thoughts on . . . sales management

SALES MANAGEMENT

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Beliefs based on personal values, experience and readings. This reading is continually under review & will never be finished Comments/feedback always welcome. Twitter: https://twitter.com/2010Robh

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BUILDING BLOCKS OF SALES MANAGEMENT

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Few great managers are born ... it's learned behaviour

High performance sales organization = Great people + Great processes

• Recruitment

• Onboarding

• Training

• Coaching

• Objectives & Business Planning

• Incentives

• Metrics


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RECRUITMENT

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• "Must have" check list: Passion, integrity, intelligence, energy, stamina, make yes -or-no

decisions, get things done.

• The most important characteristic for sales success is emotional courage and a

persistence to keep going.

• First-class people hire first-class people; second-class people hire third-class people.

• Never hire someone who knows less than you do about what he’s hired to do .(Malcolm

Forbes) - Hire your replacement !

• Extroverts or Introverts? The ambiverts can be the most effective - they are more attuned

to know when to speak and when to listen.

• Competence is the ante, but the consensus is to hire character.

• Consider overall balance of team styles – there are substantial benefits in diversity





ONBOARDING


• Create a great first impression of your company.

• Instil the company vision and how employees contribute towards it.

• How quickly a new employee settles into their new job and feels part of the team

determines how quickly they become productive.

• Computer, phone & other tools of trade setup and ready to go within 24 hours.

• Minimise “sheep-dip” training and individualize for sales people.

• Maximise Infield training (Manager or 'buddy’) vs didactic presentation in office.

• Plan introduction to co workers.

• Include induction programmes run by customers.

• Provide opportunity for onboarding feedback.





TRAINING


• Good selling skills are the result of ongoing learning, professional coaching, and

continuous practice.

• Keep the team up-to-date with the latest information that is important to the customer.

• Embrace the therapeutic area, not just the product.

• Keep up-to-date with sales automation tools that can enhance the communication process

with customers.

• Measure selling skills through personal observation of the salesperson in action .

• It is the boring daily routine that separates champions from others.

• Skill is uncovering/discerning customer needs, not product features





COACHING


• The foundation of leading teams is trust.

• Lead by example

• Listen, question and direct when required.

• Acknowledge people and give recognition for their contribution regularly.

• Understand the short and long term goals of each sales person.

• Know the personal strengths of each team member.

• Development is best targeted at the individual (not the team).

• Allow for people to flourish within their area of expertise.

• One of the hardest parts of coaching is re-packaging the same message and telling the right story at the right time.

• Empower and encourage your people to be bold and to learn from mistakes.





OBJECTIVES, GOALS & BUSINESS PLANNING


• Develop measurable goals to inspire your team and provide fulfilment from their work.

• Shared goals require everyone to focus on their collective effort (while the individual is

important, the team supersedes the individual).

• Select and quantify meaningful objectives that address critical issues and will BEST lead

to identified results.

• Make objectives more like tasks and less like goals.

• Link relevant activities to the objectives and manage the activities relentlessly.

• At the onset, agree on who will do what jobs, how you will honour schedules, and how you

will make and modify decisions.

• Hold each other accountable for results.





INCENTIVES


• Set clear objectives - bringing everyone together to discuss goals and metrics.

• Consider qualitative measures and overall business performance (not just sales).

• Rewarding a team can empower teams and also improve the individual's experience.

• Identify those activities that require the greatest collaboration of the team.

• Individual incentives are still critical to success, so an appropriately balanced team vs.

individual incentive mix maintains the “skin in the game” for sales people.

• Incentive programmes should recognize salespeople for their extra efforts.

• A thoughtful incentive award is remembered longer than a bonus cheque.





METRICS


• Identify lead indicators of success.

• Remember - what gets measured gets done.

• Routinely monitor KPI’s for team and action plans.

• Look for trends and act upon them quickly.

• Monitor sales, growth and market share from National to brick/account levels.

• Consider metrics around individual development, therapeutic knowledge, KOL

development, quality of sales call, quality call notes, pre call plans, use of support

material, and activity against top tier customers & accounts.





READINGS Readings contain my take home messages and do not necessarily reflect the author ’s complete work.


50 TIPS ON BEING A BETTER SALES MANAGER

- MIKE BRUNEL (PART 1)

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• Dress the way you want your staff to dress.

