No BS Grassroots Marketing Inconvenient Truth 2 - Don't Promote Your Yellow P...
Sales Management: How You Manage Your Sales Action Team
1. You may not be managing your sales team right now but
you should still know the basics of sales management at
the least. Your sales force is what brings profit into the
company, so it's important that you keep an eye on it even
if you hire sales managers to call the shots.
2. Sales management is what makes or breaks your business.
Your sales staff depends on management support so they
can be productive. This calls for an organized, creative and
attentive management team to define the proper
direction of the sales team. They both work as one, and
there is no other way around it.
3. There are several effective techniques in managing a
highly successful sales team; but it would be best to get a
good hold of the basics first, then things will then flow
smoothly from there. Everything starts with the sales
objectives, which includes what you want to accomplish
with your sales projections. Your business sales
projections and objectives allow the sales team to
measure up their performance with the given resources.
4. You must be crystal clear with your sales objectives,
including the parameters and time frame. This will provide
the foundation of a good sales plan. Any problem that
might present itself along the way must be dealt with
efficiently. I am referring to problems such as concerns
regarding the product or services about to be rolled out
from production; and administrative issues that affects the
sales plan. These problems must be handled accordingly
before launching full sales campaigns. Remember that the
way you handle such concerns will certainly impact the
productivity and efficiency of your sales team.
5. As a side note, I want you to know that professionalism is
key. Your top management must know how to handle
itself well. Your front liners must be given due respect,
otherwise this will surely affect their sales performances.
Remember that your sales team brings the sales in so that
your company can generate profit. Sales managers these
days still have a lot to learn; despite the fact that they
have mastered the art of closing sales and effective
organization of workloads to separate sales units, they still
have a lot to learn about managing people. It would be
safe to say that being overbearing on absolutely anything
is the best idea they can come up with to improve overall
productivity.
6. This may not be healthy for your business at all. What
really works in this case is to give your front liners a
chance to contribute their inputs during the sales planning
since they are the ones that do the actual selling. This
means they also have a good idea on how the selling is
done, and that is reflective on every effective sales plan.
Sales Accountability must also be a part of your sales
management and planning. This will keep the balance
considering the fact that the sales performance of your
sales action team helps to counter the opportunity you
gave them in influencing the company's sales plan.
7. You must see to it that you give support to your sales
team. Helping and motivating them will build a strong
relationship that should pave the way for effective sales
performances. This is what forms a strong business
foundation. How you approach sales management is what
makes or breaks your business.