Sales process engineering has been described as “the systematic application of scientific and mathematical principles to achieve the practical goals of a particular sales process"[1]. Selden pointed out that in this context, sales referred to the output of a process involving a variety of functions across an organization, and not that of a “sales department” alone. Primary areas of application span functions including sales, marketing, and customer service. Variations of this brief description are possible, but described as such, the discipline is consistent with other published definitions of engineering and its many well-established branches, but relatively new in its focus.
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W. Edwards Deming alluded to sales, marketing and customer service processes in his famous “Production Viewed As a System” diagram[2], when he included the terms “Distribution,” “Consumers,” “Consumer research,” and “Design and redesign” in his flow chart (see http://www.dln.org.uk/images/image17.gif). However, Deming himself, and many other recent thought leaders in the field of quality and process improvement, such as Joseph Juran, Shigeo Shingo, Taiichi Ohno, and Eliyahu Goldratt primarily focused on aspects related to production and logistics in the arena of manufacturing[3].
Since the early 1990s, the primary emphasis of sales process engineering has been on applying relevant engineering tools to the design and improvement of sales, marketing and customer service processes. The upturn in interest in applying a more systematic approach to these areas was spurred by a number of factors, including:
Applying a systematic approach to any field is challenging, perhaps especially so in a relatively new arena. These include the difficulty of agreeing on what and how to measure, where to set performance standards, variations due to customer expectation, the relative “intangibility” of services, and so on[8]. In spite of the difficulties, a growing number of published examples illustrate how to apply many traditional engineering tools to the sales process, including the application of process mapping, simulation, design of experiments, statistical process control, the analysis/reduction of constraints, inventive problem solving, and, given the central importance of human behavior, applied behavior analysis, among others. Each of these tools is connected with well-known engineering goals, including cause-effect analysis, variability reduction, waste reduction, bottleneck reduction, and the theory of inventive problem solving; the literature frequently cites an overarching goal of improving customer satisfaction.
One of the difficulties faced by researchers and practitioners in any field is a lack of facts; in competitive arenas, important facts are often deliberately hidden or obscured for reasons of confidentiality. This reality can also retard advancement. In spite of this, a number of “fact books” exist that offer a wealth of basic information germane to sales process engineering, usually specific to a particular form of medium or industry, some of which are available online. Examples include information pertaining to:
and government-sponsored statistical abstracts (e.g., Statistical Abstract of the United States) (http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/).
Another difficulty faced by engineers and students in any field is the difficulty of finding examples of how to apply the principles involved. In the case of sales process engineering, a number of books and articles have been written on various facets pertaining to the subject, including:
Future directions for sales process engineering include broadening the available pool of underlying observational data, publishing further application of the principles, and advancing educational efforts to expand and teach the relevant body of knowledge.
The label “sales process engineering” is not trademarked or copyrighted. Except that of the discipline of engineering itself, the term connotes no bias toward one philosophy/school-of-thought or another. Therefore, one of the chief contributions of sales process engineering per se is that the very concept can provide those who must plan systems, implement projects, and maintain improvement, with an organized frame of reference based on techniques that have helped other, better-established, disciplines to progress.
Serious practitioners have begun to emphasize "three core principles"[13] of sales process engineering in an effort to broaden the appeal of the discipline to a wider range of sales executives. These principles are: 1) Continuous improvement of the sales process is a fundamental necessity 2) Metrics are required to judge the rate and degree of improvement 3) A well-defined sales process is a pre-requisite for determining meaningful sales metrics.
For further information, see:
