1.Set focus, scope and expectations
Step one has to do with laying the right foundation for our optimisation efforts by making joint decisions with you about the focus and objectives of the project.  At this stage, we want to understand and define your key business objectives, as well as the major obstacles and risks involved in reaching these objectives.  This usually involves a consideration of your market situation, competitive positioning and organisational capabilities.  Once we have agreed on these basics, we want to identify which sales processes need to be improved, examine their weaknesses, discuss opportunities and expectations, and determine the appropriate scale for the analysis.

2.Map processes
In step two, we analyse and document the way your sales processes currently work, in order to fully understand their strengths and weaknesses.  This can be done using a 'brown paper' approach or a more complex PC-based technology, resulting in a graphic 'map' representing the whole process.  The idea is to document all the activities, process steps, responsibilities and participants involved in a given sales process, along with the interfaces that exist with other processes as well as internal and external customers and suppliers.  This stage involves working with the people in your organisation who know and understand a process best. It also involves identifying related documents, standards like ISO 9000, instructions, reports, instruments and systems.

3.Analyse performance
Once we have succeeded in mapping a process, we can move to step three in which we analyse its performance.  This entails gathering data on capacity utilisation, throughput, time, cost and results.  In turn, this data allows us to identify the success ratios between actives and their results. We can compare the cost of processes and activities with the value they generate.  And we can identify the opportunities lost through inefficient processes.  By carrying out internal and external benchmarks and identifying best and worst practices, we can understand why some perform better than others, and we can identify areas for improvement.  This analysis stage reveals the main levers for improving the performance of a sales process, showing the impact these can have on your business and what has to be done in order to implement them.

4.Re-design processes
Having mapped a process, analysed its performance and identified the strengths and weaknesses, we can then carefully consider how to redesign the process in order to improve its effectiveness.  This involves developing a vision of how the ideal process would be designed and comparing it with the actual situation.  Sometimes this leads to the conclusion that the process can be optimized(evolution), and at other times it is clear that a process should be completely redesigned from scratch(revolution).  At this stage, we define the way the whole new process in terms of process steps, interfaces, systems, roles and responsibilities, capacity needed, instruments, objectives and standards.  We also calculate the financial impact of the process changes, identify the marketing support needed, and define an implementation plan with clear objectives, activities, responsibilities and milestones.

5.Implement changes
When the decision to implement changes has been taken, we use a wide variety of instruments to turn our vision of the ideal, re-designed sales process into reality.  These instruments to turn our vision of the ideal, re-designed sales process into reality.  These instruments may include road maps, investment plans, documentation, project management, training, coaching, mobilisation and communication, capacity adjustment and systems implementation - whatever it takes to make a success of the change process.  Unlike many consulting companies, who concentrate purely on the strategy-making process, Mercuri International Has built up considerable expertise in 'making strategies happen'.

6.Tracking results
Our keen interest is in achieving - and where possible surpassing - the objectives we defined with our clients at the first step of this process.  To this end, we use a number of different tools to track and measure the results of our optimization efforts, such as satisfaction surveys and controlling, giving us clear data on how well the new processes are performing.