"Well begun is half done." Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins wasn't talking about a sales organization but her advice remains timeless and relevant. The first step in establishing a world-class selling team is to evaluate and clarify the roles of the sales representatives and sales management. Why do this first and immediately?
The sales team represents a major investment for most companies with costs up to 40% of sales. In addition the quality of a sales team directly impacts profitability. More importantly the sales team interacts with any company's most important asset: the customer.
A company has many options and avenues to sell its' product or service. Salespeople are the most effective. Your company may also utilize distributors, retailers, advertising and the Internet to supplement the salespersons activity.
Segmenting the entire market allows a sales team to maximize sales and profits. Markets can be divided in many ways such as industry, customer size, behavior of buyers and geography. You may evaluate a market by determining how much work is needed to attract, sell and follow up with each purchaser. Determining the responsible party or entity to sell and service accounts will help you understand how to efficiently address prospective customers. This helps you answer the following questions:
Who should do the work?
How big is the customer? What is their potential?
Do they operate in specific industries?
Where do they make decisions?
How do they use your product or service?
How much do they contribute to profitability?
Do they require a consultative or transactional approach?
What essential work does the market require?
Answering these questions among others will allow you to define the role of your sales team. The answers also allow you to determine whether to use a direct or indirect sales force. Will you need to supplement activity with advertising and promotion? Is a call center more efficient and cost effective to service a portion of your target market? Can the Internet address the needs of smaller purchasers?
The responsibility of sales managers includes selecting, building, leading, managing and rewarding salespeople. Rewarding salespeople is a very important and critical responsibility. Rewards are tangible such as money, bonuses, perks, trips, raises, promotions or tickets to special events. They are also intangible such as paid time off.
The best sales managers use a combination of tangible rewards and intangible recognition such as: Sense of security, sense of belonging, encouragement, recognition and appreciation.
The five essential steps to establish and sustain a dynamic, winning sales team:
1. Evaluate the sales management team by addressing: organization, activity and results
2. Enhance the knowledge and skills of the sales management team.
3. Adjust the job description as needed. Will technology change the sales process? What is the current span of control and influence of the sales manager? Is the sales force de-centralized? In-house?
4. Hire and promote only the best, qualified candidates for this important position. Can they achieve results through others? Will their ego allow others to succeed?
5. Reward the team appropriately for individual and group success.
The best sales organizations understand that good salespeople listen to customers and wise sales managers listen to salespeople. The elite sales managers realize that they must allow salespeople to succeed and push for sales today. Good salespeople control most activity and sales managers motivate them to do so. The common factor between sales managers and sales people remains their focus on prospects and business partners.
The synergy of a sales manager and sales team allows a company to succeed by:
¨Segmenting customers and prospects
¨ Developing account strategies
¨ Implementing strategies
¨ Reviewing all associated processes
Technology allows a company to review data and implement processes allowing them to make decisions and address issues. The use of Customer Relationship Management systems (CRM's) should improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the sales team. Does yours? Efficiencies should be witnessed in time management, administration and communication. The use of current information should be a measure of the effectiveness of any CRM. Managers and salespeople use CRM's for very different reasons. Managers generate reports, forecast sales, share best practices, manage territories, streamline workflow and communicate with sales representatives via the CRM. Sales people use a CRM to enter orders, manage accounts, communicate with internal and external customers, manage time, track sales and expenses and as a training tool.
Evaluating the role of your sales team and sales management will lead to increased efficiency and effectiveness. This makes it a vital step in developing a world-class selling organization. This doesn't happen overnight. It pays enormous dividends.
" A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Confucious
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About the Author
Dan Schoepf is author of the e-book Sales: America's Other National Pastime, What Baseball Can Teach Us About Selling and contributor to
www.AdAstraBusinessSolutions.com
