Sales Management Credibility - Building Respect As a Motivational Sales Manager

Many sales managers tell me that their salespeople don't meet their expectations. The sales manager pleads, begs and even threatens, but the salesperson just goes through the motions of selling and following through on proposals and sales calls. He or she never really engages in their jobs or careers. The sales manager simply doesn't inspire confidence, credibility or have a firm grip on the performance of their sales team.

I could give you a long list of reasons why sales managers lack respect from their sales team and why their credibility is shot. However, I want to focus on the one problem that I see quite often. The quickest way for a sales manager to lose credibility with their sales team members is their lack of taking decisive action when dealing with poor sales performers.

Too many sales managers, for myriad reasons, fail to address the issues associated with a poor sales performer. They talk about them with other people or managers. They listen to excuses month after month. The sales manager may think changing the salesperson's compensation plan might help or even providing a new territory or product will fix the problem.

Instead, what really happens is the salesperson in questions monopolizes the sales manager's time and energy while the other salespeople shake their heads and shrug their shoulders each night as they go home and download to their spouse. They can't figure out why their co-worker isn't pulling his or her own weight and why the sales manager isn't doing anything about it.

Allowing poor performers to hang out too long simply reinforces poor performance. If no accountability is in place, then why should the poor sales performer step up and make an effort? Empty promises and hollow threats from the sales manager don't mean a thing. The salesperson still collects a paycheck and the rest of the team gets more and more frustrated with the lack of decisive action.

If you have a salesperson that isn't performing, it's your responsibility to take action to find out why and work to resolve it.

Here are just a few reasons why your salesperson is not performing:

Insufficient product training
Lack of effective sales training
Micromanaging sales manager
Lack of leadership in the company
Poor sales hire - they're not "wired" for the job
You inherited a poor sales performer when you started as sales manager
And many, many more...

I'm an advocate for always attempting to first find the source of the lackluster performance and fixing it, if possible. However, if you haven't discovered it through diligent analysis, then your options are reduced to either moving the salesperson to another position in the company or removing them completely.

In either case, your attention to this serious problem is desperately needed on the part of the sales team. It cannot function as a sales team unless you build the confidence of the members that you're right for the job. You must prove that you will make decisions that are in the best interest of the team and have a strong desire to create an environment of success for everyone.

Remember, the viability of your sales team rests on your shoulders. Don't let them down.

Barrett Riddleberger is an internationally recognized leader in the fields of sales skills assessments, custom custom sales training, sales recruitment and sales consulting. He also is founder of Resolution Systems Inc., a strategic sales consulting firm. His book, "Blueprint of a Sales Champion," details how organizations can find, train and retain top performing salespeople... even in a highly competitive market. An accomplished author and sales consultant, Riddleberger is also highly in demand as a business development and motivational speaker for organizations seeking to drive their sales force to greater levels of performance. For more info visit ResolutionSystemsInc.com or call 866.350.4457.

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Effective Selling Management - The Top Six Reasons Sales Managers Fail Their Sales Teams

I've mentioned this many times. The job of a sales manager is one of the toughest occupations in the world. Just as with any job, part of success is skill and knowledge and part of it is the internal components of the individual.

Effective sales managers do well for many different reasons; likewise, unsuccessful sales managers fail for many different reasons. If you are a sales manager or VP, ask yourself if any of these issues have ever caused problems for you or others you know.

Failure #1: The Sales manager is not wired for the job. As you will find out, there is a formula for determining a salesperson's capacity to perform.

There's no difference with sales managers. Many ineffective sales managers come from the ranks of the sales team. Often, they were excellent salespeople who were moved up based on the presumption that if they were good at sales, they'll be good at sales management. Not so.

The skill sets and internal wiring are completely different for the two professions. When a sales manager doesn't have the capacity to perform in that role, he will fail (and many times bring the organization down with him.)

Failure #2: A good candidate for a sales management position rarely gets the chance. Poor performance in a sales role becomes a stumbling block for advancement.

Unfortunately, many of the best sales managers were, at best, mediocre salespeople. Consider some of the most successful NFL coaches. Many of them were very marginal players or never played the game at all.

They had a greater capacity to coach, communicate their vision, and lead the team than to participate on the field as a star player. Any sales organization that hires a manager largely on past performance in sales may miss out on a great sales leader.

Failure #3: The manager lacks a foundation of effective sales training. Place anyone in any position and give them no training, and what do you have? You get an employee who stays in a constant state of frustration.

Some managers don't instinctively know how to fulfill the role. They must be given the training and resources to understand and recognize what each individual salesperson needs to help them be successful.

A sales manager who has very little dedicated training will significantly hamper the ability of the salespeople to do their jobs and reduce the organization's competitive edge.

Failure #4: Lack of an effective selling system.

Football teams don't go out on the field without a clearly designed play to run. Without a selling system every salesperson knows and follows, the salespeople will make it up as they attempt to move through the sales process. There's no repeatable formula for success. Sometimes they get the sale, sometimes they don't. Unfortunately, there's no way to determine why they did or didn't get the sale, and then coaching becomes a difficult task.

When the manager doesn't provide the sales team with a clearly defined selling system, the players will squander opportunities your competitors will get.

Failure #5: Lack of an effective hiring process. Gut feelings and speculation in the selection process will limit your ability to make the right choice. Just like having a selling system for your sales team to follow is important, so is utilizing an effective hiring system.

We provide in-depth assessment tools and experienced analysis of the results to help you acquire the best sales talent possible.

Remember, it's the sales managers responsibility to make the right judgments about hiring new salespeople. And without a defined process utilizing objective measurements, hiring decisions can end up being a toss-up.

Failure #6 - Lack the understanding of the concept of coaching. If a sales manager sees himself as strictly a manager, he can easily be driven by the administrative functions of the job: administration, spreadsheets, operational issues, etc.

A selling coach, or sales coach, on the other hand, works with the salespeople to develop them in individual areas, strategizes with them on difficult deals, holds them accountable for their results, provides feedback on performance issues, as well as course corrects before the month is over to help prevent sales failure.

I'll say it again. Sales management is a tough job. Invest the time and energy in the right tools for the job: effective sales management training, a proven and reliable salesperson hiring process or assessment, and a powerful selling system, and you can reap the rewards of a successful sales team.

Barrett Riddleberger is an internationally recognized leader in the fields of sales assessment, custom sales training and sales recruitment, as well as a successful and results-driven sales consultant. He also is founder of Resolution Systems Inc., a strategic sales consulting firm. His book, "Blueprint of a Sales Champion," details how organizations can find, train and retain top performing salespeople... even in a highly competitive market. An accomplished author and sales consultant, Riddleberger is also highly in demand as a business development and motivational speaker for organizations seeking to drive their sales force to greater levels of performance. For more info visit ResolutionSystemsInc.com or call 866.350.4457.

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Skills For Sales Leaders - Time and Self Management to Achieve Goals

As a professional salesperson, the first mission critical skill that must be mastered is the capability of effectively laying out a strategy to accomplish your set objectives and then managing both your time and sales territory in order to achieve that plan.

Time is a salesperson's most valuable asset. When you as a salesperson lose hours, it means lost sales and lost earnings. Planning, organising and allocating priority time to your selling activities is one of the greatest challenges you will face in this profession.

With increasing competition and changing economy, you are being forced to become more effective and productive than ever before. As a result, the more successful salespeople gain competitive edge by working smarter, becoming a master of planning and using their time in the most financially and energy efficient way possible.

Too many salespeople spend their time on non-sales activities.

They fill their days with putting out fires, administration and other non core-sales tasks and then end up wondering why their pipelines are so meagre and why they miss their sales budgets.
Without effective sales plans, many will waste "windshield time" as they crisscross and backtrack their sales territories.
They find themselves making frequent in-person calls on "low lifetime value accounts", and out of desperation will hit the road at the smallest expression of interest.

Poor sales planning and territory management ultimately will lead to missed opportunities, missed quotas and poor results.

 

Sales Planning  

Whilst there are many Sales Planning methodologies around, the object of the exercise must be on execution or the plans will simply not get done! Where the planning process is too complicated or it lacks simple and tactical objectives, implementation gets put into the "too hard basket".

Effective Sales Planning is the key to producing consistent and predictable sales numbers. More effective Sales Performance Plans will help you create, build and nurture a healthy sales pipeline. When you as a salesperson have a properly laid out, implementable and easy to manage Sales Performance Plan, it will ensure you meet your revenue goals and attain your sales quotas.

When you use the power of effective Sales Performance Planning you will also reduce those frustrating revenue peaks and valleys. As a professional salesperson you should not begin your selling year, month or week without a clearly specified Sales Performance Plan, which clearly outlines your key objectives, and action plans required.

With a Performance Plan in hand, salespeople must be able to manage their time and prioritize their activities for maximum impact.

Managing Your Time

Many salespeople experience the same problems. They feel overworked, disorganised and stressed out, with no control of their lives. Yet there are others who have somehow found "a better way!" The great news is that so can you. Time Management and planning is a skill that with time, effort and coaching can be mastered.

