Sales Management: A Comprehensive Guide to Building and Managing a High-Performing Sales Team

Posted on Aug 22, 2024 in Economy

Sales Management

Recruitment and Selection

Strategy: Effective Salesperson

  • There is great waste in hiring the wrong people.
  • If a seller receives $30,000.00 per year, another $30,000.00 are for salary and indirect costs.
  • The seller should generate a new sales volume in the margin to at least cover the costs of sales ($60,000.00).

What Makes a Good Seller?

  • Starting Point: Ask your customers what traits they prefer in a vendor (profile).
  • Common Traits Found in a Company’s Most Successful Vendors:
  • Features: Take risks, have a powerful sense of mission to troubleshoot, like taking care of customers, and carefully plan their visits.
  • High energy level, self-confidence to spare, “hunger” for cash, product-specific knowledge, and good mental and industry knowledge to deal with each objection, seeing obstacles as a challenge.

Empathy: Ability to be put in place of customer, satisfaction of the ego, strong personal need to close the sale.

Procedure for Recruitment

  • Candidate Search: Employment agencies, indications, etc.
  • No Objections: “Sales is a job, not a profession.”
  • Security: Does not require a lot of work and travel.
  • Breach of Paradigm: Emerging professional sales and customers.

Evaluation of Candidates

  • Interviews
  • Tests of sales (experience)
  • Personal characteristics
  • References
  • Important: Remember that the sales team is an extension of our company and is the face of the company to the customer. Be very careful.

Training of Vendors

  • Many companies send their new vendors directly to the field immediately after hiring them – Result: No sales.
  • Today’s customers are dealing with many suppliers; vendors cannot tolerate being unfit.
  • Expect that sellers have a thorough knowledge of your product(s), offer ideas to improve operations, are reliable, and efficient.
  • Intense training is an investment in a sales team (constant).

Training of Vendors: Objectives

  1. Sellers need to know the company and identify with it.
  2. Sellers should know the product list.
  3. Sellers need to know the characteristics of clients and competitors.
  4. Sellers need to know how to make effective sales presentations.
  5. Sellers need to know the procedures and responsibilities of the field.

Supervision of Vendors

  • Development of standards for visits to current customers.
  • Development of standards for visits to potential customers.
  • Efficient use of time at work and in sales:
    • Work in preparation
    • Travel
    • Meals and rest breaks
    • Waiting
    • Sale (“sales happen here”)
    • Administration

Supervision of Vendors

  • Development of standards for visits to current customers:
    • Development of standards for visits to potential customers:
      • Efficient use of time at work in sales:
        • Work in preparation
        • Travel
        • Meals and rest breaks
        • Waiting
        • Sale (“sales happen here”)
        • Administration
  • Some companies have an internal sales team.
  • Constant evaluation of the team and clarity of objectives (goals).

Motivation for Sellers

  • Sales jobs frequently offer frustrations.
  • Working alone, their schedules are erratic, and they are always “away.”
  • Often do not have authority/autonomy to get close to customers and make “sales.”
  • Most people perform below their capacity in the absence of incentives.
  • Occasionally, sellers are concerned with personal problems (family illness, marital crisis, or debt).
  • More motivation for the seller means greater effort; greater effort will lead to the best performance, the best performance will lead to greater rewards, and greater satisfaction, enhancing motivation.
  • Reward:
    • Salary + Promotion
    • Personal growth
    • Sense of accomplishment
  • Sellers are highly motivated by salary and the chance to progress.
  • It is important to find the main reasons for your sales team’s motivation.

Complementary Reasons

  • Periodical sales convention
  • Sales contest
  • Feature awards (the best salesman)
  • Extra goals
  • Etc.

Evaluation of Vendors

  • Defining Sources of Information: Sales reports, personal notes, greeting cards/complaints, conversations with other sellers, client surveys, etc.
  • Assess What:
    • Daily average number of visits
    • Average cost per visit
    • Average sale per visit
    • Number of new clients
    • Number of customers lost
  • Is the average daily visit count too low?
  • Is a satisfactory number of new customers being acquired?
  • Are older clients getting the proper attention?
  • Formal performance evaluation
  • Comparisons of current sales to previous sales
  • Assessment of customer satisfaction
  • Qualitative evaluation of vendors
  • Tip: Constant evaluation of the team

Conflict Management in Sales Teams

Primary Sources

  1. Goals: To quantify goals…
  2. Perception of Reality: Definition of market segments, products…
  3. Domain Conflicts: How far does the responsibility of each one go?
  4. Incongruence Paper: Fighting only by the customer representative.

Types

  1. Issues involving sales policy.
  2. Existence of multiple sales channels. Ex. Internal vendor, representative, distributor, internet.
  3. Direct sales from the manufacturer to potential customers for resale.
  4. Excess of rules, forgetting the needs of customers.