Sales controlling | Sales controlling must increasingly coordinate digitally

In the coming weeks, controlling will again be challenged with planning, budgeting and forecasting for the new calendar year 2021. What was associated with all kinds of challenges and effort in previous years will probably be even more complex in the current year. Many salespeople have maintained personal contact with their customers. With the beginning of the corona pandemic, the sales world was suddenly confronted with a new situation: business trips, business meetings, and new contact options at trade fair events suddenly disappeared. Sales now took place digitally from the home office in many places. The Sales Excellence authors Professor Ludger Schneider-Störmann and Franky Muhamete state in their article “Using the opportunity for the turnaround to digital sales” (page 12) that companies that have already introduced digital sales in 2019 will do better with the Corona Phase came. In addition, Corona has set an impulse for the introduction of digital tools that will increasingly support sales in the future.

Central tasks in marketing and sales controlling

What does this change mean for controlling? Controlling still has to fulfill essential tasks. Springer author Christian Homburg defines three central tasks in his book chapter “Marketing and Sales Controlling” (page 1301)

• “the information supply in marketing and sales,
• planning in marketing and sales as well
• control in marketing and sales. “

So that controlling can do justice to these tasks, it has to face the rapid changes in sales. Above all, good coordination is required, because everyone involved is confronted with new processes. Here too, Corona can act as a digitization accelerator with the use of new tools.

Controlling has to coordinate digitally

Controlling will already have to deal with the fact that many planning processes cannot be handled as in previous years. Personal meetings and voting rounds will probably not take place in many places. Now it is time to take the initiative, use digital tools and network those responsible well. Voting rounds can also take place online, for example in video conferences. As with face-to-face events, however, the following applies: Good preparation is crucial for success. Numbers can also be presented and explained using “screen transfer”. With successful visualization, controllers can also convince the management in approval rounds.

Uncertain future for analog sales

In the planning itself, controlling has to take into account uncertainties for the coming year more than ever. Common key figures are still in demand, such as sales, contribution margin, acquisition. However, it is still difficult to predict what further consequences the corona pandemic will have. Will sales continue to be primarily digital? This would mean that, for example, travel costs, costs for trade fair events and other factors should be set low. However, it is also possible that customers act cautiously when concluding contracts and are not as easy to convince as in a personal meeting with the sales representative. Sales forecasts should neither be overly optimistic nor fall into the “black mark” category. Controllers and salespeople should work together to find a realistic middle ground. However, this coordination can also be time-consuming.

How will the lockdown situation develop? Will analog sales experience a “comeback” again in the coming year? These questions can hardly be answered at the moment, and yet controllers have to deal with these uncertainties in planning and budgeting. Forecasts can again be quickly overtaken by current events. therefore, sales controlling should face this situation quickly, flexibly and yet in a well coordinated manner.

Tight budgets and communication

In addition, sales and marketing campaigns must be coordinated and activities planned together. This includes, for example, how the discontinuation of the VAT cut will be communicated to customers on January 1, 2021 if prices have to be adjusted again. In many companies there is still increased pressure to cut costs. But of course marketing and sales want to continue to reach their customers. Corresponding activities should therefore be planned and controlled together with controlling. Results-oriented controls can determine the successes achieved and underline to management why the budget is well invested.

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