates the results of a total of five of our clients. The consequence of this is that for many companies, profit is theoretically possible by reducing sales resources and thus reducing costs in sales. At the same time, there is also the option of doubling profits by increasing sales.

Experiences and findings from the test phase of our VVP
We have already tested our newly generated forecast with two of our clients – with the other clients we are currently in the test planning phase. In total, we included ten sales representatives in our first test. Normally, sales organizations obtain their visit contacts and rhythms from contact planning software, which tells them which customers should be contacted or visited in which calendar week. For this reason, this software counts as the heart of sales allocation. It is responsible for controlling the sales costs per customer, and for our clients the share of sales costs in the turnover is on average 15-20%.

We at Dastani Consulting manually intervene in the contact planning software of our clients. Our forecast gives insight into which customer should be visited, when and how intensively, and which customer is not worth visiting.

Often we humans are inclined to be critical of new circumstances – especially when we want to avoid mistakes in important decision-making processes. This also explains the initial critical thinking of our clients. For this reason, our clients only followed about half of our delivered Visit Value Prediction suggestions. In total, the sales representatives approached 50% of their sales contacts on their own initiative, and took the other 50% of the contacts from our prediction.

„Sales eight to ten times higher“
Through this approach, we were able to determine that the turnover of our clients in the contacts specified by us was eight to ten times as high as in contacts that the sales employees approached on their own initiative. Thus, we were able to illustrate that the sales addresses we specified led to considerably more sales. This tendency is evident in almost all of the ten sales representatives tested.

The next step will be the implementation and enhancement of our intelligent forecasting mechanism into the tour planning software of our clients. We would like to present this to you in our next article.

Our numerous case studies illustrate the success of these measures. If you have any further questions, please visit our social media channels (Xing, Linkedin, Instagram) call us at +49 (0)641 984 46 – 0.

Der Beitrag One step ahead – insights from the test phase of our VVP erschien zuerst auf Dastani Consulting.

Our numerous case studies illustrate the success of these measures. If you have any further questions, please visit our social media channels (Xing, Linkedin, Instagram) call us at +49 (0)641 984 46 – 0.

Der Beitrag Potential for improvement in contact management erschien zuerst auf Dastani Consulting.

Cost pressure from Corona
Due to the ongoing Corona crisis, many companies are being forced to make savings. A great deal of attention is being paid to personnel and sales costs. But what can companies do now to save on personnel costs in sales and increase sales?

Forecasting the effect of sales activities
Dastani Consulting’s newly generated Visit Value Prediction remedies the situation and provides the answer. „Through Corona, we noticed that the sales figures were very good, even though the sales department could not work as in the past. In the wake of this, we developed our new product – Visit Value Prediction „, says Dr. Parsis Dastani (CEO – Dastani Consulting). Visit Value Prediction predicts whether a customer should be contacted, what impact can be expected in sales and what revenue can be realized with the customer. Dastani Consulting GmbH has already tested Visit Value Prediction on five client companies, client-specific and separately. In total, more than 6000 sales employees, about 3-4 million customer addresses and several billions of transactions were included in the methodology.

Astonishing results from our clients
The results obtained were indeed astonishing: although all five clients were from different industries, all results were comparable. It did not matter whether the respective sales organization employed 100 or 5000 sales representatives – they all recorded the same sales performance. Furthermore, the Visit Value Prediction results revealed that for all five of our clients, only 40% of sales performance was responsible for 95% of revenue.

As an example, if a company documents a return on sales of 8% and sales costs in the amount of 18%, its status quo – its current sales – can be realized with only 50% of sales resources using the methodology developed by Dastani Consulting. In other words, using 100% of sales resources can actually double the company’s profit.

„Half of the contact addresses are uneconomical“.
Dr. Parsis Dastani takes stock and looks ahead: „The contacts for which we made a positive forecast performed significantly better than the addresses we rated as poor. We classify about 50% of the contact addresses as non-profitable. The Visit Value Prediction we generate creates both freedom and more efficient use of sales resources for companies – which will be more important than ever, especially in the current period and even after the crisis, to combat high cost pressures and sales slumps.“

Our numerous case studies illustrate the success of these measures. If you have any further questions, please visit our social media channels (Xing, Linkedin, Instagram) call us at +49 (0)641 984 46 – 0.

