These days many heads of sales wonder if they'll be able to achieve their turnover goals for this year. If turnover is stagnating or perhaps even slipping, it's essential to take active measures to reverse the trend. The solution usually involves accessing untapped potential. Doris Hardt-Beischl, head of sales at GfK GeoMarketing, explains in an interview how companies in the B2B sector can better exploit existing turnover potential.

What are the challenges currently facing companies?

I speak daily with companies that all have the same goal: the attainment of their turnover goals. Due to the economic situation, this year has posed especial difficulties in this regard. The head of sales therefore seeks to find out where he or she can sell more products or services. Or, stated in a different way, where is there untapped potential?

How easy is it to answer this question?

In every company, the most important information can often be found in its own customer databank. The importance of scrutinizing this information cannot be overstated. For example, a comparison of the existing customers with prospective customers is a good initial indicator of the company's sales conversion quota. Naturally, I recommend that these analyses are given a geographic dimension by using a geomarketing software such as RegioGraph to visualize the results on digital maps. Using this map, the head of sales can immediately see the distribution of his or her existing and prospective customers in the various sales territories as well as regions in which a high number of existing customers reside and areas where a significant degree of untapped potential exists.

Are there other important analyses?

A good next step is to compare customers who make frequent purchases with customers who have not bought anything for a year or longer. This tactic quickly reveals the regions in which significant customers have been lost. What are the reasons for this? Is there perhaps a new competitor in the region? Are the external sales force members responsible for these regions being over-worked? Were these regions perhaps neglected in some way in the past? Here it's essential to precisely pinpoint the causes. Often, the existing sales structure is no longer optimized to the actual market conditions and must therefore be altered accordingly.

Is the information in the company databank sufficient for restructuring sales territories?

No, in most cases the company's own data only reveals part of the picture. In the case of something as important as a sales territory optimization, it's essential to make use of external data on potential. Heads of sales often believe that they know their markets by heart, but it's vital that a company's own turnover figures be viewed in association with the actual available potential for the regions in question. As a subsidiary of the GfK, we have access to a wide range of up-to-date market data that we offer to our customers to support their market analyses.

Data on potential for the B2B sector – is there such a thing?

Naturally, the B2B sector is more multifaceted than the consumer sector. The former does not have a standard benchmark for turnover potential, such as purchasing power in the B2C market. Even so, there are valuable datasets on potential for the B2B sector. Two types of data are available: 1) absolute numbers on the regional distribution of companies, organized by branch, number of employees and revenue volume and 2) turnover potential for specific products. Regarding the latter, we calculate the turnover potential for office supply products such as PCs, printers and security systems. Only with these kinds of data can an analysis yield truly insightful results.

What's the best way to use data on potential?

Let's assume a manufacturer of agricultural machinery wants to find out whether he's fully exploiting his market potential. His target group consists of all companies active in the agricul-tural sector. Region-specific information on the total number of companies in this branch is available for Germany. The manufacturer can compare this data with the information in his customer databank in order to determine the sales regions, postcodes and streets where relevant companies are located with whom he has yet to establish contact. The easiest way to carry out this process is to import the data into a geomarketing software and then analyze and display it on digital maps. This makes it possible to quickly identify any gaps in coverage directly on the map. The clarity of the data when presented in this manner also enables the manufacturer to concentrate his sales and marketing in the areas with the highest potential.

What does the data on turnover potential for office supply products look like?

This dataset reveals the turnover potential for the relevant products according to region. A company can determine the extent of its regional market exploitation by comparing this data to its own turnover figures. In short, an index of market potential such as data on office supply potential is a valuable indicator of whether turnover potential is being adequately exploited.

How can these results be translated into action?

This approach allows you to more objectively evaluate the performance of each external sales force member. For example, sometimes the analysis reveals that sales force members responsible for comparatively low levels of turnover are working in an extremely challenging market area in which the available potential has already been fully exploited. This puts the lower turnover performance into perspective, bringing objectivity to comparisons between these members and others with higher levels of generated turnover. By the same token, heads of sales are able to evaluate whether sales force members working in high-potential areas are not performing adequately or perhaps require support.

Data on potential is helpful, but addresses are also necessary, right?

The last step concerns the addresses of potential new customers. Here it's important to determine the regions and business branches of greatest interest. For example, if most of the potential is concentrated in isolated regions in western Germany, it's not logical to spend money on obtaining 3 million Germany-wide company addresses. Thanks to the previously performed analyses, it's possible to hone in on the most promising regions and obtain the relevant addresses. Also, only a comprehensive evaluation of the current sales structure using the correct data on potential can reveal whether this structure reflects the present-day market situation or needs to be optimized.

What are the key points that heads of sales should keep in mind?

Often the most valuable information is already present in a company's own customer databank. An objective, region-sensitive analysis of this data using a geomarketing software and data on potential is the most important foundation for subsequent strategic planning. Only in this way can under-performing sales territories be identified. Once this had been done, heads of sales can make the appropriate changes, which often lead to substantial increases in turnover with a minimal investment of time and money.

Overview of data on potential for the B2B sector

The GfK Company Profiles and GfK Company Distributions datasets offer Germany-wide regionalized information on the number of companies, branch distribution, turnover and number of employees down to the level of street segments. The GfK Office Supplies Potential dataset reveals turn-over potential for office supply and communications products. Included is information on the outfitting of office workstations with computers, software.

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