Ever felt like you were doing it alone? And no one understands your position?
Sales management is more than just keeping everyone on target and going in the right direction. There is so much more to driving a team.
Our Sales Management Forum Series is a stand-alone solution that allows Sales Managers and Business Owners to develop their people as well as focusing on improving sales. Our next session focuses on Building a Best Practice Sales Machine.
Building a Best Practice Sales Machine will give you valuable insights into developing a robust sales process that will help you increase your sales and shorten the sales process. You will learn:
Team and Client Structure
Developing a robust sales process
Proposal preparation – Stepping up a notch to “business case” preparation
About The Presenter
Alex Chan has in-depth experience in making big sales to big customers, having closed deals of up to $15,000,000 dollars. He has been contracted to lead tender response teams to win multi million dollar sales and to prepare strategic sales plans for major sales growth. In this forum he will share some incites into how to “hunt elephants”.
What participants are saying…..
“This is an incredible programme as it focuses us on building good systems and processes to measure the key ratios in sales. Once you have this, it is the GOLD to building business.”
Brenden Rolston
Managing Director – Action Mail
The casual session rate is only $359 +GST (including breakfast) for this time efficient half day.
This is outstanding value and attendance is strictly limited in our sessions to ensure you achieve maximum benefit, so register now as our programmes sell out quickly. The next session is on Thursday 19th April.
Sales management myths get perpetuated and circulated in the sales world to create problems and foster a sense of insecurity and under-accomplishment in other sales personnel. These myths defy logic and reasoning but still are firmly held as convictions in majority of the sales force worldwide. Some of the myths about sales management that create more problems than solving them, are listed below:
Sales management is all about numbers - This myth implies that sales management means simply having the sales figures meet the numbers churned out. The numbers here point to the target figures, and projected sales. These have been reached by keeping track of past performances and using complex formulae which may not have any connection to the current market situation. Sales personnel push towards these figures, and if they do not achieve targets, live with fear and de-motivation. Actually sales management is more about managing sales activities, checking their effectiveness, and pushing for improvements of activities rather than individuals. The individuals have to be encouraged and motivated so that they can work without fear-this positive push will help them achieve more than the target numbers.
Morale is boosted with higher sales – Though higher sales will boost morale temporarily, it may not improve the happiness quotient of the sales force. Businesses need to keep their sales force happy and their morale up and higher sales will naturally follow. To first see higher sales and then reward to boost morale may be a short term approach. Sales teams must have an encouraging and stimulating work environment and must be well informed about their product to be effective salesmen who sell more.
The sales manager has the answers while salesmen just have to act - Sales management is as much about sales as about nurturing the sales force, making them think, learn and understand the sales business with depth, to be able to give it their best. When managers answer questions, the salesman has been deprived of an opportunity to think and develop his skill in the field. Being able to think on your own and come to a result is better learning than having it tossed by a superior. The manager’s job is to train people to sell better, not to ensure high sales themselves.
Setting goals in terms of quantities to sell - when the top management fixes targets for individuals, it is actually setting limits beyond which employees do not need to work. The idea of sales management, on the contrary, is to get the best out of salesmen and help them do better, which will benefit the company in terms of higher sales.
The sales manager is the best salesman - Companies give the top sales management posts to their best salesman thinking his whole team will sell better. The manager actually has to mange his team more than the sales figures. He has to train his people to sell better and not sell himself, help them forge relations with customers rather than doing so himself.
Sales management is based on common sense - This is not in the least true since sales management requires multiple skills which involve quick thinking and analysis, managing people, multitasking, and many other qualities.
Sales management myths should be considered and then basically ignored, they will only serve to distract you from your goals.
Time management is crucial in every sphere of activity to maximize output and improve results. Effective time management holds the key to business success and helps personnel multitask as well. Time management has been defined as the system of structuring the available time by allocating it according to the priority of competing demands. It requires clarity of thought, discipline and the ability to understand that time is one of those commodities whose supply cannot be increased, and hence maximizing the output in the limited duration, becomes important.
Sales managers need to effectively manage their time to get better results in terms of higher sales for the company. Research reveals that most sales managers spend only 10% of their time actually selling, and the rest of their time is spent in prospecting, travelling and in administrative processes. This reveals a serious need for rescheduling the daily set of activities in order to maximize output and sales results.