You need to truly understand that there are two simple, yet tough rules to dealing with time management and planning.

You can't manage time, you can only manage yourself
Focus and concentrate on results, not on being busy

Many salespeople waste their days in frantic activity achieving very little because they are simply not focused on the right things. The highest achievers, both in sales and other walks of life from business to sport to entertainment and public service, all have developed the skill and capability of focusing on and doing what must be done!

An effective sales plan will help you achieve the focus you require to achieve your sales goals. Ask your sales manager to put you with someone who can model "best practice" time and territory management. Alternatively decide today, decide right now, to become an expert planner and time manager. Go out and buy the top five recommended books on the subject, listen to Time Planning CD's in your car and attend a few time planning seminars. Google "time management", sales planning and read, learn and apply. Remember like any skill, goal setting, time management, planning and territory management can all be learned - with commitment, time and effort.

As one of Australia's leading authorities and coaches in sales management, Ian Segail has been involved in the coaching, training and development of sales managers and salespeople for over two decades.

Drawing on 25 years of experience in sales, sales management and leading an HR and training team, Ian brings a strong dose of fiscal reality and practicality to his works as a Sales Performance Coach.

Engaging directly with business owners and both novice and experienced sales managers alike, across a wide variety of industries and selling disciplines, the focus of Ian's work is to transform sales results for companies by improving sales management practices.

Ian is the author of "Bulletproof Your Sales Team - The 5 Keys To Turbo-Boosting Your Sales Team's Results" and a number of business articles, business reports and white papers including "The fish stinks from the head!" and "Why Sales Training Doesn't Work."

Ian has an insatiable hunger for studying selling and people management and has passionately pursued answers to the question "How come some people can sell and most can't?"

Download Ian's latest white paper on how to recession proof your sales team in the next 90 days from http://www.salestutor.com.au/Content_Common/pg-Salestutor-Tools-and-Resources-Articles-and-Whitepapers.seo

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Sales Management - Lay Consequences on Lost Sales and Your Market Share Will Sky Rocket

What if your doctors' hit rates were as good as your sales team's? You'd fire him - or die most likely.

Think of the consequences of losing a sale to a competitor. You have just given your competitor growth hormones for market share. It's like a 2 stroke turn around. They gain share while you lose share. Yet, what happens to the sales person or sales team - virtually nothing. There may be a few words of anger expressed, but all is forgotten in a few days. Then, believe it or not, once a sale is made, this same culprit is now a hero. Go figure.

How come lost sales are tolerated so easily by CEOs, General Managers and Sr. VPs? If a doctor loses a few patients, there's an all out investigation and if it continues, he can kiss his doctorship good-by. Same with an engineer - crash a few buildings, blow-up some circuit boards or route the sewage into the wrong outlets and there would be lots of grief. However, sales people lose sales all the time and there are no consequences, other than a huff and a puff of dissatisfaction.

Consider this, how many sales were lost where your company didn't have the capability or technology to do the job - probably very few. How many were lost on price? Probably many - as your sales person said, but was it really price? My experience consulting thousands of sales people on a zillion sales suggests B2B sales are lost because the sales team didn't know what the criteria for winning was - especially the criteria of the high level influential decision makers. Even on the price sensitive deals, winners know what price to get close to and what can be left off to get it there.

Losing sales is the sales team's fault - no excuses. If it wasn't doable, it shouldn't have been pursued, bid or forecasted. As for the lack of internal resource excuse, the sales team should have figured out how to get them or no bid. I could go on, but the explanations are rationalizations. As my football coach always said, "I don't want excuses. I want results," or you'll sit on the bench. How come senior management doesn't do that? If a senior sales manager misses his forecast a couple of times he's history. How come sales people don't suffer the same punishment?

Let's look at some numbers. 1/3 of the sales that the average sales person forecasts he makes. Again, suppose that was the hit rate for your doctors or engineers? Don't answer. 1/3 of the sales forecasted never happen. That's called "long sales cycles" or dying slowly. Finally, 1/3 of the forecasted sales are lost to competitors. That's scary.

Look at what you pay for getting only 1/3 of the forecast - the fixed selling expenses - salaries, benefits, offices, travel, etc. and the variable selling expense - commissions. Let's say you pay on average 5% - more to reps and less to direct people. You sell $100 million a year. That's $ 5 million dollars in variable selling expense, and you'd be happy to pay more as long as sales are going up.

Now the sales person get's 5% if he makes the sale. That's call incentive. However, if he loses the sale, well, he get's nothing - other than his car, insurance, office, and salary. There is no consequence for losing. Getting no commission is not a consequence. He says, "Oh well." and moves on. What's more depressing is management tolerates it, which reinforces the status quo. Why do anything different if there is unlimited upside with no downside.

Here's a thought. Change the commission so the sales person get's 10% (or some big number) when he makes a sale he forecasted, and gets a commission deduction of 2-1/2% (or some tough number) when he loses anything he forecasted. If something is not forecast, then there is no commission paid or deducted. If I've done the math right, this will cost no more or you can change the numbers. But look what it does. It rewards sales and lays consequences on loses. Do this and I guarantee you will upgrade the performance of your selling team.

Establishing a penalty will force smart sales people to get a lot of critical, relevant information before they forecast an opportunity. Information gathering will improve their chance of closing or indicate that the opportunity should be taken off the table so no more resources are wasted. If they don't forecast, they don't get anything, so they will have to keep digging for good things to forecast. Opportunities that are way out or "possibles" can go into a separate prospecting funnel that the sales manager monitors diligently with the sales person to move them forward or out. Deals that are missed or not forecasted, yet sold by competition should carry some other type of penalty. We could do a lot of what if's, but they can be worked out. The point is that the professionalism and success of your selling team will rise exponentially.

To make this work, however, senior management will have to provide great training, and great supervision. Sales people will need coaching, reinforcement, and lots of attention. But isn't that what sales management is suppose to do?

Try it or let me know what excuses you have. Otherwise, work through the details.

And now I invite you to learn more.

Bonus tip: FREE SALES TEAM ASSESSMENT TOOL. Just click this C-Level Relationship Selling Link. Sam Manfer makes it easy for any sales manager to be effective coaching his or her sales people to feel comfortable connecting with and relationship selling C-Level leaders.

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The Fundamentals of Sales Management

Sales leaders and managers frequently talk about: hiring the right people, sales process mapping, sales strategy, sales force deployment and customer coverage, economic drivers of profit of the customer, sales force effectiveness, and sales compensation. The entire gamut of activities listed above and some more tasks form sales management. Selling is the vital activity of a company on which the question of very survival rests. And the entire process of selling involves these tasks that need proper management to ensure a cohesive selling process. After the research and development team has given a credible product to the manufacturing department and the product is out of the manufacturing pipeline, it's up to the sales team to take the product to the customers and exchange them for money and good will. The onus lies on the shoulders of the sales manager to strategize the sales process and methods so as to bring in the maximum possible revenue as well as forge enduring relationships with the customers. Selling through a team of sales people is possible when the sales manager knows how to manage the sales team to optimize their potential.

Treating the Sales People Well

What then is good sales management? It's something akin to the Southwest Airlines' model of sales management. When the entire airline industry is reeling under the blows of skyrocketing fuel prices they are the only airline to have registered profits in 2008. Instead of mulling over job cuts and travel fare hikes the managers have stood behind their sales staff and treated them like family. Whenever an employee had a problem or an employee had an issue with a customer the managers came to their rescue and together they sorted out the issue. They have followed the simple rule, "treat employees the way you wanted to be treated". That's the fundamental rule of sales management. A sales manager should be a mentor, guide, and a leader to their team.

Does the sales person shift their gaze to the side when they see a customer approaching? Do they suddenly remember that they have to restock merchandise instead of greeting the customer and getting interested in his needs? A Retail Customer Dissatisfaction Study conducted by Wharton's Jay H Baker Retail Initiative confirms that the biggest saboteur of profits is a disinterested sales force. When the customer is dissatisfied a good sales manager checks their sale staff first. Recruiting the right sales personnel, providing them adequate training, making all required knowledge accessible to them and motivating them to achieve their sales targets with enthusiasm - all falls under the ambit of responsibility of a sales manager. Half of the sales team management problems wouldn't arise in the first place if the recruitment process is solid and weeds out people that may turn out to be incompatible to the organization and a sales role.

The fundamentals of sales management includes first knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your team. Is each sales person on the team entrusted with the kind of sales they are capable of? Are they motivated enough to do well in good times and tackle the tough times? Is a sales person compensated well for their achievements? Does the sales manager listen to their suggestions and give feedback?

If there is a problem during a call the sales manager should go on "buddy calling". Buddy calling entails that the manager would accompany the sales person on a call but let them do the job and intervene when the going gets tough. This gives the manager insight in to the way that sales person works and the sales person learns from the manager - on the job.

