The Role Of Sales Management In Sales Performance: Coaching

The third foundation of good sales management, of course, is coaching your people to success. There’s all sorts of schools of thoughts out there about how to best work with people but in this day and age, which is one of empowerment, people want to feel like they’re involved in the decision making processes of their job. They want to feel like their opinion is heard by management. So a more enlightened approach to coaching your people today in today’s management environment is really working with sales people to help them to understand and reach their own conclusions about how they can improve their sales performance.

Coaching requires active engagement which requires in turn, time spent seriously involved in a salesperson’s day to day, week to week routine activities. There’s a number of different ways to do this, of course. The most effective way is spending one on one time with your salespeople in the field actually visiting accounts, strategizing them, talking about and preparing for sales calls, going on those sales calls and then debriefing after those sales calls to talk about what happened, what was learned and how could the sales call have been improved. Most salespeople learn by doing, and so the active coaching is the art of getting out with your people into the field and then actually working with them to help them to understand how they can enhance their sales performance and their sales technique.

The Role Of Sales Management In Sales Performance: Tracking & Understanding Activity

The role of sales management in developing and using a sales performance management system is probably most principally based upon the notion of sales management working closely with sales team members on an on going basis and establishing a relationship of trust, confidence, and mentorship. And that relationship built between sales management and its team is fundamental to empowering sales people to be successful in their jobs.

The role of sales management is to track sales activity and measure and monitor performance and to coach sales people to success. Tracking activity can be done very easily when your company has a successful CRM implementation. We use salesforce.com to develop customized dashboards that give management a quick snapshot of each of their sales people’s activity in terms of amount of prospecting, amount of actual account qualification and actually being able to measure and track the activity of the sales people as it relates to moving deals through the actual sales process towards close.

The second element measuring and monitoring performance is all about really tracking activity but in a deeper sense, getting behind the activity to understand what it is that’s working and what’s not working with each sales person’s territory. A good example of that is working with accounts. Is the sales person doing a good job of mapping out an actual customer prospect, in terms of people, decision makers, influencers and decision making process. And then working hard in order to touch all the bases to develop and advance the sale with all of the different constituents inside a specific account. This is where sales management needs to work deeply to measure and monitor sales performance and this is not a trivial task. It requires active engagement from sales management in order to do this.

Elements Of A Successful Sales Performance Management System

The components of a successful sales performance management system include, first of all, having well defined revenue plans and revenue and margin objectives. Often times, this includes having bookings objectives for your individual sales people, having well defined sales territories relating to those targets, and of course, having a strong, well documented plan, in terms of who your target markets and customers are within your territories.

In addition to having a revenue plan, other components of the sales performance management system include a job description that is expectation based where the outcomes are clearly defined are very important in terms of overall requirements for success in the job.

The next component of successful sales performance management system is actually having individual revenue margin and booking objectives for each of your people. Typically, this is done on an annualized basis with your people going through a planning cycle once you’ve defined your overall company’s revenue plans. You should put together targets, annual revenue and bookings goals for each of your salespeople that are tied to that overall revenue plan. And often times you’ll be doing a measuring and monitoring of performance relative to those actual revenue goals systematically on a monthly or quarterly basis in addition to that.

The next element of a successful sales performance management system is having an annual territory plan that your salespeople are working towards. This territory plan should be developed in concert with sales management in your sales people and it should list not only your major objects but also key accounts that you’re targeting, the strategies to get into those accounts, and it should probably have a section about both new business development as well as account maintenance or account management , and also have a section related to actual channel management strategies that your sales people are going to be carrying out. This is a one page document that can be put together in a template and passed out to your salespeople and used as a tool for them to conduct annual sales planning.

Again, having a plan in place allows you to use that plan as a tool for measuring and monitoring performance against that plan and having ongoing discussions with your sales people related to how they’re progressing against the objectives and the overall plan that they’ve set at the outset of the year.

The next element of a successful sales performance management system has nothing to do with actual goals objectives or plans, but everything to do with sales management’s role in working with individuals on the sales team. This is the most critical element. Salespeople are only as good as they are being managed by sales management. A lot of companies expect salespeople to be left at their own devices, but just like any other team, sales people need to be managed and the foundation for that, of course, is having somebody in place in your sales management function who is willing to work closely with their people.

Why Define A Sales Process?

So companies that do a good job of defining their sales process and integrating it into their CRM tools realize a number of benefits.

First, they can grow faster.

Second, they can train people and bring them up to speed and get them producing sales a lot more quickly.

