Companies
Archive for April, 2009
Sales Planning – Either a Well-Oiled Machine or Child’s Malvern Star Bicycle (clogged with dirt and grease)
Have you given your team a Sales Plan? Have you created the Sales Plan with them? It’s a common blunder for Sales Manager’s as often this is not done. Regular planning and reviewing is needed to achieve the desired targets. A good plan will include the following:
Combined Effort: Sure, you are a manager and if your team fails then you will be partly responsible however the plan is not yours. It’s your Sales Representative’s or you Business Development Manager, so involve them in its construction. Be a guide and mentor and have them feel as though they have had equal time in the preparation of the plan.
Strict Reporting Structures: Depending on your product or service the sales cycle is flexible so there needs to be a defined reporting structure. The plan should be devised and updated weekly and the review should be dependant on the sales cycle; bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, etc. Excellence is achieved through reviewing results against the plan to determine missed opportunities and ways to improve.
Metrics: For the plan to be successful it needs to focus on results and activities. Examples of metrics include number of client phone calls, number of contacts, appointments, sales closed. The key is not to overwhelm. A few Key Performance Indicators that pertain to your business are all that are needed.
The Hand Is Quicker Than The Eye.
Houdini was a master magician. Indeed, he was a master salesman. Every magician must convince (sell) his audience that his “illusion” is not an illusion at all; that it is, in fact, the genuine article.
Those of you who work in sales should ask yourselves how adept you are at illusion. Let me clarify the illusion I speak of in this context. It is not an illusion of trickery whereby the sales person sells something for the sake of selling without wanting to understand the needs of the buyer. No, the illusion I speak of here is one of the master sales person convincing his employer that he is performing at optimum expectations. How good a magician are you?
Sales people are generally (hopefully) attuned to their employers’ needs to track their activities and results. Therein lies the problem. The key word in that sentence is “employer”. The employer will give all the accountability documentation to the particular sales person and the sales person, donning a black cape and top hat, will most probably return the documentation to the employer in some sort of completed state. What happens then? Generally nothing. The employer or sales manager will not have the skills, policies or procedures to manage the RESULTS of the documentation.