Leading a sales team is a complex pursuit with a single objective: to meet and exceed the sales objectives for the area you’re managing. The variables that can impact your success as a leader are tremendous.
Below is your sales management checklist. Its purpose is to help you stay on top of the primary issues that should have your attention on a regular basis, and to avoid letting the important success factors slip through the cracks. Your particular sales world will likely involve a few more points or slight changes that are specific to you and your team/ company/ industry.
Consistently addressed, these are the sales management fundamentals that’ll put you and your team in front of the pack… and keep you there.
(download the complete guide to the left)
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Your people
- General periodic discussion & review
- Goals & expectations understanding
- Sales skill training
- Motivation & inspiration
- Knowledge training (product/ service/ industry)
- Recruiting
- Promotions/ new roles/ new positions
- Performance reviews
- Recognition
Operational issues
- Activity numbers
- Sales numbers (revenue/ units/ margin)
- Sales process review
- Sales communication review & distribution
- Before-and after-the-sale review (processes)
- Lead generation
- Barriers to remove from sales efforts
External relationships
- Top customer contact & review
- Top competitor review
- Top partner contact
Self-development
- Management skills
- Additional contributions
Now go lead someone.~>
Connect with Sam (guy behind this stuff)…
A Sales Manager’s Check List says:
[...] Just Sell, June [...]
17 January 2012
dan herrmann says:
good basic tools. especially like “barriers to remove from sales efforts” . These need to be vetted out .
13 February 2011
cameron says:
I agree with the statement you want to treat to the client like you would want to treat them. This does not mean that you should not be challenging them at every opportunity and be a relationship sales person. Most relationship sales people in my mind should be account managers and not sales people which are two different roles. Asking the right questions and delivering what the client needs is a lot of the time unknown to the client and i would have to agree with much of Hardens comments above! But this goes back to challenging the clients not just talking to them.
29 October 2010
Grant says:
Do you have points to be considered at the cash register
24 June 2010
Sam Parker says:
Michael… We touch on both points in a little more detail in the downloadable PDF.
Thanks for the book tip.
19 January 2010
Michael D Goodman says:
Hello,
After building sales teams and leading sales people over 20 years, I would suggest that there are two additional items that would be valuable. Product training provides confidence in more technical sales. (Sales folks who don’t know answers to questions about the product get blown up everyday. I have never seen one prospect well when the can’t really match the product tot he customer need…)
The other thing I know is critical is emotional skill development. As much as we would all like to hire hard driving, empathetic sales people, the reality is all sales people go through slumps based on their own capacity to manage their emotions. Without tools to get past their personal obstacles you can lose a sales person for days or even months.
Here is my secret weapon by the way. I found a book years ago called “Feeling Good, The New Mood Therapy” by Dr David Burns. It was really for psychotic patients and depressed people but I found the book hugely valuable for the language to adjust emotions. It has been a power tool in sales and sales management for a very long time.
Best regards,
Michael D. Goodman
10 January 2010
Sam Parker says:
Thanks, Marc. I agree with your first point. I’m not sure the second is absolutely necessary (although it certainly helps).
On the “7-year-old” thing, I disagree. Not many 7-year-olds know how to ask open-ended questions and listen attentively. Persistence they may get but I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting one (including my own) who’s persistence hasn’t matured beyond annoying.
See this piece… http://www.justsell.com/salesbright
5 December 2009
Marc says:
how to be good at sales. tfirst decide you will be good at sales. second you must like thee person your about to have a relationship with and third watch a child of 7 years old get what it wants from its parents.
4 December 2009
LOYD says:
More buyers now are sensitive in salespersons approach, once they feel you are selling to them, they feel awkward and they feel you just simply want money from them out from your talk…establishing a good rapport and warm relationship is the key right now in having a sale. Selling with Sincerity.
9 November 2009
John says:
To be good at sales you need to LISTEN. Ask the right questions at the right time and LEARN from your prospect/client/customer.
1 October 2009
Harden Ervin says:
I disagree with the statement “Treat them (your customers) like you’d like to be treated. Don’t sound like you want to sell them a thing. Be a friend.” Almost always this is the best approach, but a non thinking approach. Be a guiding friend, but reinforce successful practices. E-mail marketing, among others, is a successful way to advertise your products or services. Some times our attitudes about how we would like to be treated force us down the wrong path.
For example many companies dismiss using e-mail, smartly and enough, because of the prejudice they have about how they would like to be treated. They do not what to be spammed. These people take the easy way out (does not require much thought) and their feelings support this decision. Do what is successful always. E-mail (it can be helpful and not by many considered spam), among others is the least expensive way to advertise. This is wrong among other examples. So objectively determine your market and use best practices to capture leads, be it e-mail or snail mail or telephone cold calling.
22 July 2009
Teboho says:
Treat them (your customers) like you’d like to be treated. Don’t sound like you want to sell them a thing. Be a friend.
21 July 2009