Der Beitrag Cost pressure from Corona: Deployment of sales resources erschien zuerst auf Dastani Consulting.

Our numerous case studies illustrate the success of these measures. If you have any further questions, please visit our social media channels (Xing, Linkedin, Instagram) call us at +49 (0)641 984 46 – 0.

Der Beitrag Visit Value Prediction: The use of AI in Sales erschien zuerst auf Dastani Consulting.

Sales per customer, sales per visit
To generate a basis for visit allocation, revenue per sales visit can be modeled using the Customer Value – and Visit Value – Prediction we developed. First, the general Customer Value is calculated for each customer in a two-step process. This allows the sales expectation for each customer to be viewed over a previously defined period of time. This Customer Value value is then linked to the Visit Value, the expected revenue per visit.

Visit forecast and potential forecast
Our potential forecast is a helpful supplement to the Visit Value Prediction. The combination of both forecast values enables you to allocate visit capacities efficiently, in a resource-saving and objective way. The following matrix shows a case study of one of our customers and maps a total of 24,000 sales visits. Here it can be seen that if the objective sales potential is high, resources should be invested in reactivating inactive customers and in acquisition and conquest. In contrast, when revenue potential is low, visit resources should be reallocated. In this case study, 5,000 customer visits are affected and should be handled via telesales rather than in person. This represents a total of about 20% of the total visit resources and illustrates the relevance of resource reallocation. If both the objective potential and the visit forecast ratio (VVP) are high, consideration should be given to increasing the visit frequency. By means of the various forecast values, this gives you the opportunity to better assess your customers and tailor their care to them in a goal-oriented manner.

Finding the needle in the haystack
In numerous customer projects, we have found that companies often prioritize their customers according to historical sales. Accordingly, the focus of their sales staff is on the „good“ and active customers. However, this approach is not target-oriented, as the revenue potential of your customers cannot be fully exploited in this way and some customers are visited too frequently. This is where we apply our Customer Value – and Visit Value – Prediction in a target-oriented way for you, so that you increase the sales efficiency of your sales team and exploit the enormous potentials. Our tools ensure that you visit the right customers and effectively implement sales and marketing measures. You get an overview of the objective sales potential of your active and inactive customers as well as new customers. Using an additional top-down list, you can see which customer should be visited first by your sales team in the coming week. With the help of these key figures, you can finally find out where you need to focus your sales optimization efforts.

Our numerous case studies illustrate the success of these measures. If you have any further questions, please visit our social media channels (Xing, Linkedin, Instagram) call us at +49 (0)641 984 46 – 0.

Der Beitrag Sales optimization in B2B erschien zuerst auf Dastani Consulting.

Sales is the key
In many markets, products or services from competing suppliers are comparable. Accordingly, in these market structures, sales is the decisive adjusting screw for growth and the achievement of profit targets.

A look at the balance sheets – sales resources „eat up“ return on sales
If we take a look at the return on sales of our clients from the b2b environment, it was between 5 and 8% in 2019. At the same time, distribution costs averaged 15% of sales. It is apparent that sales in particular will increasingly become the focus of optimization in the upcoming discussions.

AI predicts the success of sales contacts
Since the beginning of the Corona crisis, we at Dastani Consulting have taken a particularly close look at this situation. For half a dozen companies, we have conducted intensive analyses of orders, sales contact histories, visit frequencies and tour planning. More than two million sales contacts were evaluated.

We trained our AI systems with all available customer data, such as visits, contact reports, and orders, as well as external data to forecast the sales impact of different customer contacts on a client-specific basis. The result and especially the forecasting accuracy surprised even us as experienced AI experts that can be used for online marketing services and sales: our models are able to forecast the revenue impact of a sales visit. Both immediate and indirect success were measured, e.g., up to one month after the visit.

Intelligent visit management is the key to growth and efficiency
At all the companies we analyzed, we came to the same conclusion: the sales department deals with a number of contacts that do not contribute to the company’s success. Although our clients came from different sectors, we always got a very comparable result: with half of the visits it is possible to generate 95% of the sales.

The sales organizations of our clients are certainly among the most renowned in their segments. They are KPI-driven, professionally set up and enjoy an excellent reputation in the field of sales management.

However, when we took a closer look at the sales management strategies of these companies, we found that the key optimization steps are seen in the selection of personnel, remuneration systems, employee training, pricing, and sales motivation through bonus and incentive systems. These factors are certainly indispensable for leading a sales organization to success, but they do not represent significant competitive advantages. The essential key to success, revenue-based contact and tour planning, has been missing.

Strategy: Using AI-based sales allocation to deploy resources in a potential-oriented manner
Dastani Consulting developed Visit Value Prediction specifically for this task. The special feature of the prediction system is that it is possible to see in advance which contact will actually prove useful and generate a successful order.

The goal is not to reduce the sales team by half. Rather, the focus is on a new strategic orientation: intelligent sales allocation. It prevents merely meeting the contact frequency of the sales force. Uneconomical sales visits are identified and sales contacts there are reduced. The freed-up sales resources are invested in high-potential existing customers, in reactivating inactive customers with high sales potential, and in acquiring new customers.

With the help of this strategy, it is possible to increase a company’s sales dramatically quickly and in a targeted manner with an existing sales team, while maintaining constant resources, and to reduce the proportion of sales costs and thus significantly increase the return on sales.

If you have any further questions, please take a look at our social media channels (Xing, Linkedin, Instagram) or call us at +49 (0)641 984 46 – 0.

Der Beitrag Sales optimization with the help of AI erschien zuerst auf Dastani Consulting.

Measures of sales prediction
The Corona crisis has made it clear to all of us that sales activities can work effectively despite everything. A number of measures need to be considered to achieve this. First of all, the sales resources must be re-optimized, because not every sales visit is worthwhile. Instead, the expensive visits must be focused on customers with high sales expectations.

But which customer has which sales expectation? Various predictive analytics forecasts are used for this purpose. Based on AI, they are able to forecast the sales of each individual customer and the expected values of the individual sales visits. The appropriate sales strategy emphasizes a better allocation of resources – when is a sales visit really necessary and when should the phone be picked up?
Drive each customer’s sales recommendations across all channels – what should the customer buy now at this point in time? By saving sales resources, important potentials can be conquered.

Use of the CVP and VVP
Our Customer Value- (CVP) and Visit Value Prediction (VVP) create the basis for the allocation of sales visits. While Customer Value Prediction forecasts the expected sales of a customer for a specific product group, Visit Value Prediction predicts the expected sales of a visit per customer. On the one hand, this allows the general customer potential for the next period to be evaluated and, on the other hand, visit and tour planning can be optimized by sales allocation.

Optimization of the contribution margin through the visit prediction
Many sales employees claim that in retrospect they are always smarter about which customers a sales visit was worthwhile. But the Visit Value Prediction we have developed is able to predict in advance which 70% of sales activities will be completely inefficient. These inefficient sales activities do not lead to sales, as they are associated with a negative contribution margin. Visit Value Prediction makes it clear that in the future, it will often not always be necessary to visit the same customers as in the past. The high proportion of sales resources freed up can in turn be used to acquire new customers and reactivate customers with high sales potential.

Assessing a customer
But what options are now available for assessing a customer and tailoring the service to that customer? On the one hand, there is the objective sales potential, in order to answer the question of how high a customer’s utilization is. On the other hand, the Visit Value Prediction serves as an opportunity to see which customer should be visited first next week, ranked by the top-down list that has been created. For this purpose, the Potential Prediction optimally complements the Visit Value Prediction (see figure). The combination of these two key figures enables a sensible, resource-saving and objective distribution of visit capacities.

If you have any further questions, please visit our social media channels (Xing, Linkedin, Instagram) call us at +49 (0)641 984 46 – 0.

Der Beitrag Almost 70% of sales activities completely inefficient erschien zuerst auf Dastani Consulting.