The greatest recession since 1929 slammed into the world with full force in 2008, which we have come to know as the Global Financial Crisis.
Since then we have seen company failures, job losses, and a general tightening of the economy.
Customers slashed costs by demanding ever lower prices from suppliers, and suppliers slugged it out with lower prices just to compete, just to survive. The long-term nature of this new economic climate is referred to as, “The New Normal”.

So much has changed, but as a Sales Manager have you changed your sales process and models to meet these challenges?

A great Sales Manager operating in the New Normal must have strong strategic capability.

What do we mean by that?

Here is an example based on recent stories about two suppliers. One was a happy supplier and one was sad…

Desperate to win business, the sad supplier quoted on every opportunity they possibly could hoping to win any business they could find.

They spread all of their resources responding to every request for proposal and in so doing, produced average responses. What were their results?

The cost of resources was about $4,000 to respond to each RFP and their conversion rate was one in twelve. The cost of sale was a huge $48,000! With margins of four percent, their sales model was unsustainable.

Why was the happy supplier happy?

They actually declined many opportunities and carefully chose only those that were winnable. With fewer RFPs to respond to they were able to throw all of their resources around these to create a highly professional response. What were their results? They won one in two bids! Company revenue actually dropped (initially), freaking their estimators out, BUT net profit grew!

What do our two stories illustrate?

• It is vital to operate strategically rather than reactively. There are many facets of strategic capability, and our story illustrated just one.
• Pre-tender strategies,targeting of vertical markets, pre-emptive strategies, creation of a strong unique value proposition (UVP), and development of a best practice company sales process are other examples of world class strategic sales management.

So as a sales leader operating in the New Normal, do you possess strong strategic capability? If you can answer, “yes”, have strong self-awareness, leadership, and management capability, then congratulations! You are world class!

You can navigate your way through the New Normal, and achieve strong top-end results. And strong top-end results greatly help create strong bottom-line profit!

The Sales Leadership & Management Academy

Mistake # 1: When Sales Managers suffer from a hidden yet crippling ‘need for approval’ they can inadvertently allow the sales team to run the department, mistakenly thinking they’re empowering their staff.
Mistake # 2: When Sales Managers get bogged down in daily tasks and crisis management they neglect vital sales pipeline management. If this happens, they don’t know if they will even have a business in three months!

So exactly how does this impact the entire organisation? And what can you do as a Sales Manager to put your sales pipeline on steroids?

Outcome #1: Your sales team can not improve if they are not held accountable on metrics vital to sales success

Outcome #2: Your chief executive has to forecast sales regularly to the board. If their forecast is based on inaccurate pipeline figures due to poor management they can look foolish and unprofessional

As a sales manager, pipeline management and forecasting are central to your role.

Your CEO depends on it, and you can only do this if you get accurate reporting from your front-line salespeople. Do you know what this means?

The buck stops with you!

Can it truly be said you’re a sales manager unless you manage the sales?

Pipeline management and forecasting are a critical part of this. In order to do this you must hold yourself accountable to measure metrics and then to hold your team accountable for meeting those metrics.

Question: How can I effectively hold my sales team accountable?

Solution: Conduct a weekly personal review.

Whenever I’ve been contracted as an interim sales manager a common problem I discover is that the salespeople have not been held accountable.

So I institute the new routine of weekly personal reviews every Monday after the sales meeting.

Every one of my sales team knows they must bring a hard copy of their pipeline report listing all current opportunities in progress. This includes everything from initial inquiries through to quotes, presentations and current negotiations. I could just review the information on-line from the comfort of my desk.

However, the weekly personal review requires salespeople to personally update me on the progress of every single opportunity one customer at a time. They know I’m going to question them regarding progress on sales that will close this month, this quarter, and beyond.

They also know they have to have the answers to my questions, and this means they have to personally manage their pipeline in order to provide such answers.

Summary:

By conducting the weekly personal review my Mondays are completely taken up in endless meetings. But do you know what? It’s worth every minute. Here’s why.

It gives them direction as to where to focus their attention over the next week.

Furthermore, it gives me visibility so that I know the health of the business for the next quarter and beyond. I can then take action to increase sales activity if the pipeline is looking lean in upcoming months, and I can report to the CEO in confidence, with an accurate forecast.

Ultimately It holds the team accountable.

At SalesStar.com we promise measurable results, and this is a management technique that has led to our increasing client sales between 20 and 300 percent within 12 months.

So now you know one of our little secrets! What will you do now? Institute the weekly personal review, and the results will astound you!

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Have a great week selling!

Justin and the SalesStar.com team

By Alex Chan

Example#1

A local Sales Manager goes a little bit crazy and  ‘flies off the handle’ at her staff over some mistake that was made, and storms out of the room.
A deathly silence followed…. then a salesperson muttered-
“Well I guess our ‘Old Psycho’ didn’t get any sex last night!”.
Funny, yes, but whilst the staff used humour as their coping mechanism, it was to handle a more sinister problem – the lack of self awareness in their Sales Manager.

