Sales Management:

Essential Ideas for Business Success...

Sales Management:

Essential Ideas for Business Success...

"But how shall I get ideas? Keep your wits open! Observe! Observe! Study! Study! But above all, THINK! THINK!

And when a noble image is indelibly impressed upon the mind — Act! ACT!" ~ Orison Swett Marden

Our ever growing sales force are the best trained, supervised and motivated salespeople on the street which is why our gross sales revenue is consistently expanding. THINK: Yes or No?

Related Ideas:

Recruiting/Managing Salespeople... Sales Activities... Sales Reporting/Forecasting... Sales Support... Types of Sales...

Executive Summary...

According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), Sales Management is defined as "The planning, direction, and control of personal selling... including recruiting, selecting, equipping, assigning, routing, supervising, paying and motivating as these tasks apply to a personal sales force."

Sales management is essential to the attainment of an organization's revenue goals in an effective & efficient manner through planning, staffing, training, leading & controlling organizational resources. Managing your salesforce includes motivating sales professionals so that they help your customers choose YOU more frequently rather than a competitor. Remember, SALES fuel your organization and the management of the sales process is one of the most important functions in your business.

Sales planning and management involves predicting demand for your products and services... and the demands upon your sales people. Failure to plan always means lost sales. Planning insures that when a consumer wishes to purchase your product, the product is available, but it also means opportunities for additional sales are presented and your sales people are available to fully exploit these opportunities.

Planning should allow for meeting increasing customer demand for more products, services and/or customization as the business is growing, but also react quickly when demand decreases. Exceptional Sales Management improves efficiency and decreases unfocused and uncoordinated activity within the sales process.

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Focused on customer needs, you have developed great products and services that people will naturally want to buy from you... once your Sales People convince them WHO you are... WHERE you are located... HOW to find you... WHAT you stand for... what you won't stand for... your terms of service... your payment arrangements... your brand's reputation... your people's professionalism... and a million other details that stand between you and your client's money...

Ultimately, Sales Management is all about making it EASY for people to do business with you and to give you MONEY. It is about successfully traversing whatever Sales Cycle (long or short, strategic or simple) that transforms interested prospects into dedicated customers/evangelists.

"There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come." ~ Victor Hugo

Sales managers direct the distribution of the product or service to the customer.

They assign sales territories, set sales goals, and establish training programs for the organization's sales representatives. They advise the sales representatives on ways to improve their sales performance. In large multi-product firms, they oversee regional and local sales managers and their staffs.

Sales managers maintain contact with dealers and distributors and analyze sales statistics to determine sales potential and inventory requirements and to monitor customers' preferences. Such information is vital in the development of products and the maximization of profits.

Effective Sales Management Includes...

Developing leadership and team-building skills... Recruiting and training a higher caliber of sales professional... Improving your sales team's productivity... Generating increased profits with fewer resources... Being Able to Create a Strategy Based on Current and Projected Trends... Aligning Your Sales Team's Goals with Those of the Organization... Building a Strong and Competitive Sales Team... Ensuring That Your Compensation Plan Is Driving the Desired Behavior... Effectively Utilizing Forecasting Tools to Maximize Sales Results.

Growing a business is hard work. The Sales Management function is often overlooked by small business owners. Spending the necessary time wearing your sales manager hat will help build a successful sales team to boost your business to new levels.

Clearly, unleashing the sales power inherent within every person in your organization... beating your competition every step of the way... and giving your company the ability to consistently produce revenue beyond expectations is what the Sales Management function is all about.

Excellence At This Function Means You Can Say...

  • From our signage, location, people, managers, physical facilities, etc., we make it EASY for people to find us and buy from us
  • We are constantly looking for new customers and new markets to conquer using the simple progression of turning Suspects into qualified Prospects... turning Prospects into Customers... turning Customers into RAVING FANS... and engaging our fans to grow our business by introducing it to new suspects
  • We sell everywhere and have an innovative social media, internet and email sales strategy that produces huge add-on sales for us.
  • We are a growing sales machine constantly recruiting and training the best sales people who help us stay focused on Top Line Revenue Growth
  • From our salespeople to the back office, we make it easy for customers to willingly give us their money... simply because we are their trusted source for what we offer. Clients respect and trust our salespeople to deliver. And they do.

