Three Basic Steps to Sales Management

October 11, 2021
International Business

Three Basic Steps to Sales Management

Hiring the right person

Are you both a movie-goer on a weekday? No! That personality is not you. But if you’d been there during the week, you’d have seen many outside salespeople spending their time at the movies. Coffee shops, parks, and beaches are all hot spots. However, I find that the jobs I am most productive in are those where my boss never asked me where I was. Guess that I have always been a self-starter. This is one reason I am able to work remotely and not have the TV on all day.

The first step in hiring the right person is to find the right person. A self-starter who doesn’t need to be supervised is essential. You won’t have to ask the right person where they’ve been. Your performance and results will speak for them. You don’t really care if they make mistakes every now and again if they are getting the results you desire.

Set Expectations

The demographics of the territory that you wish them to manage are significant. Know your customer base and what sales goals you have. What is the market’s potential, and what will it take to achieve the desired numbers?

These things will allow you to establish expectations, goals, and measurements. Measurements are the key to achieving the goals and exceeding your expectations. These should be written down. Then, get an agreement. These numbers will help everyone to agree and believe that they are possible. It will also make it easier to follow the road map.

Conflicting goals can lead to everyone’s failure. The goal-setting section can be used to help you create a plan for success. Set small goals to help you reach your ultimate goal of exceeding your sales expectations.

Once you have identified the sales goal, you can work backward to determine the steps needed to reach it. Here’s an example:

1. 1. Know your sales goals.

2. Find out the average sale.

3. Sales Expectation = Average Sale = Sales Required to Reach the Goal

4. 4. Know the closing percentage

5. Number of sales required / Closing percentage = Number of demos needed to meet the goal.

Let’s continue moving forward with the same mindset.

1. 2 Demos per Week

2. Closest Rate: 50%

3. 2 X 52 = 104 Demos per year X 50% = 52 Sales Per Year.

4. 52 Sales X 10,000 Per Sale = $520,000 Annual Sales

Is this enough? It all depends on market potential.

Return and Report

People must be held accountable for their performance. They will quickly drift off the path and perform poorly.

It is essential that you find a way of implementing a return-and-report aspect of sales management. You can do this electronically by having your salespeople log in their daily activities into a Customer Relationship Management software. This is often called CRM. These packages can be used to report on the movement of your employees, but the data that is being entered into the software will determine how accurate it is.

It is a great way to keep track of your employees by having weekly sales reports sent in. My words were sent out on Friday afternoon to ensure that they arrived in time for my Monday morning sales meeting.

These reports should include information about new customers, demos and proposals that were given during the week, updates on existing recommendations, close dates, and the time it will take to close the business.

Weekly sales meetings should be scheduled and kept a regular event. It should be prepared for Monday, at 9:00 AM. This will ensure that it is not missed or missed.

Participation in these meetings is mandatory, and everyone is welcome to attend. This weekly meeting provides a great place to apply peer pressure.

Be positive and praise good performance. Positive comments will be enough to make it unnecessary to include negative comments. People who are not achieving enough will be quickly pointed out, and embarrassment can motivate them to work harder. Negative comments are sometimes necessary, but they should be reserved for one-on-one meetings and not the whole group.

Make sure everyone is on the same page by creating an agenda. These meetings should be efficient and not waste time.

This weekly meeting serves one purpose: to hold your people responsible. You should ask them to return to you and make a report. This will keep them accountable for their actions, performance, and results.