Keeping the Sales Channel in Peak Condition

Is the sales process vibrant and functional? Has the prospecting been done correctly? Is everything from cold calls to closing deals moving smoothly? A good number of cold calls should lead to real sales when the sales process is effective. Are the sales people concentrating on the needs of the customer? Can the sales process be revamped? Is there an Internet based sales system present? How much selling should be apportioned to the Internet and how much should be accomplished physically? Is there a gap between what's promised to the customer and what is delivered? Is the delivery taking place in time? These are the things a sales manager should be examining constantly.

The fundamentals of sales management require the observance of some common sales fundamentals. The appearance of sales people should be smart and professional in accordance with the guidelines of the company. They should exude a certain level of confidence in their day-to-day jobs. There has to be proper guidance about prospecting and enough time should be allocated to each prospect based on their worthiness. Presentations and the closing of deals should be of top quality. Periodic training on presentation skill enhancement and personality development workshops improves the competencies of the sales people. All top sales managers spend a good amount of resources on training of their sales force.

It is also essential that sales management take in to account a comprehensive sales strategy. A sales manager should formulate a good sales strategy and execute it well. Execution is as important as strategizing. The role of synchronization - getting the right product to the right customer at the right time, cannot be undermined.

The fundamentals of sales management shouldn't be confused with something complicated but simple attention to the details in all activity related to sales. A liberal dose of humaneness and loads of common sense as well as a goal oriented approach form the basics of good sales management.

Doug Dvorak is the CEO of DMG Inc., a worldwide organization that assists clients with productivity training, corporate humor and workshops, as well as other aspects of sales and marketing management. Mr. Dvorak's clients are characterized as Fortune 1000 companies, small to medium businesses, civic organizations and service businesses. Mr. Dvorak has earned an international reputation for his powerful educational methods and motivational techniques, as well as his experience in all levels of business, corporate education and success training. http://www.dougdvorak.com

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Sales Management Training - Protect Your Company From (Sales) Identity Theft In 3 Simple Steps

Business Development Officer? Business Procurement Specialist? Did you know these types of titles for salespeople can ultimately rob your organization?

As a Sales Management Training Consultant, I often notice business cards from salespeople with titles that require some effort to decipher. As I inquire further about their role, eventually it pops out - "I'm in sales". It makes me wonder, when did "Sales" become a five letter word that can no longer show up on one's business card? It gets deeper...

Building high performance sales organizations is my specialty. Much of my success is a result of a startling discovery made years ago - there is no proven correlation between Personality and Sales Productivity. This discovery enabled me to lead a team that transformed a $40B business unit into a $60B business unit in 18 months for a Fortune Global 500 company. How? We recognized anyone can succeed in sales despite personality. Sales is simple if you learn how to master sales behavior intelligence and develop your salespeople accordingly. Sales is about behavior and our proven sales system is built on the 25 behaviors that is proven to impact sales productivity - Sales Identity> is one of the behaviors we measure.

What is Sales Identity?

Sales Identity
measures a salesperson's pride of the sales profession. If a person views selling as noble, they are considered to have a strong Sales Identity. The opposite is true for those who view a sales position as something to be ashamed of, they are considered to have a weak Sales Identity.

Selling is noble, we all sell everyday whether we realize it or not. However, selling is often perceived negatively because of bad experiences. To some degree, society tends to cast a negative light on people in the sales profession. Due to the strength of society's misguided views, some sales professionals feel shame and are compelled to hide their sales position and adopt deflected titles such as, "Business Development Officers" or "Procurement Specialists". Such behavior is proven to be costly, read on...

Some people refuse to accept the notion of selling altogether, even though they are in fact trying to close a deal. A classic example...

Recently I was on a flight to a sales conference in Atlanta and I struck up a conversation with the gentleman next to me. Our idle chit chat led into a careers conversation. He shared with me how he worked for a major home improvement company in charge of the distribution centers in 4 states in the South and Southwest. After explaining my role as a Sales Management Training Consultant and how I help sales teams and salespeople. He immediately responded with "I could never be a salesperson!" We continued our conversation and he explained to me that he was preparing for a major presentation with the Executive Team of the company because he felt he needed an additional $3 Million allocated to his budget for the following year. He went on to demonstrate to me how the organization "would ultimately benefit from the additional spend with a better Return on Investment (ROI)..."

As he was explaining this to me, I began to smile and chuckle. Initially, he probably thought I was being rude. Then I asked him "So, you are trying to convince the Executive Team to give you an additional $3 million for your budget, correct?" "Yes." He replied. I then added "And you can support the benefits of doing so, correct?" "Yes" he replied again. "Are you sure you're not a salesperson?" He sat back in his chair and smiled, I could see the light bulb turn on. My point dawned on him. I eventually gave him some coaching on how to think more like a salesperson and improve his sales presentation.

Why Measure Sales Identity?

Measuring Sales Identity can ultimately save your organization a substantial amount of money long term. How?

Organizations all over the globe are challenged to hire high performance salespeople, not doing so can be costly in terms of sales results, hiring and training costs. Recent studies show, the average cost of hiring a poor performing salesperson has swelled to over $100,000/year. Think about it, how much are hiring mistakes costing you?

Research shows - salespeople with weak Sales Identity will under perform within 6 months of joining an organization and ultimately "self select" out of the sales profession within 18 - 24 months. In fact, we found people with weak Sales Identity prefer to apply for "sales" positions with deflected titles because they insinuate less sales accountability.

Unless detected, salespeople with weak Sales Identity will struggle and steal valuable resources from your organization via increased turnover, higher training costs and poor sales results. Here are 3 simple steps to protect your organization going forward:

Step 1: Remove the Identity Crisis

A surefire way to jeopardize long term sales productivity is to have your organization struggle through a sales identity crisis. If the role is a sales role - title it as such. Top performing salespeople absolutely love sales and prefer to be called - Sales Representatives. Having deflected titles attracts weaker performers who will struggle to get out of the ranks of mediocrity long term.

Step 2: Monitor Your "Motivational" Costs with Sales Reps

If you find your sales organization spending more time on motivating sales reps within the 6 - 24 month window of being hired, you may have a Sales Identity issue. Depending upon the severity, there may be hope.

Step 3: Know What You're Hiring, Prior to Making the Offer

Hiring mistakes pertaining to sales positions can be costly! Use an assessment tool that measures the Sales Identity of your candidates prior to hire.

Rod McKinnis, Founder of The McKinnis Consulting Group is a highly sought after Sales Management Training Consultant, specializing in doubling sales results in a matter of months. To learn more or to schedule Rod for your next sales event visit www.SalesisSimple.com.

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Use Outlook for Sales Management

Sales Management inside Outlook

Prophet adds complete sales management to your existing Outlook. With Prophet you can manage each lead, prospect and sale through each step of your sales process and do it from within Outlook. Prophet adds powerful features that allow you to track each prospect, customer and account and track all communications and activities with them. With Prophet's sales management you can easily report on your sales pipeline and develop sales projections. The Prophet Server Editions allow you to create a team environment for sharing and organizing sales data to fit your business. Prophet provides a complete sales management solution for your company.

Sales Management by Opportunity

Prophet adds an Opportunity window to your Outlook, allowing you to track each sales opportunity from start to finish. You can customize the Opportunity window to follow the steps in your Sales Process and collect any information that is vital to your sales management system. The Opportunity window gives you the power to track any email, appointment, task, document, or note related to each sale for any customer. With a single click you can create an email addressed to a specific customer and linked directly to their record. Prophet tracks all the activity for your leads and sales, making sales management more effortless.

Easy Sales Management Reporting

Reporting on your sales activities has never been easier, and can be done right from within Outlook. Prophet tracks all your vital sales data such as sales stage, client type, closing date, sales revenue, and more for each opportunity and provides easy reporting on all of it. Creating sales projections is as easy as running a Sales Pipeline report in Prophet. You can review total sales revenue for a specific period by looking at Prophet's Account Sales report. Review any of Prophet's 30+ reports for any period you specify.

Prophet helps you improve the efficiency of your sales management by providing the ability to create custom reports specific to your business. Whether you are managing two people or two hundred, you can create the reports you need to actively and accurately review and monitor how your team is doing.

Simple Sharing of Sales Management

The Prophet Server Editions provide the ability for you to share sales data and sales management duties across your team of sales professionals. Assign specific customers, accounts and opportunities to each of your salespeople and monitor their specific progress and results. Share responsibility for important deals by having multiple salespeople work on those opportunities and share their information real-time.

Your Prophet Server Edition gives active sales management over remote salespeople by allowing them to work off-line in their Prophet and synching automatically from any location through a remote connection. All your sales data is stored centrally on your Prophet Server Edition permitting simple sales management and review for your entire team from one centralized location.

The Prophet Sales Management Solution

Prophet provides simple and easy sales management for teams of any size, right inside Outlook. Tracking of each lead, prospect and sale is accomplished through the Prophet Opportunity Window, giving you immediate access to all activities and communications related to each and every one. With Prophet Reports your sales management team can easily review all aspects of your sales process, making review and evaluation of your sales efforts more effective.