A vital attribute of any leader is self-awareness.
It seems obvious, but what does it really mean?
It means a leader is fully aware of how their behaviour affects the people around them, especially their staff. A good leader behaves positively, and Sales Managers in particular must be known for this quality.
After all, the sales team is supposed to be the most positive group in any organisation.
Knowing that, what affect do you think ‘Psycho Manager’ had on her sales team?
Would her salespeople feel positive and motivated, or would they have the life sucked out of them? What level of trust do the team now have in her ability?
By contrast, consider from your career examples of a positive sales leader who is self-aware.

What feelings did they evoke in you?

Example#2

There was a manager I knew whom I’ll call Peter.
Every morning when he arrived at the office he went from desk to desk chatting with every one of his staff. He would go far beyond the usual greeting, taking time to connect, chat about their world both at work and outside of work, and even make decisions whilst they had his attention.
By the time he got to his desk, forty five minutes easily passed every morning.

On one particular morning after arriving late, Peter went through the same ritual of connecting with his team. However, after he went inside his office his secretary leaned over to me and whispered “I thought you should know his wife miscarried last night. That’s why he’s late”. I went into his office, closed the door, and told him to go home – that his place was with his family, and that we can take care of things here for him. Even though he managed to smile, I could see the pain in his eyes as he explained to me that his wife had all of the family around her, and that they kicked him out because they knew he’s best when burying his head in his work.

Peter taught me a powerful lesson in leadership. This sales manager was self-aware. Realizing his behaviour affects his staff, he remained positive in spite of going through a heart wrenching personal crisis. Are we fully aware of the emotional space we are in at any time so that we can manage ourselves as Peter did? If we are, then it may be said we have well developed E.Q. or emotional quotient. In other words, we have emotional intelligence. Increasingly, applicants for key management positions are evaluated as much for their E.Q. as their I.Q. How would you rate in an E.Q. evaluation? Would you look like Psycho Manager, or like Peter?

What’s more, if we asked your staff to name a positive person, would they choose you?

Taking your leadership self-awareness to a higher level!

The 4 core competencies of leadership including self-awareness will increase sales, decrease costs, improve your efficiency, and the efficiency of your team. This will enable the team you are leading to drive the company forward. Learn these game changing methodologies at our upcoming course below.

The Sales Leadership & Management Academy

This programme will improve your sales results and business performance metrics guaranteed with international best practice and the latest cutting edge methodologies delivered by New Zealand’s #1 Sales Development company.
July 9,10,11 – Auckland City

Click on the red logo to find out more

 

 

Have a great week selling,

Justin and the SalesStar.com team

It didn’t take me long to confirm my suspicions were correct.

Hands up those of you who have the same challenge as Fred.
How many of you have lamented-
“By the time I show someone else how to do it, I could have done it myself”?
Would an honest self-examination have you confessing, “guilty as charged”?
It’s true that the demands on our time and personal resources to complete urgent tasks, is an ongoing challenge for most us.
However, if we fail to manage this situation we are making one of the oldest mistakes – we are ‘Managing’ and not ‘Leading’.
A vital attribute of an effective, successful and ultimately profitable ‘leader’ is that he or she develops the team and the individuals.
You may be asking ‘How do we know it’s a common mistake?’
In addition to frequent discussions with our clients about this, a recent survey conducted across New Zealand and Australia by Leadership, Employment, and Direction (L.E.A.D.) shows 2,000 managers agree that leadership is the second highest skill deficiency (next to technical skills) in both countries.
Ouch!
So how might Fred have achieved the task whilst developing his team and individuals at the same time, showing true leadership?
Could he have done what experienced leaders do – form a project team to respond to the tender?
If he did this, he would have involved his staff and developed them as a team whilst building the skill base of individuals at the same time.

Fred would have made his life easier in the long term in so many ways.
• No longer would tasks be overly dependent on him.
• His staff have become empowered to respond to tenders as a result of his leadership.
• Delegation, succession planning, happier staff (being asked to participate in special projects), and even risk management are all addressed as a result of moving beyond ‘Manager’ into a ‘Leadership’ role.

However, Fred’s tendering story is just an example of a common mistake of Sales Managers. What about your story?
Can you think of an example of one of your own tasks that could be an opportunity to develop your team and individuals at the same time?
If you act upon this you’re not just managing, you’re leading!

The world’s best sales managers possess four vital attributes.
They are
1. Leadership capability
2. Self-awareness
3. Management capability, and
4. Strategic capability.

Knowing that, the question remains -
• What does it mean to be self-aware?
• What management habits make a Sales Manager highly effective?
• What are some aspects of strategic competence that can differentiate us from our competitors?

In the next few weeks our articles will address these questions. Stay tuned!

Learn to Get the Best Out of Your Team

The 4 core competencies of leadership will increase sales, decrease costs, improve your efficiency, and the efficiency of your team. This will enable the team you are leading to drive the company forward. Learn these game changing methodologies at our upcoming

Sales Leadership & Management Academy – July 9, 10 and 11