Tag Archives: Sales Management Skills

91 Years Ago in Sales

Leave a reply

One of the sales research books in my library was written in 1925.

That’s 91 years ago. Nine-tee-one years ago! Eek! Almost an antique.

“The Recruitment and Selection of Salesmen’ was based on a detailed university study of hundreds of salesmen at two large organisations. Here’s a few of the findings:

1. The records, report system, and other paperwork constitutes a real burden to the average salesman. The better salesmen do not feel the burden keenly.

2. Salesmen’s territorial reports are not accurate.

3. Supervision of salesmen is irregular, unsystematic, infrequent and not pointed to the main job of developing men.

4. The members of the present sales force, while they do not now measure up to the possibilities of the selling job, have the ability, when developed by proper training and supervision to become really effective salesmen.

5. The weakest point in field service is the very high rate of turnover in the sales force.

6. One important cause of salesman turnover is found in the poor selection of supervisors.

7. The company has failed to develop loyalty and enthusiasm in the sales force.

8. Field supervision is concerned too much with a checking up on the performance of routine duties and too little with training in effective selling.

So … apart from the obvious (that we ladies have now joined what was once a profession reserved for men), what has really changed in sales in the past 91 years?

We can optimise productivity using the latest CRM, Skype and Apple tech gadgets but no matter what – if you ain’t got the sales basics right – You. Will. Fail. Yes, money talks but all yours will say is goodbye.

Time and time again, fixing the basics resulted in my biggest success in sales development and sales turnaround projects for my clients.

After all, what more is successful selling than simply having the right people and processes in place?

Improving Sales Performance: Train the “C’s”, Coach the “B’s”, Recognise the “A’s”

Leave a reply

Sales Managers are often tempted to spend most of their time in the field with their worst performers, the “C’s” who are always struggling to meet their targets, thinking that they can coach them to achieve greater results. However, many sales managers become more of a crutch than a coach, stepping in to close the deal at the salesperson’s request. If you’re going to invest your time in coaching selling skills out in the field, then do so with your “B” performers who just need to hone their skills to better their performance.

In addition, according to Tony Rugliano, co-author of the book “Discovering Your Sales Strengths”, a key area that sales managers need to concentrate on is building their relationships with their star performers. Rugliano suggests that star performers need your support and recognition of their achievements too. Do you spend enough time with your top performers in the field?

The Role of Trust in Sales

Leave a reply

As Sales Managers, we are entrusted with a team of individuals who have faith in use and depend on us to lead, manage and guide them to success in their sales careers. People mostly rise to the expectations we have of them. In what ways do you instil confidence, trust and belief in your team to deliver results.

And by the same token, as salespeople, what ways do we instil confidence, trust and belief in our sales manager that we will deliver results?

Set Your Salespeople Free … To SELL

3 Replies

What’s your current sales team set-up based on?

Is it …

# 1 : Each sales rep being essentially self-sufficient i.e. get their clients, keep the clients and do all that needs to be done, including process the order and collect the payment?

Or is it …

# 2: Configuring your sales “production” process much like you would in manufacturing/factory environment?

I favour the latter. For years, I’ve been calling for companies to start isolating sales tasks and activities and to set up individuals to manage this for the external sales team. Specifically when it comes to sales research (aka qualifying new prospects and opportunities). By doing this, you will free up your external sales team to do what they were employed to do – be out there, all day, every day seeing quality new prospects and making meaningful appointments.

Ten years ago, I thought we would be seeing job ads posted on LinkedIn and on career portals for specialist “Sales Researchers”within a few years. People whose job it is to literally tee-up potential opportunities from prospects as well as existing clients. People whose job it is to stay on top of all new developments in market verticals. People whose job it is to provide insights to the external sales team who in turn use the information to provide even more value to customers.

But this has not happened. We are nearly all still stuck with outdated sales thinking which requires a salesperson to manage the entire sales process on their own – even dragging them into pre-sales social media marketing and post-sales customer care responsibilities too .

Justin Roff-Marsh, based in Australia is the guru behind re-engineering the sales process. I highly recommend that you take a look at his work. This ‘division-of-labour’ principle is working wonders for many companies around the world. Sales have soared and costs have plunged.

In simple terms, the system is based on separating the admin of sales from the face-to-face of sales. And then going further by employing internally-based specialists for every phase of the sales process.

When you release your sales executives from having to do all of their own pre- and post sales admin and shift most of the account management/customer service activities to a slick in-house support team, your sales will increase.