Title: Building a Winning Sales Force - AMACOM © 2009
Author: Andris A. Zoltners, Prabhakant Sinha and Sally E. Lorimer [Buy]
In a nutshell: Three great sales professionals combine to offer a comprehensive guide to making your sales team more effective. For those in sales manager or sales director jobs, this insight into how to assemble a high performance sales team is invaluable.
Key quote: "What is the best remedy for sales force complacency? Preventing it from occurring in the first place."
The 10 things you need to know:
1. Recruiting
For most firms recruiting should be a top priority. Use four steps to recruit top candidates for sales jobs. First, define the job and the type of individual who would best fill it. Second, identify candidates by using industry contacts, Internet sources and recruitment agencies. Next, attract the best talent by demonstrating that your company offers the most promising opportunities. Finally, never rush an appointment; select the best candidate for the job.
2. Strategy
Your sales strategy identifies your best prospects, details your basic value proposition and defines the selling process. Properly implementing the ideal sales strategy will give your company the ability to achieve the sales volume and customer satisfaction its leaders want.
3. Size it up
Never maintain a small sales force based on believing that your products or services can virtually sell themselves. An undersized sales force may fail to capitalise fully on promising opportunities. Determine the ideal size of your sales force by including your sales manager’s observations and the number of salespeople your competitors employ.
4. Structure
A general sales force can promote an entrepreneurial spirit among salespeople, but is inefficient if your product requires highly specialised customer knowledge. On the other hand, people on highly specialised sales forces may lack comprehensive knowledge of the company’s product line. A "hybrid structure" that combines generalists and specialists is the best approach.
5. Territory
Re-evaluate sales territories every year or so to ensure that they continue to work well for you. Plan sales territories so they correspond to the capabilities of individual salespeople. Assign all salespeople territories with similar sales potential. Ensure that their territories are compact to reduce travel time.
6. Create a culture
Make sure your company’s core values are at the heart of everything. UPS founder Jim Casey’s legacy for a “customer service-focused and team orientated” ethic is as strong today as it was in 1907. You must foster the same culture to inspire productivity.
7. Sales manager
Recruiting for sales manager jobs is a major factor in putting your sales force together. Strong sales managers recruit strong sales people, so make sure you build from the ground up and start strong. “He or she recruits the best talent, shows adaptability and decisiveness, and knows how to coach salespeople.”
8. Be realistic
Set realistic goals to keep your team confident, this will make them perform better. Consider the following when forming your strategy: sales projections, price changes, sales force expansions or contractions, and the launch of competitive products. Analyse all the data you have, and if necessary introduce extra incentives if targets are unlikely to be met.
9. Daily monitoring
Keep abreast of what’s going on with your sales team by tracking daily progress. Make sure your team keep to their daily responsibilities and that your sales managers are playing their part in managing performance by measuring sales, and revaluating, rewarding and correcting as necessary.
10. The scientific approach
In 2001, Jeffrey Immelt used a system of “data, analyses, processes and tools” to better the decision of General Electric’s sales teams. This “global sales force effectiveness initiative” improved sales and showed that a deductive and methodological approach to sales as a whole can wield great results. A methodology like this, that shapes the entire sales culture in a business, is vital to improve sales.
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