Sharing your sales data throughout your team has never been easier with the Prophet Server Edition. If your company currently uses Outlook for customer information and communication and you are looking for an effective way to manage your sales, consider Prophet. Continue to use Outlook as you always have, and gain the power of Prophet's best-of-breed sales management features. Prophet is sales management INSIDE Outlook.

Many of today's most successful large and small businesses have chosen Avidian's CRM Software as their sales management and contact management software.

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Sales Management

Sales Management includes features for creating the sales force; organizing sales force, sales forecasting and planning, identifying potential customers, maintaining client information, and creating and managing schedules.

Sales management's key functions are contemplated around procuring a clear perception into the activities of direct reports as well as the sales activities of the enterprise.

Key functions maintained by sales management are managing organizational sales structure and territories--crucial enterprises turnover; sales reporting and forecasting; quota management--handing assignments to sales representatives, implementing changes, etc.; and incentive management--producing compensation plan.

An organization's sales management is enhanced through their workforces' active participation to internal and external programs like symposiums--meetings or conferences conducted to discuss an issue; trainings--coaching people to a mode of performance in introductory, learning and transitional periods; and seminars--a gathering where there occurs information exchange and discussions.

These customized activities indulge the personnel's yearning to gain more knowledge on individual productivity, team work, streamlining the sales process, sales performance precision, hiring sales champions, motivation methods that work, mastering the art of sales and sales coaching and tools, tactics, strategies for improvement.

The role of the sales manager is to provide an atmosphere where their subordinates can perform. They play a critical role in analytically examining, questioning and settling the sales productivity problems by creating structure and conscientiousness in the sales process.

To be good in these aspects, a sales manager must equip himself with the methodologies for planning sales activities and the know-how in using sound key performance indicators for managing the selling process. To increase sales productivity, concentration must be allotted to the sales process rather than consuming full focus on business outcomes.

Another character in sales management is the sales people or sales representatives. These are the people designated to solicit business in behalf of the organization in a specific territory.

To build successful sales relationships, a sales representative has to identify and attend to two necessities. These are the prospect's psychological needs--intellectual concerns as to what makes him happy; as well as the prospect's objective or business needs--the products, materials, equipments that are related to his profession, way of life, or hobbies.

In sales management the things that are taken into consideration are: the sales process--right variety to suit the business's market and value delivery to consumers; psychological assessment--revolves around understanding and researching on the business and consumer needs; pre-approach planning and prospecting--understanding maximum value prospects and generating referrals; opening--engineering business affinities, establishing plausibility and gaining interest; and strategies--development of long- and short-term sales cycles.

A profitable sales management requires the comprehension of the prospect's needs and the source of customer value. Active listening and questioning techniques should be applied to collect information on ways to further service and product value. And there should also be continuous personnel information upgrade to equip sales people with the right strategies and methods to top-notch sales and sales management skills.

Copyright 2007 Ismael D. Tabije

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Six Steps To Sales Performance Management

In today's day and age a lot of senior managers and sales managers struggle with maintaining their top line growth performance because they neglect their fundamental duties when it comes to managing the performance of their sales team.

If you want to take your team to the next level, consider developing a sales performance management system that includes the following elements;

First of all, assess your current sales team to understand the performance of your individuals and objectively analyze which of your people are capable of producing their numbers and which aren't, and then prune and tune that existing organization to make sure that you weed out poor performers and take corrective action of those who do have a chance of performing well.

Second, learn how to hire and recruit "A" players for your sales team. This requires a rigorous attention to detail as it relates to specifying your job description, developing a recruiting process, broadcasting your job postings to available candidates and then going through a very rigorous interviewing, screening and reference checking methodology.

The third element in effective sales performance management system is to establish good measurements and to measure and monitor the performance of your sales teams. With today's CRM tools and sales force automation tools it's very easy for you to get clear and concise activity and pipeline metrics that you can evaluate on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Developing those measurements and then integrating them into regular meetings with your sales teams, both collectively and individually will help you to develop a sales performance management expectation with your employees and a culture of accountability.

Fourth, work on developing a standard corrective action plan for under-performers on your sales team. A corrective action plan should be a standard approach to correcting sales performance that is well understood and documented and accepted by everybody on your team. Sales people should know that when they fail to hit their numbers or achieve their sales quotas for a defined period that they will be put on corrective action, which will define a series of steps that are required in order to improve performance within a finite period of time, with a clear understanding of what the consequences are for not improving sales performance.

Fifth, make sure that you have the proper investments going on in sales training both product as well as sales technique. Also, make sure that you have a sales training system that is systematic and ongoing with your sales team.

Sixth, make sure that you understand the importance of coaching your sales team to success. The CEO or sales manager's job is to develop a coaching system to make sure that sales people are well attuned to. It is important that the CEO or sales manager has an engaged active relationship with each team member and that each team member receives regular honest open feedback on their performance, and suggestions on how to improve. Sales people need attention just like anybody else on your company's team, and so part of your sales performance management system should focus on coaching your people and making sure that they understand where they stand in your organization.

Finally, a good sales performance management system includes incentives and rewards; those include commission / bonuses, financial incentives as well as recognition programs. Many companies fail to recognize the power of non-cash incentives when it comes to motivating their sales team. Sales people come to work just like everybody else, for both financial wages as well as psychic wages. It's important to recognize the non-cash component when it comes to recognition. It's easy to recognize the efforts of your sales team through contests, awards, atta-boy's, regular hi-fives with people who've just closed deals, recognition in front of company meetings, all of those things can add a powerful component of recognition and incentives to your overall incentive program. So, if your company is interested in accelerating its sales and taking its sales team's performance to the next level, consider building a formalized sales performance management system that includes all of the elements that I've just mentioned about.

Cube Management helps companies accelerate their sales, by providing the Sales & Marketing talent they need to grow their business. Cube is a leading recruiting and consulting partner to mid-market and emerging growth companies in the technology, manufacturing, healthcare and business service sectors. We work across the spectrum of Sales, Marketing and Business Development, providing holistic solutions that drive revenue and profit success. Cube Management combines Strategy, Process and People, to produce great results. Download the Cube Management Recruiting Guide and the Cube Management Inside Sales Guide.

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Why Consider 'Sales Prospecting' as a Sales Management Training Course

The last thing a sales manager wants to do is to go through a certification course in 'Sales Prospecting'. They've been there and they've done that, or they'd not have been promoted to a sales manager level. After all, that's up to the sales rep. That's why they are hired on. In fact, I recently asked a Vice President of Sales in a competitive industry if he'd be open to looking at a 'Sales Prospecting System' for his sales managers his remark was "That's what we hire sales reps for. If they don't do it, we fire them and find some that will."

Well, by definition, I guess that's fair. Because if you take a look at any outside sales representative job description, you'll see experience criteria listed such as: "Excellent cold calling and lead generation experience," or "Must be able to identify Target Prospects and maintain an appropriate activity funnel," or "Must meet or exceed activity standards."

So why should a sales organization consider establishing a prospecting certification course for their Sales Managers? In order to consider this argument, let's first take a look at standard criteria within a sales manager job description:

"Responsible for managing Sales activity for new and existing Account Executives"

Now let's break this job criterion into individual elements and look at it as a professional Investor would look at a 'Business Case'. Here are some synonyms for the word 'Responsible':

o Accountable

o In charge

o To blame

o Liable

o Guilty

o Answerable

o Dependable

o Conscientious

I don't know about you, but if I understand the King's language here, I am beginning to feel I have some 'Skin in the game' as a sales manager already. Let's investigate a little further by pulling out the phrase 'managing sales activity'.

There are (2) different ways to manage. You can choose to 'Supervise' or you can elect to 'Organize'. If 100% of your sales team is 100% effective at professional prospecting; meeting or exceeding the necessary activity standard, 'supervising' will do the trick.

You're dismissed.

But to the extent that they are not is the extent you will need to 'organize', put in order a best practice prospecting system to support new sales appointment activity. (Or start over like the sales executive fore-mentioned.)

Now let's peel back the phrase 'new and existing account reps'.

In a sales manager dictionary, 'new' means 'New-hires' and 'New-hires' reflects 'Ramp-to-quota'. Simply put, the quicker a new-hire ramps to Quota the better for both parties; the new-hire and the sales manager. Both get more credit, earn more recognition and receive more commission. And what is the most important facilitator in getting a new-hire sales rep to Quota in the least amount of time?

It's making sure they secure the necessary amount of new appointments. It's the fuel in the tank. The quicker they do that, the quicker they will ramp to quota with the proper mentor support of course.

And that brings us back to the leadership choice between choosing to 'Supervise' versus electing to 'Organize'.

Here's a (1) rep 'Hard-number' example.