Tips for better time management
Prioritize time allocated according to potential and prospects – Sales managers need to prioritize their time according to the potential offered by customers. Therefore, more time must be allocated for high potential customers, following stronger leads and identifying customer needs while also creating solutions.
Cut time spent on non revenue producing activities- sales managers waste a lot of time in administrative procedures and other non-revenue generating activities, which can be cut and reduced. This will leave them with time to spare for more lucrative tasks.
Planning the day in advance- Sales managers need to plan their day in advance. While it would be preferable to have a weekly plan, with goals to be accomplished in the seven day period, a daily plan is also adequate. This helps in cutting down on waiting times, having pre-scheduled appointments, and not wasting time juggling between tasks at hand. A daily, weekly monthly goal can be set which will make the plan more focused.
Delegating- A sales manager is a leader with multiple jobs and also has a sales staff reporting to him. Instead of doing it all himself, delegating and making others in the team responsible for specific jobs, will ease the burden and give him more time to focus on his own jobs as a manager.
Avoid wasteful activities – Without realizing, some amount of time gets wasted in unnecessary activities, like answering all emails, knowing fully well that most of them are useless; answering every phone call and talking beyond business; internet surfing, coffee chat sessions with colleagues, and reading magazines or newspapers during office hours.
Punctuality- Being punctual for meetings and appointments is a good habit, and also saves time spent in explaining reasons for the delay.
Calculating the value of time per hour- This is easy and can be taken as the amount of business generated in a month divided by the number of days in the month. The manager’s cost-to-company can be another way to reach this figure. Having a number in mind works as a reminder each time a non-productive activity is initiated.
Time management is a skill that can be developed by making a serious effort and will prove beneficial to the sales manager in every aspect of life.
By Kristian Bray – Sales Development Specialist at SalesStar.com
It’s quite normal to feel bored or uninspired in your job, especially if high levels of motivation are required to be successful. Many of us move in peaks and troughs when it comes to being successful in our personal and professional life.
Inconsistency becomes the fuel for a syndrome called “domination by routine” where as individuals we lack challenge, excitement and inspiration. Long term this can lead to mood changes, anger and sometimes even depression.
It’s important to listen to your intuition and feelings in these situations but taking action is a difficult proposition to face, especially if you are running on autopilot.
Staying in your comfort zone encourages complacency and a level of thinking that there is too much effort required for change. Procrastination naturally kicks in next and soon you will be facing a complete fear of the future.
Sometimes we move sideways or make some minor modifications to offer a temporary lift to our current predicament. The reality is however that after the novelty of new change has worn off, we end up back where we started.
SalesStar.com has a dedicated recruitment team that specialise in helping a range of senior level candidates uncover what they are truly passionate about in order to elicit change.
We believe that success is a product of passion and if we can help you re-invent or renew yourself, the next path you take will be a decisive and effective one.
With direction and clarity comes a more structured approach and talking with an objective third party will offer valuable insight into potential opportunities or movement within the job market.
If you are Sales Manager or Senior Salesperson looking for a fresh challenge, talk to one of recruitment specialists today.
Phone Kristian or Hamish on 09 524 0999
To read more of our Sales Management Tips click here
On this video is three Sales Managers talking about their experiences on the High Performance Program run by SalesStar. Even for Sales Managers who have done many training and coaching courses before say that the SalesStar High Performance Program offers something new and exciting. The SalesStar High Performance Program is not a generic program, it is a tailored program that is customised to your business.
SalesStar.com recognises that developing a high performing sales team is similar to developing a high performing sports team. We work with Sales Manager and salespeople who are essentially “corporate athletes” working in a functional team environment (look out for our upcoming blog – “The Functioning of a Corporate Athlete” in July).
Sales Manager – The Super Coach
Sales People – The Natural Talent – Team DNA
Sales Process – The Rules of the Game
Sales Training – Practise, Drills and Training
Mindset – Belief in Success
Recruiting – The Best Players
Non-performers – Relegated players
1. Robbie Deans and Wayne Bennett are Super Coaches. With the Midas touch, they have the ability to turn every team they coach into gold winning champions. Wayne Bennett had a purple patch when he was the coach of the Brisbane Broncos, winning several NRL championships. He then went on to coach the St George Dragons into a champion team and win an NRL premiership and was instrumental in aiding the Kiwis to win against Australia in a world cup final. Champion coaches make champion teams! High performing sales teams require a Super Coach in the form of a Sales Manager. Someone who can recruit and develop the right players, someone who can create a winning culture and get the mind-set of the player’s right pre-match. A Super Coach leads with conviction to instil belief and trust into his players and then takes them into battle to win.
