Sales Management is Very Important for Your Sales Team

From you role in sales management, do you manage from a perspective focusing on existing talents (strengths) or from non-talents (weaknesses)? If you truthfully answered from a more negative than positive perspective, then can you answer this question: Why do winning teams win because of their strengths or their weaknesses? Possibly, now is the time to change your management style especially if you wish to increase sales and have a high performance sales team.

To be an effective sales manager means you must know the talents of your team and each team member must know his or her talent as well. Unfortunately, because most human beings are negatively conditioned from the No's to the Don'ts to the Cant's. This previous negative conditioning reaches far into future behaviors. Until awareness is achieved regarding these negative almost self-fulfilling prophetic behaviors, any attempts to improve results will probably not be as successful as they could be.

One way to know the talents of your people is to engage in performance appraisals using proven assessment instruments. With technology being what it is, many of this performance appraisals can be delivered online. Sales Coaching Tip: The assessment instrument to be 100% effective must be accompanied by a detailed debriefing allowing the participant to take the information and begin to immediately apply it. There should be some additional sales coaching beyond the initial debriefing.

Another proactive management strategy is to have all team members create both their own personal sales and life action plans. Sales is very much a contact sport in that your force is out there every day talking to meeting with potential customers (a.k.a. prospects). To stay fully engaged, everyone needs to be healthy. Unfortunately, given all the research, many people fail to focus on their health causing additional cost to their employers as well as to their own personal finances. Poor health also leads to additional stress and this in turn affects the entire team from reduced productivity to toxic cultural environment.

Good salespeople have always talked about creating value. Now we need to put ourselves in our clients' shoes and be creative. We must get in and get started. Think smart, not big. It's always smarter to have a smaller piece of something, than a big piece of nothing. Begin with a smaller project, a reduced order, or a regional, rather than global, implementation. Get in, and get to know the client. Let them get to know you. Get to know their business.

Sit on the same side of the table as your client. Work together to determine the best way to get started. Always, always, create metrics with your client. How do you, together, define success? Get agreement that once this project is successful--according to the metrics you've agreed upon--that the client will work with you to identify other sales opportunities within their organization. A successful project breeds a successful relationship, which leads to successful referrals. This means more sales leads and more money for you.