• Handle your problems on a one-to-one basis.

• Always show your boss respect in front of your sales staff.

• Spend a little time each day with individual staff members.

• Admit your errors as quickly as you want others to admit theirs.

• Go on at least one sales call with each sales person each week.

• Never get drunk with your staff, or your boss. Never get drunk.

• If you blow up, apologize immediately upon calming down.

• Go for a walk around the block before you blow up.

• Go to two lunches per week with your biggest clients.

• Make your sales meetings informative and interesting.

• Make your sales meetings as short as possible.


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50 TIPS ON BEING A BETTER SALES MANAGER

- MIKE BRUNEL (PART 2)

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• Schedule a weekly meeting with your boss to recap sales for the week.

• Develop a master testimonial book.

• Hire your replacement.

• Have a quarterly sales meeting outside the office.

• Invite your boss to sales meetings once a month.

• Go to lunch once a month with the boss.

• Learn word processing, e-mail, and social media.

• Read the Wall Street Journal every morning or other appropriate publications.

• Scan the business section of the newspaper for new business.

• Talk to your fellow sales managers in the market once a month.

• Never badmouth a sales person in your team to anyone.

• Make Friday afternoons a victory

• Take your family out every Friday night















THE SALES MANAGER’S GUIDE TO DEVELOPING A

WINNING SALES TEAM – G. GSCHWANDTNER (PART 1)

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The Three Essential Success Factors

• Knowledge of your company, your product, your customers, your industry, and your competition.

• Selling skills – Don’t mistake “many years of experience” for one year’s worth of experience repeated over and over.

• Motivation - enthusiasm, confidence, persistence, determination, discipline, and positive thinking.

To Developing a Winning Sales Team, the Sales Manager has to:

• Increase the salesperson’s awareness of his or her current level of Knowledge, skills, and motivation.

• Uncover the salesperson’s current performance gaps .

• Develop a realistic improvement plan for each area: knowledge, skills, and motivation.

• Provide a suitable reward for the salesperson for improving in all the three areas.

• Establish performance benchmarks for the entire sales team.

• Provide effective coaching tools including Essential Readings


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THE SALES MANAGER’S GUIDE TO DEVELOPING A

WINNING SALES TEAM – G. GSCHWANDTNER (PART 2)



Coaching Tips

1. Relax. Create a comfortable atmosphere of mutual respect.

2. Focus clearly on your goal. If possible, do not put any other business matters on your agenda.

3. Think about the psychological impact. Remember, in order to help the salesperson improve, you must help increase the salesperson’s level of awareness.

4. Maintain an open attitude. Beware of your physical appearance and body language

5. Avoid sidetracking. Stay on course and move on at a steady pace. Listen carefully.

6. Be constructive: don’t argue. Use clarifying questions and explain your reasoning. This joint review should be conducted objectively, with respect for the salesperson’s feelings and without discounting the sales manager’s experience and insights.

7. Resolve conflicts quickly. If conflicts arise, let the salesperson know that it is okay to disagree.

8. Don’t give up on your expectations. Your best way to help a reluctant salesperson is to temporarily accept the salesperson’s reluctance to change and repeat your expectations for improvement over the next three months.

9. End on a positive note. Your positive attitude is a powerful ingredient in the improvement process .













REPS SAY MANAGER'S STYLE IS KEY TO

RETENTION - MICHAEL KAHL, EYEFORPHARMA SALES

AND MARKETING CONFERENCE 2014



• The top three reasons for leaving were a lack of trust, competency and professionalism of

managers

• Sales reps' said trust was the most important quality in their managers (more than 80%).

(Managers rated leadership and emotional intelligence as the two most important qualities.)

• Reps picked people skills such as flexible management style, interpersonal skills and ability to

motivate the team, as ideal competencies in their managers.

(Senior managers rated coaching for performance and having clear expectations as ideal

competencies to have)

• "It's a balancing act: great managers have both sets of skills, which is not easy to do ,“

• Team culture was seen by reps and sales managers as a key priority.

• Empowering individuals (50%), recognition (45%) and leading by example (40%) were picked

as the top three ways for managers to improve team culture. (See MOTIVATION slides)

• "no great manager is born, I think they are really made ... it's learned behaviour…”