Third, the rest of the company’s departments can easily understand be bought in to the sales process and support the sales process, whether it be customer service, whether it be marketing, whether it be operations, finance or human resources.

Another benefit of having a well defined sales process is it makes it very easy for you to develop matrix both in terms of activity and results that allow you to measure your sales people to ensure that they are producing the results that you’re looking for. It also helps you to further define the accountabilities related to the sales process and make it easier to develop a sales performance management system.

Good sales performance management is based upon holding salespeople accountable. Building a sales performance management system is the key to supporting a scaleable sales process that’s repeatable and also defining clear expectations with your sales people and managing them to those expectations. A sales performance management system consists of a number of different components which companies need to build in order to be successful at managing their sales people and achieving the desired sales results that they’re looking for.

What Should Be In Your Sales Process Matrix?

Sales process typically does include a complete breakdown and often times a matrix that will actually describe the following:

1) What is the definition of the different types of prospects and customers that you’re targeting?

2) What are the actual steps in the sales process that need to be followed by the sales team?

3) What are the goals at each step or each stage of the sales process in terms of advancing the sale?

4) What are the tools that are used to support that sales process at that point? It could be marketing collateral, could be lead generation using internet marketing, could be outbound telesales, could be direct mail, could be sales presentations or product demonstrations...all of those things are sales tools that get integrated with the sales process and used as appropriate at different stages in order to advance the sale.

Next in your sales process matrix typically would be a description of what the timing and delay is for each of the different stages and what follow-up items are being taken place at each stage of advancing the sale as well.

So a good sales process map often includes a matrix with an actual description breakdown and definitions of the different stages of the sale and what steps are being taken and what tools are being used. It also typically will include a sales process map that becomes a logic diagram to show exactly how the work flow looks. And then typically once a sales process is modeled properly and de-bugged it will be automated using CRM tools such as salesforce.com to actually automate all the different steps that take place in the sale and to provide repeatable and scaleable process that can be rolled out to across a large number of sales people.

Many companies don’t understand the importance of having a well defined sales process as a basis for their success. As a result of that, they leave selling up to individuals who they bring on to their team and expect them to sell however they sell without following a company’s particular set of rules or disciplines. This can lead to stunted growth, stagnant sales and too much dependency on the individual that’s hired into the sales job and not enough dependency on the process, which in more professionalized firms is well documented and defined and allows a company to easily hire people in and train them to the process.

Sales Process: Defined

Lots of company’s think of sales process as being a sales technique, such as spin selling, solution selling, push selling or similar kinds of strategies. But in fact, a sales process is completely different than that. A sales process is something that every good company needs to be able to define and master in order to boost their sales performance and accelerate their overall top line growth. Sales process really becomes, by definition, repeatable and scaleable sequence of events that yields to consistent sales results.

Sales process is broken down into a number of different aspects...especially, delineating the type of selling model? In other words, is your company’s selling model transactional? Is it enterprise? Is in consultative? Those are probably the three most common sales models.

In addition to that, the sales process typically defines the actual sales work flow as it relates to movement of prospects through the sales pipeline from prospects, to being qualified, to being fully developed and then to closing the sale. A sales process will typically provide a work flow which includes a process map and a break down of the definitions of different stages of the sales process as it relates to sales forecasting and probabilities. And typically, these tools are put together and automated into a CRM system, customer relationship management system that will allow a company to actually automate the work flow using CRM tools such as salesforce.com or other leading tools.

How Does A Company Articulate Its USP?

Companies follow different strategies in order to articulate their unique selling propositions. Often times, if a company has not gone through a go-to-market strategy or a strategic planning marketing process, it makes sense to start there by gathering your team together and looking in-depth at the elements of your go to market strategy which include your target, your target markets, target customers, market segments and sub segments, your positioning of your company – how it’s positioned and perceived in the minds of your customers, and your messaging- how you actually articulate the value proposition that your company brings to its customers, and that includes what they get not just what you do. Gone are the days of features and benefits based selling and in are the features of articulating a very tightly focused message that shows companies how they can benefit from buying your products or services.

Many companies struggle with identifying and articulating their unique positioning, messaging and unique selling proposition, and as a result, are stymied in their efforts to grow their top line sales and suffer by continuously being in a competitive battle with other companies that would appear to have similar products and services of same quality on the surface. So, identifying what makes your company unique and being able to articulate that to your customers in sound bites is extremely important to being able to position yourself above your competitors. Many companies suffer in the strategic area because their go to market strategy is not well defined. A lot of companies fail to understand who their exact target customers are and how to reach them. As a result, they deploy marking and sales programs that are more generically based but don’t have a key-tight focus that is necessary in order to get to the best customers that can win them the best sales at the best margins.

