subject: Seeing the Big Image in Sales Management [print this page] Seeing the Big Image in Sales Management Seeing the Big Image in Sales Management
As a sales manager, what do you consider to be your most important tasks and responsibilities?
After I raise this query in seminars and workshops, most of the answers I receive revolve around "making positive my sales team hits their numbers." That is not a bad answer, and one that can probably build your owner or government management pretty happy. When all, so long as your employees is moving product and opening accounts, everything goes along simply because it should be, right?
That is largely true, however it does not tell the whole story...
I mention this now because, as I have worked with dozens of corporations across North America, I've noticed an interesting trend - that a heap of sales managers have trouble seeing the massive picture. That's, they are doing elements of their job very well, however typically are not taking an extended-term view.
Currently, before you rush off to inform me how not possible it is to think of the long-term when there are new products to master, new competitors arising all the time, and also the constant pressure of finding business, let me assure you I understand. I'm not saying that getting past these concerns is ever easy; what I am saying is that if you can keep an eye towards the longer term, that future goes to induce a lot easier.
Let me explain: I consider sales managers to own two important jobs. The primary is that the short-term, usual responsibilities that in all probability sprang to mind at the opening of this article. Those include educating the sales employees, instilling product knowledge, keeping the team motivated, setting quotas, hiring sales trainers, and therefore on. Failure to do any of these can nearly certainly mean being replaced - or going out of business altogether - pretty quickly.
But during a larger sense, managers can build their lives easier by maintaining a homogenous recruiting effort and developing their best salespeople. It's not continually simple to stress concerning these when there are dozens of other actionable items staring you in the face, but think about this: if, 5 years from currently, you have got a team stuffed with average producers, then you're going to possess a terribly troublesome time getting something more than average results.
On the opposite hand, if you have been actively recruiting, finding candidates one at a time as you meet them, then you'll slowly however gradually "stack the deck" with nothing but superstar sales producers. Imagine how abundant easier it might be to manage a team like that - through the routine of quotas, product data, etc. - than it'd be to attempt to encourage men and girls who are not up to the task.
You have probably had the same thoughts before. Thus why do not you already have the best salespeople doable working for you? Initial, as a result of you probably are not positive how to seek out them, or how to distinguish them from the average producers that appear as if superstars when they interview. And secondly, as a result of you've got thus several alternative things on your plate that you never notice the time to launch a full-scale recruiting effort.
Here's my suggestion to you: attempt to require fifteen minutes a day and concentrate on being able to search out and evaluate prime sales talent. Find out how to identify the attributes of superstar performers, the right queries to ask to uncover them, and the best ways to use personality assessments and alternative tools to predict success. Over the following few months, you will become an knowledgeable on finding high achieving salespeople.
Once that happens, the remainder will be sure of itself. That is as a result of you won't need to spend so a lot of time looking for the salespeople you would like anymore - you'll be able to spot them in different companies, in interviews, and even working jobs in alternative industries. Pretty soon, you'll have a database full of these people that you'll be able to turn to when you wish to fill a position.
Recruiting and developing prime sales individuals is a crucial part of being a sales manager - probably the foremost vital - but it's a half that is simple to lose track of as busy days and weeks roll by. Put aside a very little time every morning to figure on your talent evaluation. It may not be as urgent as some other things on your list, but it's a habit that can pay money for itself several times over within the long run.
