Running Lean in Sales: Why Task Substitution Matters More Than You Think

A guest article by Stan Odachowski, Senior Executive and Founder of SODA Consulting

Sales and Marketing teams face many challenges in building a healthy market coverage strategy, challenges that will reshape how we do business going forward. One thing we are learning is that we can do without certain things, still survive and even prosper. We are all beginning to understand how to “run lean”.

Years ago, “running lean” meant creating more value for your customer, eliminating waste and doing it with fewer resources. In my inside sales world, running “lean” means maximizing every resource available to make certain your business is more efficient and profitable. In order to do this properly, it requires analysis and retooling to find and eliminate inefficiencies in how you do business today. It takes a continuous improvement mentality.

Earlier in my career I ran inside sales for a large high-tech company. One of the terms we used to make certain we were efficient and had proper alignment with our teams and stakeholders was “task substitution”. Simply put, this refers to looking at all the tasks required to support your go-to-market strategy, then lining those tasks up with the appropriate sales resources that give you flexibility, cost savings, speed to market and control. It is a concept that aims to find the most effective way to improve your business by improving your processes.

Companies large and small should think “running lean” when it comes to how they handle lead generation and tele-sales. Many clients I work with never considered having a remote workforce or ever thought of using a call center to supplement their internal operations. While there is a certain discipline needed for a remote strategy, we are realizing it works. Incorporating a remote workforce opens the door to re-thinking the value of brick and mortar and expanding your talent pool by adding people in other geographies with better skill sets and experience.

Call centers, again as a supplement to your internal teams, put focus on shifting lower-level tasks to another sales resource channel, allowing you the benefit of freeing up more expensive in-house resources to handle the highest value set of activities, most complex sales and account management tasks and most valuable customers. You also may realize cost savings and flexibility with this approach.

More than ever, it is the continuous planning and improvement process that will help turn our business challenges around. Think “lean” and you’ll realize many benefits from your efficiency improvements including growth and success in these troubled times.