Average New Hires per Year: 1

Monthly Sales Quota: $7,500

Average Term Agreement: 24 months

Current Average Ramp-to-Quota: 5 months

Improve Average Ramp-to-Quota: 4 months

Average 'Sub-Quota' Revenue per Month during Ramp: $2,800

Annual ROI: $112,800

In this example, reducing the time it takes for (1) new-hire sales rep to achieve Quota by only 1 month returns back to the sales manager $112,800 in additional sales revenue.

The other and sometimes forgotten performance silo within the term 'New-hire' is sales employee turnover. Most sales employee turnover occurs with the first 8 months of bring a new sales employee onboard. My studies also tell me that 90% or more of that turnover is directly related to low sales activity; not setting enough new appointments to meet the quota ramp criteria.

Using the same model as above, let's look at what's in it for the Sales manager to promote a Prospecting system to reduce new-hire employee turnover.

Number of Sales Reps: 10

12 Month Turnover Rate: 40%

Average Salary: $25,000

Recruiting Costs/Rep: $1,000

Training Costs/Rep: $1,800

Monthly Sales Quota: $7,500

Improve Turnover Rate To: 30%

Revenue Ramp-up Costs: $60,000

Total Annual Cost: $178,533

Revenue Production Loss: $63,000

Saved Reps: 1

Annual Savings: $44,633

Reducing annual turnover for just (1) new-hire sales rep returns back to the sales manager $44,633 in additional sales revenue and recovered costs. Multiply that out by your own sales employee turnover number.

Now back to our sales manager job description criteria of "Responsible for managing sales activity for new and existing Account Executives." Let's investigate the term 'existing account managers' and what managing sales activities by 'supervising' or 'organizing' means to our career.

First of all, what percentage of your existing sales team is reaching or exceeding quota each month. Of the percentage that is not, what percentage of them are not achieving quota due to sub-par sales activity? When you uncover that sales performance number and understand the ramifications to revenue result, you will move another notch closer to your ultimate answer of 'supervise' or 'organize'.

Secondarily, what percentage of your sales reps time is spent on securing new business appointments? JDH Group clients spend on average 50% of their weekly 'hourly rate' on prospecting. For a sales rep working 45 hours per week, that's over 22 hours dedicated to front end activity. If you decided to 'organize' a prospecting system, become certified in it and help others with it, would that drive that number down? Will that allow your sales team more time to pursue higher-value, solutions-based selling opportunities?

One definition of 'Best practice' is the sum of everything everybody in your sales organization knows that gives you a competitive edge in the market place. Putting in place a 'Prospecting system' with best practice components and elements, becoming independently certified to it as a manager/leader and mentoring it throughout your sales team will ensure that nobody is left behind.

And enabling your sales team to share knowledge and insight stimulates 'Targeted' sales activity that will drive new business and help you reach your desired results more often.

Jeff Hardesty is president of JDH Group Inc., a sales performance training company based in Powell, Ohio. He can be reached at jeff@convertmoresales.com.

Calculate your sales team?s ?Sales Performance Competencies? here
http://convertmoresales.com/marketing_blitz.php

Submit your numbers for a complimentary 30-minute performance consultation with Jeff Hardesty
http://convertmoresales.com/roi_survey.php

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Sales Management - What's Involved? Part 1

What any individual Sales Manager actively does is conditioned by the size of their company, the products it sells and the way they are sold, the organisation of functions within it, and perhaps their own special ability. They may carry most or all of the responsibilities which would be those of a Marketing Manager, if this position does not exist within their company.

Essentially, however, the task of the Sales Manager is to produce revenue for their company through the operations of the sales staff for whom they are responsible. The size of this revenue, and the profit (however defined) which it should show, are usually predetermined in order to achieve the aims of company policy. The objectives which they set for the various activities which are involved in carrying out this task should therefore be derived from, and be compatible with, company objectives, such as return on capital employed, cash flow, market position, growth.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SALES MANAGER'S JOB

o Many of the factors which affect success are not within their control (such as competitors and government legislation)

o They are nevertheless required to forecast future sales and to plan their operation accordingly, using their judgement and experience.

o They must depend on other departments for the design, production, quality and delivery of products for which they obtain orders, just as those departments must depend on them to get these orders.

o The sales staff that they rely on to produce the results they have planned for, are for most of the time working alone, not under their immediate control.

o They are engaged in a constant struggle to obtain increased sales against competitors with the same aim.

Although the basic functions and skills of management, discussed later, apply to their job, it is clear that such qualities as creativeness, flexibility, tenacity, and ability to deal effectively with people, will be particularly important. At the same time the ability to analyse market situations and form sound judgements on them, is equally necessary but may not sit easily with the kind of qualities mentioned.

THE SELLING ROLE

Since, like other managers, the Sales Manager depends on those who work for them to produce the results by which they are judged, consideration of their job can usefully continue by examining the nature and characteristics of industrial selling and, hence, of the salesperson's job.

Personal selling is only one of several possible ways of communicating with customers and potential customers but, particularly where industrial goods are concerned, is undoubtedly the most effective in terms of achieving the objective - influencing the decision to buy. It is also, even though selling costs may be a small percentage of revenue, expensive. Sales staff should therefore be treated as a scarce resource, to be used as effectively as possible.

Selling itself is a process of bringing persuasion to bear, to;

- Awaken awareness of a need or problem

- Establish that the need can be satisfied by a particular type of product

- Convince the prospective user that the salesperson's own product can offer a superior satisfaction.

The actual selling job for a particular product or company may embrace all three of these stages, the last two, or the last only, depending on the situation requirements.

- An innovatory product, hitherto unknown

- A product for which there are alternatives

- An established market in which the user can choose from a number of makes.

For economy of effort the salesperson's task (and perhaps the kind of person required) should be defined accordingly.

OTHER TASKS OF THE SALES STAFF

Although selling is the basic justification of the salesperson's existence and The Sales Manager's purpose in employing them, all sales staff have to spend part of their time doing other things (e.g. travelling and preparing reports). Sales staff are, however, often also required to:

- Provide technical information other than that strictly needed to make a sale

- Give some kind of after-sales service

- Conduct market research (going beyond the normal, essential supply of market intelligence about customers, competitors, etc)

- Check credit status of potential customers

It may or may not be that the salesperson is the best person to do such things as these. As, however, he is a scarce resource, expensive, and employed to obtain orders, the cost-effectiveness of using them for such purposes compared with other means should be examined - remembering also that there may be some loss of sales to take into account (the "opportunity cost")

THE SALES MANAGER'S RESPONSIBILITY FOR SALES STAFF

Some characteristics common to most forms of selling are:

- Smaller sales forces in industrial selling than consumer goods selling, usually dealing with a very much smaller number of clients

- Responsibility and power to make decisions vested in the

individual salesperson

- The need often to deal with a number of people in the customer company in order to achieve buying decisions.

These characteristics must influence the nature of the Sales Manager's responsibility for their sales staff and the forms it takes.

One effect may well be that a good deal of the market analysis and planning which is part of the Sales Manager's responsibility, is delegated to sales staff who, to this extent, are the managers of their own territory. If this is so, the need for clear objectives and adequate overall control is stronger than if sales staff were more closely directed. This also emphasises the importance of good communication and information, flowing in both directions.

The Sales Manager's general responsibilities for his sales staff may be summarised:

o Planning

He is given resources, human and financial, and has to plan to use

those in the most effective combination to achieve predetermined

results. They can do this only by knowing his staff and understanding

the nature and behaviour of costs.

o Organising

The way in which he develops his sales staff - whether on a general or territorial basis, or. specialising in types of product or by class of customer or end user - should derive from a study of the market, taking into account also the qualifications and the experience of the sales staff.

o Training

As products, markets and objectives tend to be continually developing

and changing, training also should be a continuous process. With small

sales forces, formal training presents difficulties, but the need to always

seek a higher standard of performance remains.

o Control

This involves setting targets and standards for measurement of performance, and taking appropriate action when they are not met.

o Motivation

Motivation implies two effects in the sales staff: the right attitude to their job and willingness to play their part to the best of their ability in achieving aims set by their manager. It results partly from training, partly from incentives (financial and other), and perhaps most of all from the leadership given by their manager. Regular appraisal of performance and attitudes by discussion with the sales force, and observation of their work, are important for this purpose.

RECRUITMENT OF SALES STAFF

Selecting a person who will become a successful member of the sales force for any particular company is very difficult, whether they are appointed from within the company or are recruited from outside. It is often made more difficult than it need be by the lack of an adequate specification of the job the sales person is to do and, derived from this, a specification of the kind of person who might be likely to succeed. Such specifications introduce some objectivity into the selection process and provide some measures of comparability between candidates.

The importance of the sales person to their company, and the considerable investment made in them, justify a systematic approach to the ways in which, as a candidate, they are assessed and decisions are made about them. The validity of assumptions made about them at the time of appointment should be checked against subsequent performance, and the reasons for mistakes investigated.

The subjective element in selection will never be eliminated, and in at least one respect it is a valid criterion. The person chosen must "fit in" to the team comprising the Sales Manager and their sales force. If they do not do so, no matter how suitable their qualifications and experience may be, friction is likely to ensue.

THE NATURE OF MANAGEMENT

A Sales Manager may or may not be an outstanding sales person. The important thing is that he should be a good manager. This is their individual and unique contribution to their company.

The essentials of management are:

Measurement or assessment

Planning, which includes organising

Direction and control

Plans, and the direction and control of activities to put the plans into effect, depend on the collection and analysis of information, from which decisions are made.

The initial plans (say for 12 months, on which a budget will be based) results from analysis of the market and environmental factors (such as economic conditions) and from the assessment of the resources available to the manager. Control requires an input of information about performance which has to be measured against the standards set in the plans. Where there are discrepancies the manager must decide what to do about them.

The two basic requirements for good management (apart from personal qualities which make the manager an acceptable leader) are therefore:

Adequate information

Decisions which take account of the relevant information

Adequate information about markets is hard to get, and the cost of obtaining it may outweigh the advantages of having it. The Sales Manager is therefore often in the position of having to make decisions on the basis of incomplete information or assumptions. They must then rely to some extent on past experience and their own judgement of the probability that this or that will happen. The important thing in these circumstances it to record (preferably in writing) the assumptions that have been made so that, if subsequently information becomes available which falsifies these assumptions, some assessment can be made of consequences for plans based on them.

Copyright © 2006 Jonathan Farrington. All rights reserved

Jonathan Farrington is the Managing Partner of The jfa Group. To find out more about the author, read his latest articles, or to subscribe to his newsletter for dedicated sales professionals, visit =>http://www.jonathanfarrington.com You can also now visit Jonathan's Blog at =>http://www.thejfblogit.co.uk

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Sales Management Techniques That Can Bring Results And Keep A Sales Manager Focused

The position of sales manager often comes with multiple responsibilities. Each of which has a direct affect on the success of the organization.

The sales manager is frequently an active sales person, as well as an administrator. He or she must make sure quotas are being met, margins are in line, pipelines are full, salespersons are making their calls and individuals are realistically matched to their positions and territories.

An effective sales manager realizes that a person's behavior is the key to success.

How a salesperson behaves towards his or her responsibilities has a direct link to results.

The individual who constantly complains about the state of the market, lack of leads and referrals, inability to get to the decision maker, etc. is usually better at making excuses than making sales.

The quandary for the sales manager is...how long should he or she put up with ineffective behavior?

In order to answer that question, the sales manager must first look at the reporting structure that he or she has put in place for the entire sales team.

All sales teams should meet at least twice a month. I prefer once a week. And each sales person must be ready to report his or her results to everyone in the room (or on the conference call). One easy way to hold each person accountable, while enabling them to communicate weekly progress efficiently, is to use that good old stand-by...paper.

At the weekly meeting each person should present his or her weekly "cookbook" or call sheet for the previous week. The sheet is broken into two different categories, one is titled Prospects and the other is titled Existing Clients. The two large categories are then sub-divided into smaller areas. Under Prospects, the column headings may read:

Calls/Contacts (which would include telephone calls, e-mails, etc.), Conversations (this measures how many calls and contacts actually turned into discussions, either on the phone, through e-mail, or one-on-one conversations), Appointments, Meetings Held, Networking Events Attended and Sales Closed. Under the Existing Clients category the headings may read the same with a few twists, such as, Reorders, Stop-by Visits, etc. Each column is then divided into rows, one for each day of the week.

These "cookbooks" instruct the salesperson to list his or her goals for the week at the top of each column heading. During the week the salesperson puts a hash mark for each call, appointment, meeting, etc. that they have accomplished. The sales closed category, however, has the dollar figure for each particular sale. I also advise clients to keep a separate sheet for each day of the week, in order to list the names of the individuals called or contacted and with whom the salesperson had conversations.

At the sales meeting, each person photocopies and hands out his or her sheet to the others in attendance. This leads to accountability by one's peers and allows each individual to measure his or her results against those of the others in the group. It is vitally important that everyone is non-judgmental. The sales manager ultimately holds judgment, however at the weekly sales meetings people should be able to ask for help, find out how those who are consistently producing do so, and learn techniques to improve the production.

It is also important that attendees understand that communication is not limited to the weekly meetings, but that help is available, in fact encouraged at all times.

In addition to paper "cookbooks" the use of Customer Relations Software should also be used to add depth to the interactive salesperson/client/prospect relationship.

All customer or prospect conversations, sales, and other interactions with anyone within your organization's sales or customer service process should be entered and summarized to enable the sales team, including inside salespeople, sales managers, new salespersons, customer service representatives and others within the company to have a complete understanding as to the current situation with every client or prospect. This includes specific problems, new orders, satisfactory comments, etc.

Besides the "cookbook" another effective tool is the "pipeline" sheet. This paper is used to report what prospects are in the salesperson's revenue pipeline. The headings on this sheet may read, Company (or individual), Potential Sale (in dollars), Possibility of Sale (in percentages), Contact Person, Last Contact Date, and Next Step.

This weekly sheet should also be photocopied and distributed by each salesperson to the others on the team. The "pipeline" sheet gives a snapshot of potential revenues and new clients. It is also a valuable tool in easing potential rough spots that a salesperson may be encountering. By laying out prospective companies and contacts one salesperson may find that another team member may have an alternate means of securing the sale.

These two sheets are also concise measuring devices for the sales manager. They permit a clear view of a salesperson's behavior as it applies to his or her consistency at following the techniques necessary in order to build a solid business.

While the revenue results may vary, the sales manager can see how new salespeople are performing on his or her way to growth and greater revenues and how longer tenured salespeople are performing in and out of his or her comfort zone.

With the weekly "cookbook" and "pipeline" sheets a sales manager will, over a defined period of time, be able to see who is, or has, the potential to produce, and who doesn't.

These results and results indicator tools can then be used to decide which salespeople to terminate and which salespeople to keep and grow with.

A sales manager's greatest tools are the ability to motivate, communicate with and support his or her team members, as well as measure the results of the salespeople under his or her guidance and the ability to construct a timeline for the success the team and its members. Once processes are put in place, so that decisions can be quantified and qualified, the answer to the question posed at the beginning of this article becomes easy.

How long should a sales manager put up with ineffective behavior?

As long as the results and the behavior associated with them, within the timeline allotted, indicate it's time to let the person go.

One last thought. If you are a one-person organization, the tools mentioned in this article work equally as well to measure your own productivity, goals desired and achieved, prospects to contact, sales made, etc. You are your own sales manager and while you're not apt to fire yourself you may find that you need help in the form of adding another person, finding a partner, creating a symbiotic relationship with another firm, or getting coaching or training to overcome your weaknesses and increase you strengths.

The best thing is...it's all there in black and white!

Dan Goldberg, MBA, is President of Dan Goldberg Consulting L.L.C. a training, coaching and business development firm located in the Philadelphia, PA area. He is the founder and former owner of "For Eyes" the highly successful international optical company and an internationally recognized keynote speaker. Dan is the author of the book "Stand Back A Second, Just don't fall off the edge," and of "The Six Steps To Solid Sales Success" and "The Seven Elements Of Successful Management" programs. He is Executive-In-Residence at Kutztown University and has been the subject of stories in Newsweek, Business Week, Playboy, Successful Business, Investor?s Business Daily, major newspapers in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Boston, Baltimore, Miami, San Francisco, Oakland, St. Louis, Chicago, Los Angeles and many other national and local publications. In addition, Dan has appeared on Good Morning America and other national and local television and radio programs. You can contact him at dg@dangoldberg.com, visit his website at http://www.dangoldberg.com or reach him at (215) 233-5352

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Maximizing Sales with Lean Production and Lead Management

In a recent conversation with a friend from the auto industry we got into a conversation about lean production. It occurred to me that there is something to be borrowed from this methodology to increase sales efficiency and production levels.

Lean production, a methodology that was originally developed by Toyota, captures the concepts of minimizing inventory, maximizing flow, pull production from customer demands, and continuous improvement. These principles become interesting when they are applied to lead management--particularly the minimization of inventory (marketing generated leads) and maximization of flow (sales production) with the implementation of a "pull" system.

A "pull" lead management system that reacts to the demand of the user for the next lead directly affects sales conversion rate. The combination of minimizing the necessary inventory of leads and maximizing the throughput of sales actions will increase sales performance. The question is how does this combination outperform the traditional paradigm of pushing leads to a sales force? Here is how I present the argument for a lean pull system versus a wasteful, low production push system.

Sales Tempo

I debate the general belief that a push system more quickly gets a lead to the right person. In fact, if the organization is managing their lead to sales capacity the timeliness in getting to a lead should be equal on both systems. I have always maintained, even when I was running high performance sales teams, that throttling lead distribution based on productive performance (taking action on leads) and ensuring that leads do not drop into "dead" queues was the key to my success. So, in selecting a push versus pull lead management system is typically a commitment to a certain sales tempo. A push methodology will lend to sales people expecting leads to be "given to them" and in my experience a lower regard for aggressively responding to customer inquiries. In contrast, a pull methodology creates an expectation that every lead is "earned" by meeting the last customer's needs or at least responding quickly to their request. So, in creating high velocity sales teams the edge goes to the push methodology.

Time to Initial Contact

Although I concede that in sales organizations where the sales velocity is already high there should be no difference in push versus pull in regard to time to contact. There is still, in the push system, the opportunity for the dreaded "dead" queue. Inherently, the push system allocates each lead to a user on the system. However, is that user logged-in, or is he or she on that well deserved two week vacation, or do they even still work at the company? In a push system you had better be very active in user management or you may allocate valuable leads into "dead" queues and once allocated they can be very difficult to see--a very expensive mistake. The last sales shop I ran we had thousands of sales people and a push system. Managing that many sales people can be daunting, especially with the typical high rate of turn over, but at this scale it is nearly impossible. My experience is to routinely finding hundreds of leads in "dead" queues--that equals thousands of lost dollars and hundreds of disappointed potential customers.

Pipeline Management

Pipeline management, the nurturing and cultivating of leads, is one of the most critical components of the conversion equation and the area where push versus pull dramatically differ. In the push system, leads are put into queues and it is entirely up to the sales person to effectively manage their pipeline. What happens in the average case is you hope the sales person calls the lead even once. Much less than the 5-7 contacts it generally takes to close a lead. In contrast, the pull system continually forces pipeline leads back to the sales person until a final disposition is reached; compelling the 5-7 contacts. Add to this the power of an intelligent lead selection engine that is continually allocating the next best lead and you have guaranteed conversion rate lift.

Sales Process

One final critical factor in increasing sales velocity and conversion is the consistent and disciplined sales process. The difference between the two methodologies is once again about enforcing tempo. The push approach puts a lead in a sales queue and hopes the sales person does something that acquires that customer (note the lack of accountability in the sales process). The pull system compels the sales person to annotate and disposition every lead in order to "earn" the next lead. This creates the consistency in the sales process and feedback for team leaders and marketing.

So fundamentally, the push versus pull debate is one of sales velocity. The pull method will always produce more sales and higher conversion, maintaining an accelerated sales tempo. The method inherently enforces this behavior in organizations committed to high performance sales teams.

Obviously, the pull lead management system has significant advantages in minimizing lead inventory and maximizing sales production. If you want a push system use your email inbox. If you want to improve your marketing ROI and increase your sales production then get a pull lead management system.

Contact the Author: Bill Rice
Company: www.kaleidico.com
Sales Blog: www.bettercloser.com

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We Will Make It Back----- A Fictional Story Based on Fact About Sales Management Success

Bill Borders stepped up onto the podium. He had just been introduced as the new Vice President of Sales for Kiechler Building Supplies. As he looked out at the fifty seven faces staring back at him, time seemed to stop and everyone was motionless. Bills mind wandered. This wasn't a nervous reaction; it was more of a reality check.

Bill had already met most of the fifty seven faces that were now looking at him in anticipation of what he might say. In fact, he had individual casual conversation with many of those faces in the audience.

Bill had been hired by Tom Thompson, third generation President/owner of Kiechler Building Supplies just five short months ago, but he had already managed to personally visit every single one of the sixteen branches Kiechler owned. He was hired to change the direction of the company, to recapture lost market share, to rejuvenate the sales force and put Kiechler back on the growth track to become the premier building supplies distributor in the Southwest once again.

Bill was confident that he could meet the challenge that Tom Thompson had laid out before him. His personal history and knowledge of the industry gave credibility to his confidence. Challenge was no stranger to Bill Borders. Being a decorated Marine platoon sergeant combined with the street experience he gained growing up in the building supply business, provided Bill with exactly the quality of leadership necessary to tackle the issues Kiechler had been facing for the past five years. Lost market share, deteriorating competitive advantage, a culture of compassion that lost all of it's acquaintance with accountability and a lack of trust in the leadership of the company was pushing Kiechler toward the brink of disaster.

As Bill stood on that stage, facing his sales force all together for the very first time, he scanned the room looking from left to right and then right to left. As he looked into the faces of the people that held a major share of Kiechler's final destiny in their very own hands, he briefly revisited his decision to accept Tom Thompson's offer and plea to come out of retirement and help rebuild a company that had seemed to have lost it's passion, it's energy, it's sense of urgency and most importantly it's will to regain the reputation it held for over fifty years as the premier building supply distributor in the Southwest.

Bill had sold his own company located in the Northwest and moved to Southern California four years ago. He was only fifty eight years old at the time. Retirement seemed like the very thing he wanted to do. After two years of playing golf five days a week and relaxing by reading over 100 different books, boredom started setting in. Then Tom Thompson approached him with an offer. Bill accepted Tom's offer and they agreed on a three year contract that would take Bill to age sixty five. Bill knew with complete confidence that he could solve Kiechler's problems and recreate the success factor that had once existed at the company. Bill knew that Tom Thompson needed guidance, coaching and mentoring, but he believed that Tom was not the root cause of the problem even though he was a young forty two year old President trying to fill his father's shoes.

Bill was confident that in three years, he would make Kiechler Building Supplies the number one distributor in the Southwest once again. He was sure that he could rekindle the passion, the commitment, the culture and ultimately the reputation Tom's grandfather began creating the day he opened the business in 1957. He knew it would be a challenge, but Bill seemed to have that unique leadership quality that made people want to follow him. He had that unique ability to get people to release the discretionary energy that is critical to success, energy that is only released if you believe in the company and you believe in your leader.

A few seconds had passed since Bill stepped onto that stage, but time was still at a standstill in Bill's mind. He scanned the room one more time. Slowly this time looking squarely into the eyes of the men and women that represented the $125 million in revenue Kiechler reported the prior year. This was a year that reflected a 20% decline in previous year's sales. As Bill looked into the eyes of his sales force, he felt he could almost feel the many different facets of the problems the

company faced. The sales force before him seemed to send that message. In Bill's eyes, most of the problems were written all over the fifty seven faces that stared back at him from the classroom style setup in this conference hall.

A few faces in the crowd were even older than Bill himself with a look that cried out, "What do you know? What can you tell me? Why should I listen to you? Why should I bust my butt? I'm happy with the ways things work here. We don't need any 'Rah Rah lets all work harder speech'."

That look didn't appear just on the faces of the few in the audience that were older than Bill. He could see that look on most of the veterans in the audience that had ten or fifteen years of service with the company. Bill had seen that look before. It was a look of complacency. He liked to refer to it as the "pickup truck and boat syndrome". He actually had a salesman at his own company confirm his theory face to face once. He recalled those words as if he had heard them yesterday as he reached down and turned on his lavaliere microphone to begin his presentation to his sales force.

"I don't need to work my butt off anymore. I paid my dues. I've been around a long time. I own my customers. I have my boat, I go fishing every weekend and my son finished college. What else is there? Life is good and a few extra bucks every year isn't worth messing up my life style."

Bill almost chuckled out loud as he recalled that conversation with a stogy old veteran of the industry that had worked for him. It took a little while, but Bill had reached that sales veteran and today he is a good friend and still the number one sales person at Bill's old company.

Bill's recollection of that conversation also reminded him that the "pickup truck and boat" syndrome is probably just a part of the problem. The faces before him seemed to confirm that suspicion. There were the eager faces of the newer sales people willing to learn but perhaps they haven't had the opportunity. Bill knew the company "Talked the Talk" professing in their mission statement that employees are their most important asset but they failed to invest profits in training and development. Bill also saw a different look on the faces of the majority of his sales people. That look seemed to point out that they were being held captive in a culture embracing a reactive, passive order taking environment, a culture that didn't even understand demand creation, a culture so distant from accountability

that reactive route mentality sales became the platform for Kiechler's market share degeneration.

Bill's microphone went live and a loud screech from the sound system brought his consciousness back to the moment. The very last thought that raced across his mind before he began to speak took him back to the biggest challenge he had ever faced in his life. For a brief moment he was back in the jungle on the outskirts of DaNang, Vietnam. He made a speech that day too, a much more important speech. He peered into the eyes of those men he had to lead also. Young men, young warriors, young marines that looked up to him as their platoon sergeant. He looked at them and told them he believed in them. He made them a promise that day. He promised he would take them back, take them back home. Twenty five of his men were in the fight of their lives that day, the day DaNang was over run. Twenty four of them came home. Bill regretted that one loss, but all his men knew that he was one of but only a few leaders that could have got them through that day. They believed in him and it paid off. Bill took them back home.

Bill started his little talk by saying;

"Nowadays, salespeople must be problem solvers able to generate solutions for customers in their time of need. Therefore, we must possess a great deal of knowledge about our customers' business. We must actually define what those needs are because the customer may not know, nor take the time to explain if they do know. Customers want us to have the knowledge and intelligence to comprehend and analyze their problems before showing up at the door. Customers will listen and buy from the salesperson that finds the "pain" and takes it away."

