For companies to remain competitive now, their sales organisation must be able to respond positively to changing economic tides.

As businesses strive to establish customer orientation, sales partnerships and a strategic approach to selling, they are demanding more and more from their salespeople but ensuring that these new methods are widely practised and smoothly implemented falls to sales management.

Building Productivity:
Sales productivity is a strategic issue. That’s why problems in this area stem from salespeople being unclear about their company’s priorities i.e. what their message should be and what they should be selling.

The trend in industry of removing layers of management between the sale force and the general manager presents a challenge to those sales managers who remain.

To begin with, the sales manager becomes an essential link between company strategy and what takes place in the customer’s office. He or she must not only grasp the corporate vision but be able to communicate it to the sales force in terms of the real effects on sales practices.

Creating Direction:
Sales managers with an intimate feel for the selling process succeed because their staff regard them as part of the sales team but coaching the team is as important as playing in it. In other words, sales managers must be prepared to provide training, feedback and support to every individual within the team.

Once committed to the training process, they must routinely reinforce new ways of behaving in real sales situations. They must provide a clear sense of direction on a daily basis, not just at the monthly sales meeting / quarterly review / annual appraisal.

The very best sales managers engage in frequent coaching and feedback, even when their sales people work in remote locations. While encouraging salespeople to air their problems openly and discuss their concerns, sales managers must be able to offer clear and specific feedback for improving sales performance.

Rewarding Change:
The sales manager is charged with translating the company’s reward system into specific improvements in sales performance. Both salespeople and corporate managers count on the sales manager to recognise and reward outstanding achievement, formally and informally.

The process of promoting new attitudes about the customer and the role of the salesperson can be frustrating and slow. Reverting back to recent research, there is compelling evidence to suggest that companies will see results sooner if they recognise and reward salespeople – “you get more of the behaviour and results that you reward”.

The trend in sales compensation appears to be away from commission to guaranteed salary; from compensation based on orders to compensation based on delivery and sign-off.

Interestingly some organisations we know, base their ‘salesperson of the year’ award on the basis of customer satisfaction or customer retention, rather than sheer volume of orders or activity.

The times really are a changing!

Keith Rosen & I recently presented a very popular webinar entitled “The Sales Leadership Imperative” – if you missed it, you can listen in or download it for FREE on the TSE VIP tour here

Today’s News: May I bring two superb webinars to your attention, which TSE are presenting next week:

The first is on Monday May 18th at 1pm Eastern (6 pm GMT)

Terri Dunevant of WinCourage llc & Colly Graham of Salesxcellence team up to present:

“Up Your Batting Average- Learn how to BAT”

Behaviour, Attitude and Technique all impact your sales results. Learn the five areas that effect your behaviour and attitude in selling and what can you do to change them. Do you hold empowering beliefs or limiting beliefs? Are you moving toward success or away from failure? No matter how good your sales techniques are, your behaviour and attitude could be lowering your batting average.

Full Details Here

The second is:

“How to Close More Sales by Shortening Your Sales Cycle” on Thursday May 21st 1:00 PM EASTERN

Now more than ever, sales are taking longer to close and some have been put on permanent hold.  In this fast-paced, powerful webinar, Dave Kurlan will explain why this is happening, why it doesn’t have to happen to you, and how you can return to the glory days of shorter sales cycles by making just a few simple but powerful changes to how you execute the sales process. Whether sales or management, veteran or rookie, calling on markets or industries that have been ravaged by recession, or merely on people who are using spending freezes, layoffs and cuts as excuses to put you off, you will benefit from this unique and entertaining session.

Presented by Dave Kurlan – full details here

Now, both these events cost just $59.50, but of course, if you become a TSE VIP Member (just $25 per year), you get to listen in for FREE – and in fact you can listen to the other 100 webinars coming up for FREE too, and the Roundtables, and……………..well so much more. FULL DETAILS HERE

Tomorrow: Now that the new TSE site has almost been completed, we are turning our attention to the JF Consultancy makeover….so no rest for me. Wherever you are, have a great weekend – see you next week-JF

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