Champion has a lot of connotations. George Foreman, before he started hawking grills on TV, was the Boxing Heavy Weight Champion of the World. The Kansas City Chiefs are the reigning Champions of the National Football League. On a lesser note, the late great, “Pretty Boy” Bobby AKA Bobby “The Brain” Heenan ruled the realm of the World Wrestling Federation. All were Champions; but this is a different type of champion.

BusinessDictionary.com defines our kind of champion this way:
“Champion: Person who voluntarily takes extraordinary interest in the adoption, implementation, and success of a cause, policy, program, project, or product. He or she will typically try to force the idea through entrenched internal resistance to change and will evangelize it throughout the organization. Also called change advocate, change agent, or idea champion.”

In our world, web presence needs a champion; someone to steer your company. While a KYKLO system requires very little work to get started, maximum success requires changes in behavior and new ways of thinking. The champion serves the organization by serving as the change agent; monitoring use, serving as a temporary trainer and coach. Further, champions look for and remove the small glitches that stand between good and great. They evangelize by spreading the word on early successes and occasionally quashing internal resistance. Most importantly, champions keep your internal goals on target so that way you, as a Principal, can get your questions answered rather than have blank stares coming back at you.

While it is possible to be successful without a champion, results come quicker under their guidance. Once unthought-of financial or efficiency goals come streaming your way long before expected and you capture more sales dollars from your competitors.

Simply stated, the KYKLO Sales Operation Management System can be thought of as a tool and the champion as the internal expert on this powerful tool. Would you send a salesperson on their way to use a tool without training, scripting or even some coaching on how to set up the demo? Of course not! The same holds true with using the KYKLO system.

We’ve taken a few minutes to outline some of the things your KYKLO Champion might have on their to-do list below. If you are thinking about appointing or maybe even being the champion of this tool of the future, we suggest you give it a read.

KYKLO Champion Responsibilities

Familiarization and Training

Is your team familiar with the power of the KYKLO tool? While this seems relatively straight forward, the truth is busy sellers rarely take time to familiarize themselves with tools until a need arises. Without training, the tool may languish for months. Here are a few points tied to the training.

• KYKLO SOM accessibility: Do your outside and insides sales teams know where to find the KYKLO SOM from your website? Can they quickly call it up from the home page? Can they find both common and “long tail” products?
• Customer access is important: Can sellers quickly determine if a customer has accessed the KYKLO SOM in the past? Do they know what is required to get the customer onto the system?
• Quote drive web activity: Do your people know the importance and value of creating a quote using the KYKLO SOM and pushing that information out to the customer?
• Mobile device bookmarks: Outside salespeople need to bookmark the site on their mobile devices. Once online, do they know how to use the product comparisons to show product differences? How about the digital product selectors?

Track employee progress

Set and publish metrics to ensure your team is properly introducing customers to the system. Track the number of:

• Times salespeople have helped a customer register for the KYKLO SOM
• Customers who have logged into the KYKLO SOM
• Quotes generated for customers on the system
• E-mail/SMS correspondence containing links to specific products on the KYKLO SOM

General Periodic Reviews

It’s natural to occasionally take a quick look at sales tools to make sure they are up to date and properly configured for the current selling environment. The KYKLO tool is no different:

New product lines: Have you notified KYKLO in order to have them added to your site? KYKLO SOM product line placement: The system allows you to change-up the order of brands that are shown on the front page. Product promotions or specials: Have these been properly added to the system? Both are business drivers and will increase awareness. Obsoletions/dropped lines: Have you notified KYKLO about lines that you are no longer carrying? Better yet does your champion know how to go in and take them off the KYKLO SOM themselves?

Review analytics

Analytics plays a key role in driving success. There are many points to consider. For example:

• What products are your customers reviewing?
• Are there products with high numbers of views which have not been purchased?
• What is the conversion rate of “generic/unknown buyers” who are registering with your KYKLO SOM? Monitor results

Everyone imagines the results are measured purely in sales dollars, but experience dictates there are many more points to monitor. Here is a list along with a few suggestions on how to turn these into additional sales.

• Have new customers managed to find their way to you via your web presence? If so, these customers need to be evaluated. Are they the right size and type for a salesperson to be assigned to their account?
• Are existing customers buying or reviewing products they typically have not purchased through your “normal” sales activities? This information needs to be passed along to the salesperson responsible for the account. A small buy online may be an indication of a new project or a new machine being developed which could require selling/support work.
• Which customers or customer types seem to be embracing the use of your KYKLO SOM and what are they buying? Understanding who these customers are would be a good exercise in “why they buy.” The information provided by the customer will improve your sales processes both online and through the traditional channel.
• What percent of “generic customers” are going to your KYKLO solution and not registering? What is the plan to attract those customers to register so you can go after that business or capture more data to analyze?

If you don’t have a Champion

The biggest recommendation is simple, make sure that if you are at the top of the food chain in your organization, you aren’t the Champion. Our guess is that we are lucky if you’ve had the free time to read this article let alone be the champion of an internal transformation. These activities are neither time consuming nor difficult, but someone must assume the role beyond the Principal (Owner, CEO, President, Executive). It needs to be someone who has the time available in their day to do the small things that in the long run will add up to something big. Most importantly, as a Principal you should make sure that the concept of being Champion is seen as a positive, a reward, a chance to make a major impact, a potential to gain skills and experiences which will be valued internally for a long period of time.

Our friend and master of the mustache, Frank Hurtte, at River Heights Consulting suggests the best Champion does not come from the IT or Marketing world, but rather from sales. He goes on to say, “Someone from your sales team is positioned to provide the best of results. This person needs clout with the both inside and outside sales staff to drive behaviors and set and enforce policies. This isn’t a job for a new hire with no experience.”

If you are the Champion, we are here to help you drive results. If you are thinking about appointing a Champion but are having difficulties, give us a call we can help.