1. What Gets Measured Gets Done: The Proven Sales Plan from Jasper Engines

Managing a large sales team can often lead to challenges within an organization. Having a defined sales process can lead the team through those challenges and bring continued success. Much like many businesses in the early part of 2020, Jasper Engines was faced with the unknown of what the year would bring, and how they would adjust their organization to the changes going on around us in our everyday lives. During his episode on the Field Sales Leadership Guide podcast, Joe McDonald contributes much of Jasper Engines success during this hard time, and the continued success to their proven sales strategy. As the Vice President of Sales at Jasper Engines, McDonald has extensive knowledge on sales and go to market strategies. Let’s take a deeper look at the go to market strategy that Jasper Engines has implemented with their sales strategy, the importance of structure within their sales organization, how this can lead to a very loyal customer base, and the tools necessary for success.

Importance of Developing a Structured Sales Process

Jasper Engines leads with the philosophy that transparency in sales is key, and finding sales reps that fit your company and culture can really help to take your go to market strategy to the next level. Their sales organization is extremely structured, and this is all a part of their sales strategy. To help understand their business a little better, McDonald breaks down their customer base. Jasper Engines has two main types of customers: repair shop owners and national fleets (such as USPS). They have 160 reps servicing these two customer bases, and take great pride in providing value to their customers. When you have a large sales organization with 160 reps, it can be a challenge to manage. Both McDonald and host JT Rimbey touch on how many times sales leaders often lack a process for their sales teams, and this can contribute to downfall within a sales team. Having a structured sales process is critical to helping your sales reps close more deals and increase sales revenue. Jasper Engines has spent a great deal of time developing a structured sales process for their reps, and as McDonald states; “It’s the recipe for our success”. They believe that the relationship between their reps and the company is a partnership between the reps skills and Jasper’s sales process. McDonald elaborates more on this partnership;  “There’s that system of understanding what works, and incorporating it into that rep’s personality. I am going to ask you to get uncomfortable to get comfortable. Once that clicks and you are using our system of selling with your personality – it’s a home run”. Their sales process can first be seen when you take a look at how each rep plans out their daily activities. Each rep is required to schedule out their day and meet a certain number of calls per day. Each of their days should be filled with at least 12 productive calls with customers, and this should include at least 6 videos or PowerPoints, and a couple of leave behinds (such as a brochure). When a rep starts with Jasper Engines their sales territory (typically a state) is divided into 4 quadrants. This is what is referred to as T-Groups. Each quadrant has 12 accounts that should be seen monthly, 6 accounts that should be seen every other month, and 4 that need to be seen once a quarter with at least 3 other touchpoints annually.  McDonald says that this level of structure can be challenging for the first year that a rep is on board with them, but after the first year it becomes a habit and can be attributed to much of the sales rep’s success. Jasper has also worked to create an outline for their reps to follow when they are having a customer call. They are focused on creating quick, productive calls for the customer that bring value. At the end of the day it is all about building consistency in your sales organization to allow the sales team to focus on what is important, and add value to the customers – which ultimately drives customer loyalty.

Tools for Success When Developing Your Sales Strategy

This level of sales strategy did not come overnight for Jasper Engines. It took a lot of thought and planning. McDonald’s advice for any company looking to put a sales strategy in place is to start off small, and build upon that. Change isn’t always easy, but he says it can be done. A good sales process works, and helps to define any weaknesses in a process or organization. At the end of the day this really drives home the Jasper mentality of, what gets measured gets done. In addition to their sales strategy, Jasper is focussed on taking out as much of the administrative work as they can for their sales team. They have taken on the thought that providing their sales team with a “toolbox” will only help to make them more successful in the long run. They had been on the search for a program with added tools for their reps that would help with their sales processes, and Map My Customers has become that proven tool for them. Map My Customers has helped to ease the administrative load of the sales team, and allowed them to do what they do best – sell.