2. Naturally players have strengths and weaknesses; some are adaptable and can play in various positions, while others need to focus on specific positions to thrive. Then there are others who just shouldn’t be in the team because they don’t have the DNA or just lack fundamental skills. Companies should recognise that sales people are not all built equally, they have different attributes and to get the best from them we should be playing to their strengths. Some may be excellent hunters while others are better at managing accounts. Trying to convert an account manager into a hunter is like turning a prop into a winger. They are different animals and need to be treated that way. And some sales people do not have the right DNA and traits to be successful in sales!
3. What are the rules to the game? Are the players playing to these rules? Is the coach coaching to these rules? If you don’t know the rules to the game you are not going to be successful. The Sales Process becomes the fundamental rules of the game. Sales managers need to coach and hold sales team accountable to these rules to get the best from them, allowing sales people to use their own style. Jonah Lomu and Terry Wright where both All Black Wingers with very different styles. Lomu would typically use his strength and size to go through players while Wright used his pace to get around players. Both played the same game with the same rules and used a different but effective style.
4. Practised teams are winning teams. We all know practice makes perfect but it also allows us to stay on top and in the game. So many sales organisations don’t create a culture that fosters the salespeople to practice their skills. They choose to have their sales people practice on the customer and hope it goes well. That’s like the All Blacks not practising for the World Cup and just turning up on game day in the hope that they will win.
5. When teams start winning, there is a common thread that can be attributed to success – “Mindset”. This is belief in ability. Muhammad Ali, the greatest boxer of all time said “I am the Greatest”. I wonder if he would have been as successful if he had said “I am not sure if I can do this”! Mindset is 50% of success in any sales environment. Sale people need to have belief in themselves and their product/service. They also need belief in the company vision and value proposition. Believe in your offering and you will be successful in selling.
6. The Canterbury Crusaders and Manchester United are two champion sports teams that recruit well. Always hiring the best players for the right positions will bring a return on investment (ROI). Companies that master the recruitment process will have a competitive advantage and opportunities to promote from within. As Jim Collins said, once you have the right people in the right seats of the bus, you can take the bus anywhere.
7. When the Warriors lost three games in a row, Ivan Cleary made some wholesale changes and replaced non- performers with up and coming stars. The result was five wins in a row. If you want to develop a high performing culture there is no room for mediocrity. Sometimes you need to make tough calls to get your point across. If you have non-performers, you need to set them free. Put simply, there is no room for them in a culture that breeds success.
SalesStar.com work with a range of clients to develop their salespeople into high performing teams. Our SalesStar Management Programme gives us the opportunity to turn Sales Managers into Super Coaches.
WIN the Ultimate Sales Management Programme valued at $12,000. Click here
As specialists in sales development and sales management support, SalesStar.com have identified and overcome the following primary issues in sales organisations that can potentially de-rail a high performing sales culture: Do you know what they are?
No formal Sales Process
Inaccurate or inappropriate KPI measurement
Lack of individual accountability and attitude
Ineffective Sales Coaching for team members
Recruitment of the wrong people
Not identifying where to get help and how to get it
The task of a Sales Manager is to help your salespeople reach effective outcomes. A formal Sales Process will have all salespeople reading from the same page but when this doesn’t happen, disparate processes and individuals become the focus instead of a unified process. Having a collective system for selling means everyone can speak the same language and you have one team accountable for organisational outcomes. Salespeople need to know the following things:
• The parameters and expectations
• The steps in the process
• The best way to achieve the objectives of each step in the process
• The best methodology practise to increase conversion ratios.
Sales Managers often measure the wrong numbers in the business for example; tracking sales revenue is like counting the dead and wounded……..you can’t influence the outcome! With the right KPI’s and “dashboard” in place, Sales Managers can develop behaviour and accountability of a sales force and ultimately influence future revenue.
