How To Manage Salespeople
In approxiamtely 30% of business relationships between salespeople and managers the
two fall out every year and is a reason why mangers want management training. This has spurred the Business Psychology Institute to carry out an extensive survey to study points of friction and concealed potential problem areas between salespeople and sales managers.
The survey carried out intensive interviews with representatives and sales managers concerning their experiences of working together. The assessment was carried out both as a group comparison and pair-specific.
What do those asked imagine the focus of the company partnership is? This proposition showed that there are large differences in way of thinking. Only three pairs were in concurrence about corporate goals. Just a half of all salespeople believed that increasing turnover is the most prominent corporate target . A third of sales managers said that the essential corporate target is increasing market share.
These differing points of view are amazing, considering both work for the same company. This merely serves to illustrate the lack of communication within the relationship.
The question about the salespersons goals confirms this lack of communication: only two pairs were in agreement. 40% of all salespeople said increasing turnover was their main goal, 40% said creating a livelihood was their main goal.
However, only a third of the sales managers believed that increasing turnover was the salespersons main goal. None mentioned creating a livelihood as a goal and a third did not even know what their individual staff goals were.
Quality and level of support. The majority of salespeople asked said that they felt supported by their preceding Firm. The genre of support was assessed differently, though. Sales managers essentially said that they had supported representatives through training sessions or meetings.
Almost all representatives, on the other hand, thought that they had been supported mainly through catalogues and prospectuses. Some felt that they had received no support from their former company or did not agree on the impersonal type of support the company had given.
What typical problems are there in the partnership? Over half of those asked said that the main conflict point is turnover difficulties, followed by corporate policy. A quarter of those asked said that co-operation with their former partner floundered primarily because of information and communication problems, but only a very few of those asked saw management as a problem.
Turnover difficulties are based, on the one hand, on declining turnover and, on the other, arguments about commission.
The greater part of sales managers thought that salespeople were lacking in commitment.
Problems relating to the corporate policy arise from a difference in the company's price policy, the way that complaints are dealt with and in delivery ability. In addition, some salespeople thought that favourable opportunities were being denied to them. The problems of information and communication are based predominantly on a lack of information feedback, which was complained about most by most sales managers.
A typical management problem surfaced in the following salespersons statement: "I was called up almost every day (by the sales manager) to see whether I had made any sales." The salespeople often felt that they were being controlled and therefore that their free time was being infringed.
On balance, whereas managers continually bemoan on management training courses that salespeople contribute not enough feedback about what is happening in the market, salespeople disapprove of the instructive or even demanding attitude of their sales managers. Salespeople emphasise their autonomy, whereas sales managers demand that their requirement to control is fulfilled.
Which decisive event is usually the reason to split? The sales managers saw the most important reason for breaking up the business relationship as being a declining turnover or poor work quality on the part of their salespeople, which led to faulty services and/or client complaints.
Sales people, for their side, attributed the causes of declining turnover figures to the company's poor sales method or to market changes.
How does the split take place? The break up itself was viewed by most of those asked as unspectacular. All salespeople who had a valid commitment were sacked in accordance with the rules. Innumerable companies have, in spite of that, tried to fill the leaving salespersons place before the expiry of the notice term.
Almost all of those asked said that the break left them feeling disappointed by their former employee/employer, particularly immediately after.
Business-wise the break led to turnover losses both for the salesperson asked and for the company. Whereas sales managers or their companies had to find a suitable replacement, the salesperson had to find a new position in order to compensate for the income gap.
Most "partners" reveal small differences in the relationship from an early stage. It is important for both sides therefore to act quickly to possible signals of disagreement. The study showed that innumerable managers do not present enough work into caring for their staff.
The discrepancies in perceptions of goals and the variety of issues that in the long run led to the split revealed that managers take too little notice in their salespeople and their views. Techniques for successfully implementing these prominent points are covered on appropriate sales management training courses.
by: Richard Stone
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