Successful Sales Acceleration

How can a company can be competitive in accelerated sales with effective marketing and sales programs in that environment?

The foundation for any successful sales acceleration effort begins with three principles:

Strategy, process and people.

Strategically, companies need to understand exactly how they’re going to win in their markets and how they’re going to build sustainable competitive advantage. That starts by identifying your company’s unique selling proposition – what makes you different from your competitors - completely different that is - and how to take that strategy and roll it into your messaging, your positioning, your promotion programs, everything that you do emanates from your unique selling proposition which builds your companies sustainable competitive advantage.

Let’s Talk About How To Accelerate Your Company's Sales...

Building top line sales growth for your business is no easy task. While the economy is coming back strong, and looks like it’s going to continue that way in 2006, the rules of business are changing. Companies need to be able to adapt to those changing rules in order to competitive. Globalization, out-sourcing, the Wal-Mart effect – there’s a number of things that are happening in the global economy that are making technology and new business processes a necessity for just about any company that wants to maintain a competitive edge. Other affects include business going to China, technology acceleration – those kinds of issues are all having an impact on the way a company sells and the way it goes to market.

Include Rewards In Your Sales Performance System

Finally, a good sales performance management system includes incentives and rewards; those include commission / bonuses, financial incentives as well as recognition programs. Many companies fail to recognize the power of non-cash incentives when it comes to motivating their sales team. Sales people come to work just like everybody else, for both financial wages as well as psychic wages. It’s important to recognize the non-cash component when it comes to recognition. It’s easy to recognize the efforts of your sales team through contests, awards, atta-boy’s, regular hi-fives with people who’ve just closed deals, recognition in front of company meetings, all of those things can add a powerful component of recognition and incentives to your overall incentive program. So, if your company is interested in accelerating its sales and taking its sales team’s performance to the next level, consider building a formalized sales performance management system that includes all of the elements that I’ve just mentioned about.
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Step 6: Understand That Coaching Is The Key To Success

Sixth, make sure that you understand the importance of coaching your sales team to success. The CEO or sales manager’s job is to develop a coaching system to make sure that sales people are well attuned to. It is important that the CEO or sales manager has an engaged active relationship with each team member and that each team member receives regular honest open feedback on their performance, and suggestions on how to improve. Sales people need attention just like anybody else on your company’s team, and so part of your sales performance management system should focus on coaching your people and making sure that they understand where they stand in your organization.
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Step 5: Invest In Sales Training & Sales Technique

Fifth, make sure that you have the proper investments going on in sales training both product as well as sales technique. Also, make sure that you have a sales training system that is systematic and ongoing with your sales team.
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Step 4: Develop Corrective Action Plans For Underacheivers

Fourth, work on developing a standard corrective action plan for under-performers on your sales team. A corrective action plan should be a standard approach to correcting sales performance that is well understood and documented and accepted by everybody on your team. Sales people should know that when they fail to hit their numbers or achieve their sales quotas for a defined period that they will be put on corrective action, which will define a series of steps that are required in order to improve performance within a finite period of time, with a clear understanding of what the consequences are for not improving sales performance.

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Step 3: Measure & Monitor Your Sales Team

The third element in effective sales performance management system is to establish good measurements and to measure and monitor the performance of your sales teams. With today’s CRM tools and sales force automation tools it’s very easy for you to get clear and concise activity and pipeline metrics that you can evaluate on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Developing those measurements and then integrating them into regular meetings with your sales teams, both collectively and individually will help you to develop a sales performance management expectation with your employees and a culture of accountability.
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Step 2: Hire & Recruit "A" Players

Second, learn how to hire and recruit “A” players for your sales team. This requires a rigorous attention to detail as it relates to specifying your job description, developing a recruiting process, broadcasting your job postings to available candidates and then going through a very rigorous interviewing, screening and reference checking methodology.
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Step 1: Sales Team Analysis

First of all, assess your current sales team to understand the performance of your individuals and objectively analyze which of your people are capable of producing their numbers and which aren’t, and then prune and tune that existing organization to make sure that you weed out poor performers and take corrective action of those who do have a chance of performing well.

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Six Steps To Sales Performance Management

In today’s day and age a lot of senior managers and sales managers struggle with maintaining their top line growth performance because they neglect their fundamental duties when it comes to managing the performance of their sales team.

If you want to take your team to the next level, consider developing a sales performance management system that includes the following elements;

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