A Sales Managers job is to hold the team accountable on the right activity. Increasing the right activity will bring better results. Sales Managers need to make each individual on their team accountable on a daily basis. Even top performers and those that are highly self-motivated will relish being held accountable while making a valued contribution.
What’s the one thing any top athlete or sports team have in common? They all have great coaches. The same is true for high performing sales companies. Sales Managers that are effective coaches and that implement regular (weekly, daily) sales coaching will get the best performance from the team and that has been proven! Coaching can take place in many forms i.e. dual calls, post call debrief, pre call strategy etc. The primary purpose of coaching is to enhance sales skills, improve behaviour and deliver measurable results. Train for skills, coach for performance.
Recruiting salespeople is the number one frustration of most sales managers and can be a costly exercise. As a rule of thumb, making the wrong recruitment choice could cost 3 times the annual salary. Let’s not forget lost opportunities and mismanaged relationships. It’s not an easy task attracting and selecting the right people, primarily because salespeople can interview well but not always deliver to our expectations. Recruiting is a science and often not the core business of sales management. Unfortunately the best salespeople aren’t looking for jobs, they are successful selling in their current companies. You need other strategies to find them and this can take time. Recruitment should NOT be an event, it should be an on-going process and Sales Managers should always be recruiting top talent into their business. When you hire top performers the whole team lifts their game. The golden rule in recruitment is if in doubt, rule them out.
Most Sales Managers have evolved into what they are because they were the best salesperson. At SalesStar.com we firmly believe that the best players don’t always make the best coaches and furthermore we only know what we know. Often Sales Managers don’t know how effective they are at everything they need to be doing to grow sales? They also don’t know where to get help? SalesStar.com can provide the answers you need.
Are you committing any of the Six Sins of Sales Management? Are any of these issues holding back your ability to empower you team and increase sales?
We have a solution!
The SalesStar.com Management Programme is the most comprehensive curriculum available for Sales Managers to become tomorrow’s Sales Leaders. If you want to learn best practice methodologies in order to grow sales then click here.
Businesses try to recruit the best people in the field to increase efficiency at the work place but for various reasons, every so often they find that they have made errors of judgment while recruiting sales people. Since sales are the most crucial aspect of a business, it also needs the best people available to form the sales force. A wrong decision and hiring the wrong person can cost the company dearly both in terms of remuneration and the damage to the company’s reputation. An ineffective sales teams can lead to stocks piling up, loss of customers, opportunities going to other competitors and so on.
However, it is indeed possible to hire the best talent to form the sales team if the right recruitment strategy is adopted. The following tips may help and save the company the pain and price of recruitment mistakes.
Tips
Decide on your requirements- This will to understand what exactly to look for, in terms of skills, qualifications, expertise and experience. This could become the job description.
User multiple ways to find the best talent- Instead of outsourcing the recruitment process to a consultant, it is better to use networking to find good people, and spreading word around to get in touch with good potential recruits.
Follow a good screening process for applications- Any job advertised in the media is bound to invite tens of applications. Screening them diligently, a lot can be gauged from the writing style, the presentation and the content of the application. The riff-raff can be separated from the good talent wishing to join, who can then be shortlisted for an interview.
A telephone interview helps- Once the list of shortlisted candidates has been drawn, a telephonic interview will provide insights into the applicant’s communication skills, his ability to converse well and his quick thinking ability. Here again, a few will fall short of the required standard expected in a successful candidate, leaving only a handful for the personal interview.
Personal interviews should include some tough questions- The candidate’s ability to handle even what he does not know, will reveal his skill. His expertise in the field can be checked as well.
Use a system of rating for multiple parameters- It is ideal to draw out a list of numerous relevant parameters, including etiquette, manners and courtesy, diction, clarity of thought and speech, ability to listen, patience and aggression, and so on. Each interviewee can then be rated on each. This may take time and a comparative analysis difficult, but it is the best way of selecting the best.
Use of profiling tools helps in checking whether the person is suitable for the job or not.
Make the compensation package attractive- Good candidates do not come cheap. If they have been identified, it is easier to lure them with a good compensation package so that they do not look elsewhere, since salaries are a big factor for employment.
These tips have worked for tens of thousands of businesses and have known to show good results in the form of finding the best talent in the sales field.
