Business Link

by Richard Marinus

Role of The Sales Manager in facilitating an improvement in sales performance.

In many instances today it is rare for any company to offer a
product or service vastly superior to that of its competitors.
Rather, we tend to find homogenous products leading to
intense “red-hot” competition, and consequently companies
need to build superior sales teams to compete successfully for
business.

Because selling is so critical to improving the “top-line” we need to be sure too that the influence and activities of the Sales Manager are having the desired outcomes in sales turnover.

Establish which elements your Sales
Manager should focus on for improvement!

Planning & Process Alignment – Establishing the
resources and processes needed to execute the operating
plan successfully.

People Development & Coaching – There are five major
issues that can impact performance.

The quality, capacity and suitability of new hires
The type, frequency and content of sales training.
The coaching and training ability of the sales manager.
The attitudes and competence of the sales manager.
The management and communication style of the sales manager.

Customer Management
Use Supportive Technology – The emergence of Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) systems has helped
companies review and improve sales processes and strategies
by providing quick, meaningful and “up to date” reporting data
for immediate action.

However when a sales manager uses the technology merely
to enforce sales activity, they need to understand that activity
is Movement, and not Motivation. Leaders get you to perform
because you want to, not because you must.

What does your Sales Manager currently do?
Research unfortunately indicates that many Sales Managers
spend too little time on planning, people management, and
customer management.

Instead, many Sales Managers spend at least 50 % of their time on “firefighting”; reacting to urgent issues; spending excessive time on administrative tasks and preparing reports for management.

The “Bad News” often is that the lion’s share of their time is
spent on non-essential activities.

What should your Sales Manager be doing?
Reduce the time spent on reacting to urgent issues, reporting
time, and time consuming administrative activities!

Free-up time to allocate to desired activities: Increase planning time; people management, motivation and development; customer management; customer time etc.

Richard Marinus is the Managing Member of Skills SA. If you have any questions regarding this article, please email them to skillsa@intekom.co.za or call him on 082 573 1770.