Bill hesitated a little for effect before he continued.

"That means we need to go back to the basics. We are going to revisit sales best practices. Some of you will know exactly what we are talking about. Some of you may have forgotten it and some of you may have never known the principles upon which we are going to rebuild our sales force. In the building industry today our sales environment leans toward a more multifaceted atmosphere, salespeople must become strategists with a plan. This plan requires more knowledge about the business, better relationships and better solutions. Some

old school salesmen may believe they know what it takes. They have the experience. They've been around a long time. They also may be wrong. The world has changed ladies and gentlemen. To recreate the competitive advantage that Kiechler enjoyed in the past we must do things differently. We can't afford to be complacent. Complacency destroys competitive advantage. As sales professionals, we can't become full of ourselves, no matter how long we've been in the field, no matter how much experience we have."

Bill's gaze sought out the veterans in the audience as he spoke those words. He continued:

"Going back to basics and revisiting best practice means we are going to be talking about targeting, goal setting, action planning and customer profiling. Targeting is the process of selecting high potential customer accounts to receive intense sales focus. Goal setting translates that high potential into achievable numeric objectives, i.e. revenue and margin growth. Action planning means we have to define the activities that are required to achieve our expected results. It's about strategizing, figuring out exactly what it is going to take to succeed at every individual account we target. That is why it is important that we understand the customer's customer and the customer's industry. Be more knowledgeable and conscious of our customer's problem. We are no longer selling a product, we are selling a solution to make their life easier, happier, better, less complicated, or more fun. By understanding the customer's business and his customers, we help them make a profit through cost reductions, improved efficiencies, increased value and increased sales. Solutions come in many forms and may have nothing to do with our products. That's okay. Look for the pain regardless of what it is and focus on the solution. Customers don't want products; they want profits - or ways to make profits. They want satisfaction, feelings of comfort, pride, praise and self-esteem. They are people just like us. Well, maybe they don't have the same crazy genetics that we have as salespeople, but they are just as smart, just as caring and have similar personal needs and feelings."

Bill paused again as he contemplated the reaction he may get to his introduction of a sales effectiveness process. A process he himself had employed at his own company. One of his first initiatives as the new Vice President of Sales was to create a team to develop and implement this process at Kiechler Building

Supplies. Bill had formed a hand picked team that included two of his sales managers, an IT person and three sales representatives. Those three sales representatives were in the audience today. Bill knew rumors had been flying about what this team was up to but nothing had been officially disclosed as of this date. The team worked hard and developed a process and program that would bring Kiechler back to a level playing field with the competition. This process would give them the opportunity to rejuvenate the sales force and create the success necessary to recapture the market share they have lost over the past five years. Bill started his introduction of the new sales effectiveness program by saying,

"There is a pill called Nexiom that some people believe is a wonder drug. It solves several problems. It does wonders for people that have experienced distress. I wish I could pass out a pill to each and every one of us including our entire management team to create instant success. Unfortunately, there is no "Purple Pill" that you can buy to drug our sales team. There is no "Purple Pill" that will improve effectiveness, there is no "Purple Pill" that will increase profit, there is no "Purple Pill" that will generate more revenue, there is no "Purple Pill" that will increase market share but there is a proven process that sustains continuous improvement that can help you achieve all those objectives. It's actually very simple, and not that difficult of a methodology. It's called a Sales Effectiveness Process. This is simply a structure for continuously improving sales force performance through focus, discipline and process built on a platform of accountability. We have put together a team that has helped develop such a process for our company. This team has worked very hard over the past four months developing this process built on a best practice platform."

Bill could almost feel the anxiety experienced by some of his sales people in the audience. Bill knew that by introducing the sales effectiveness program they would all but eliminate any place for the non performers in his group to hide. He expected that about 20% of his sales force would not be able to meet the requirements of this new program. He fully expected to have to replace them. He also felt sure that he had several sales managers that may have been great salesmen at one time but just weren't cut out to be sales managers. He had reminded himself and Tom the President that compassion was an admirable quality but it was also one of the biggest weaknesses that privately held companies exhibit throughout wholesale distribution. Bill explained that we may think we are being ethical and acting with integrity by not replacing under performers that have been under performing for a long time. But in reality, we are doing a major disservice to the majority of our employees that want to step it up and recreate that sense of urgency for success that has been missing for the past five years.

Bill continued his introduction of the sales effectiveness program by using power point slides to talk about a sales force scorecard that would be introduced.

"Once we understand basic sales best practice and make sure we have trained our entire sales force, it's really about execution. Execution involves the day-to-day activities of the salesperson. For most industries, this entails both planned, proactive tasks and opportunistic, reactive events that the salesperson uncovers by doing the right things in the right place at the right time. It's critical that the progresses of the tasks in the target action plans are carefully monitored to avoid surprises. Our new sales effectiveness process will circumvent the most common mistake made in distribution today, trying to manage results. We have to manage activities because it's the activities that produce results. Once the results are in, the horse is out of the barn and everything we do from that point on is reactive. That's the biggest mistake we have been making for the past five years. If we proactively manage the activities, the expected results will follow."

Bill paused again to search the faces in the crowd to get a feel for their reaction to his words. Most of the faces glowed with excitement. Some showed disdain, a look of disbelief and some had that look of; "Ya right, I'll just wait and see." Bill knew it wouldn't be easy, but he was pleased with what he saw so far. He continued;

"Sales is a profession that requires professional sales people. Every company needs aggressive, creative and resourceful salespeople to have their products specified, accepted and used by customers. Without informed and capable field salespeople, no company, including Kiechler could hope to compete in the marketplace today.

I believe that good salespeople, the kind who can help a company really grow, don't just happen to come along by chance or fate. There is no such thing as a "born salesperson," because selling ability is much more than an intangible given that a person either has or doesn't have. Granted, selling does require certain attributes in a person and some people are naturally born with these attributes and some aren't. Also, the person must be intelligent, able to grasp ideas and details easily, retain them and recall them for use whenever necessary in selling situations. These factors and many others relating to personal and emotional characteristics are contributing elements in the makeup of the professional salesperson. However, these attributes alone do not make a sales person nor do they guarantee success. It takes more than that. A sales person

must have adequate tools, resources and leadership to maximize their effectiveness. I am here to provide that leadership. I am here to take us back to the level of success this company used to enjoy. Things will change. Your President has made a commitment to me and to you that we will have the resources and the training necessary to make this happen. This new program is our first step. That is why the Sales Effectiveness Process is so vital. This is the program that provides the support and the resources to allow each and every one of you the opportunity to maximize your personal effectiveness in your individual territories. This is our chance to prove we are professionals. This is our chance to prove we can create success. This is our chance to regain our position in the market place. This is our chance to regain our pride. Our pride in our company, our pride in our leadership, our pride in each other but more importantly this is our opportunity to regain our pride in ourselves."

Bill was taken back by the noise, the applause. Unexpectedly all the people in the audience rose to their feet and cheered. It was exhilarating. Bill had planned to talk for another twenty minutes. He was going to discuss the sales management review process. He was going to explain his hands on involvement. He wanted to talk about functional cross selling but Bill knew when he had the order. And when you have the order you need to shut up. He waited for the applause to die down and he ended his talk that day by saying,

"I believe in this company or I wouldn't be here. I believe in our President or I wouldn't be here. I believe in our ability to change the direction of this company or I wouldn't be here. But I want to tell you from the bottom of my heart that I believe in you. If I didn't, I wouldn't be here. I know that you can become the most talked about, the most feared and the most successful sales force in the building products industry that exists today. I have faith in you. I believe in you and I'll be by your side as we win this battle together. We will make it back, back to success."

Bill walked off the stage to an applause that was deafening. He had a big smile on his face as he muttered under his breath, "Step one!"

(E-mail rick@ceostrategist.com for the Five Steps to Maximize success on Target Accounts)

Dr. Eric ?Rick? Johnson (rick@ceostrategist.com) is the founder of CEO Strategist LLC. an experienced based firm specializing in Distribution. CEO Strategist LLC. works in an advisory capacity with distributor executives in board representation, executive coaching, team coaching and education and training to make the changes necessary to create or maintain competitive advantage. You can contact them by calling 352-750-0868, or visit http://www.ceostrategist.com for more information.

Rick received an MBA from Keller Graduate School in Chicago, Illinois and a Bachelor's degree in Operations Management from Capital University, Columbus Ohio. Rick recently completed his dissertation on Strategic Leadership and received his Ph.D. He?s also a published book author with four titles to his credit: ?The Toolkit for Improved Business Performance in Wholesale Distribution,? the NWFA & NAFCD ?Roadmap?, Lone Wolf-Lead Wolf?The Evolution of Sales? and a fiction novel about teenagers called ?Shattered Innocence.?

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