Improve This Function Now...

This Golden Function is composed of the following sub-functions and actions — things which must be done to guarantee your success.

See a weak spot or area of interest? Click on the action link to dive in and learn more. There's wealth of information behind each click!

Recruiting/Managing Salespeople

1.  SSRMCC  Hire coach, mentor, expert, consultant or company to help perform this function.
2.  SSRMCS  Research, acquire, implement sales force automation software to improve management's ability to oversee and improve sales activities.
3.  SSRMMM  Develop and update Sales Management Manual for all sales responsibilities, activities and operations.
4.  SSRMMS  Discover what is truly motivating salespeople to sell. Increase the cause and source of the motivation.
5.  SSRMPR  Institute, review and monitor the salespersons performance with periodical reviews of expected, benchmarked results.
6.  SSRMRS  Recruit more and better skilled salespeople who match the products/services sold.
7.  SSRMSI  Review all incentives/programs currently used to motivate and improve salespeople for maximum sales with minimum cost of the program.
8.  SSRMSM  Hire and train sales manager(s) to increase sales productivity and improve integration of sales results with other company functions.
9.  SSRMSR  Hire sales representative companies to sell products and services.
10.  SSRMSS  Identify sale slumps. Support salespeople technically, tactically and emotionally to overcome the slump.
11.  SSRMST  Train current salespeople to be more productive.

Sales Activities

1.  SSSAAR  Implement steps, procedures, and points of contact to request new customer referrals and create a reward system for referral leads.
2.  SSSADM  Initiate or improve direct marketing to customers to decrease cost of sale and increase sales conversions.
3.  SSSAEA  Add or improve direct sales made to customers through on-line stores, shopping networks and auction sites.
4.  SSSANW  Develop strong affiliations and extensive networks of motivated contacts that can refer customers to our company.
5.  SSSAOS  Create, improve on-line exposure and sales of products/services.
6.  SSSAPD  Master product demonstration. Increase number of opportunities to provide demonstration.
7.  SSSAPS  Increase emphasis, time, support, resources and motivation on activities that prospect for new customers.
8.  SSSAQC  Reduce waste of time and resources by improving salesperson's qualification of prospects to focus on most probable sales candidates.
9.  SSSASD  Develop and refine in-store demonstrations that grab customer attention and increase sales.
10.  SSSASP  Automate and standardize sales presentations by using the materials from the most productive salespeople.
11.  SSSATM  Employ telemarketing personnel or services to increase sales leads, prospects and appointments.
12.  SSSATS  Rent space at industry trade shows to educate prospective customers, acquire contact information and make immediate sales.
13.  SSSAWS  Identify and contract with other retailers to wholesale products/services for resale to their customers.

Sales Reporting/Forecasting

1.  SSRFCA  Research, acquire, implement Sales Analytic Software to improve understanding/management of dynamics causing increase/decrease in sales.
2.  SSRFSF  Automate, improve and monitor sales forecasting methods and integrate projections with other company functions.

Sales Support

1.  SSCRAS  Initiate, improve all after-sale actives to ensure customer satisfaction and increase customer loyalty and repeat sales.
2.  SSCRCP  Research, purchase, install CRM software to track all customer activity and integrate with all other company functions.
3.  SSCRSA  Increase and improve sales support by having materials, samples, technical assistance, and responsiveness from other departments.
4.  SSCRSC  Automate process for fulfilling all sales made to guarantee accuracy, timeliness and final delivery of WOW customer service.
5.  SSCRST  Track all potential sales leads to determine source of lead and to maintain appropriate sales communication with contact.

Types of Sales

1.  SSTSFS  Increase face-to-face opportunities for salespeople to meet customers and train them to be highly skilled in live presentations.
2.  SSTSRS  Train all salespeople in the importance and skill of relationship selling to increase immediate and long-term sales numbers.
3.  SSTSRT  Increase retail sales through improved display, environment and improved customer experience.
4.  SSTSSC  Identify and refine all steps necessary to complete company simple sale and complex sale sequence.
5.  SSTSSL  Learn, identify and adjust salespeople, compensation, planning and expectations based on if the sale is a short-cycle or long-cycle event.
6.  SSTSSS  Identify, refine, improve and train all salespeople in the best sales strategy to increase number of sales made.