Sales Management: The Ultimate Guide
The job of a sales manager is doubly challenging because he/she is not only responsible for managing the sales target but also responsible for managing a team of salespeople. It is challenging because sales is a demanding job involving multiple imperatives that are not so easy to manage.
At the same time, this is a fascinating position to be in. Because as a sales manager you have a lot of power to make a meaningful difference in your organization and most importantly, you can greatly influence the performance of your sales reps.
Evidence suggests that sales managers often dictate the performance of a sales team. If you are doing a good job as a manager, it means the performance of your team is likely to go up and vice versa. This is what makes the job so important and rewarding. And challenging.
In this guide, developed based on Bdjobs Training’s Sales Leadership Certificate Course, we explore:
- Sales team management
- Establish a rigorous program and system for continuous development
- Managing performance
- A perfect day of a sales manager
1. Sales team management
The importance of sales team management lies in the fact that what you can achieve as a team in sales is way greater than the achievement of any star individual salesperson. Similarly, a salesperson can often deliver excellent performance if he is given proper opportunities, incentives, training, and environment. This is where sales team management excellence comes in.
You have to develop a deeper understanding of how your team is going affect your sales goal achievement. Then you build a great team that is aligned with your company goals and objectives and can deliver the result. Now that you have a team, you set effective and SMART KPIs so that you can achieve your goals through consistent effort and measurement. Effective sales team management generally involves a host of responsibilities:
- Driving sales force in the field
- Developing effective reporting format to track performance
- Coaches and train salespeople
- Recruits, trains and onboard new sales hires
- Forecasts sales performance and oversees strategic aspects of sales management
2. Establish a rigorous program and system for continuous development
The performance of salespeople depends on the process and continuous improvement of the people and techniques they apply in the market. There needs to be program and system in place that can ensure continued development of the sales people and their techniques.
3. How to become an effective sales manager and managing performance of your people
Most sales managers are former salespeople which makes it easy for them to do the job and achieve trust from their team.
At the same time, the job of a sales manager is 360-degree different from that of a sales rep. A sales manager is responsible for an entire team which demands that you work with your team and help them to perform.
The roles of a sales manager is that of a leader who is responsible for the performance of other people. This is why it is important to pay enough attention to how you can motivate your people to perform better.
In order to get better at your job as a sales manager, you should be able to understand your people, track their performance, design an incentive program, inspire and motivate your people through counseling, mentoring and coaching.
4. A perfect day of a sales manager
The job of a sales manager involves a diverse list of tasks daily that can ensure optimal result at the end of the day:
Performance of your team – mentoring and coaching: Pay attention to the challenges your sales reps face and attend to those. This often leads to the issues related to performance. A sales manager should spend time in counseling, mentoring and coaching his/her team. Mentoring and one-to-one coaching often building confidence and expertise in sales reps ultimately affecting their performance significantly.
Building the team – hiring and training: Finding great salespeople is a challenge. A sales manager is always in the mode of hiring so that he can have a flexible workforce that allows him/her to achieve the target.
Analysis and reporting: A lot of sales is all about data and analysis. Every day you start with an objective and at the end of the day, you get a set of data that you can analyze and see the result and insight. This should involve a large part of a sales manager because it enables you to improve the performance of your team every day based on data.
How to develop excellence in sales management
The job a sales manager is an incredibly rewarding one because you work tangibly affect the present and the future of your company. You are the one who ensures that the bottom line of your company speaks at the end of the month. It also offers you an extraordinary opportunity to lead a group of highly driven people who face the most daunting challenge every day, which is winning over a customer, daily and your actions as a manager and leader of these people make a lot of difference.
Evidence suggests that a sales manager can meaningfully change the face of a sales team by simply changing himself which sales manager often don’t do because sales is a demanding job and they get busy and distracted in meeting daily demands. However, when you invest in improving your skills and yourself, it materially affects your result and the result of your team.
Bdjobs Training offers an extensive course on leadership for sales manager titled “Sales Leadership Certificate Course”. The course covers topics as diverse as how to build a great sales team, develop effective KPIs for your team, achieve consistent sales result, increase sales performance, motivate your team, develop sales competencies and to using Microsoft Excel to harness the power of data to ensure a better result.
This training has been designed to transform Sales Managers into Leaders, with proven tools and methods for maximizing sales force effectiveness with the combination of three different training of three subject domains – sale management, sales leadership and MS Excel for sales data analysis. It uses practical examples and case studies and offer in-depth understanding of sales and sales team management and transforming you from a sales manager into a sales leader.
If you are considering to develop and improve your sales management and leadership skills, you may consider taking the course Sales Leadership Certificate Course at Bdjobs Training.