Sales Managers Top 7 Mistakes

Managing a sales team effectively is difficult. Many sales managers find themselves promoted to the position directly from sales because of their outstanding individual sales performance. They often have no previous management experience and are given little training to develop leadership skills. In the absence of direction and development they're usually compelled to take control of their sales force rather than develop and lead it. Here is a list of the top 7 mistakes made by sales managers, and how to overcome them: Micromanaging. While delegation is an exceptional tool for experienced leaders, it is extremely difficult for inexperienced managers to grasp. In the absence of confidence and self-awareness they frequently attempt to control every facet of a salespersons work day. They often base these instructions on what worked well for them in their own sales careers without taking into account individual strengths, personalities, habits and learning styles. Instead of removing roadblocks they create them, making a salespersons job more difficult and less rewarding. Efficiency, effectiveness and moral all suffer as a result. Creating blanket policies. Issues that arise in management are often specific to an individual salesperson(s) rather than the team as a whole. Individual conversations take time however, and can be uncomfortable. Sales managers tend to avoid confrontation by issuing blanket policies and communications that negatively impact the entire team. The team doesn't understand the reason for the policy/communication and as a result, feels unjustly suppressed. Mean while the individual(s) that was the cause never has the benefit of a direct conversation enabling them to understand the root issue and participate in the discovery of a solution. Requiring excessive paperwork & reporting. Insisting that all team members produce exhaustive reports about their daily activities is both inefficient and ineffective. While call activity might be an important coaching opportunity for a new salesperson, it probably isn't a good use of time for your top performer(s). "What's good for one is good for all" is nonsense. Team members should be assessed on an individual basis and asked to report on information that can positively impact them. Make sure the information tracked is relevant and important to their success and give them access to any tools and technology that can increase the efficiency of their reporting. Allowing mediocrity. There are almost always people on a sales team that will never perform at a high level, regardless of how much training and technology is invested in them. Evaluate people fairly but if it's clear that they aren't going to cut it, get rid of them. Putting off the inevitable is not good for them or the company. Not providing enough 1-on-1 time. We all have different strengths, personalities, learning styles, and needs. For sales people to grow they need individual attention and help. Figure out a way to get time alone with every member of your team regularly and consistently. Review the information you intend to discuss a day in advance - this will help you do a better job of listening and discovering areas of need. It's no different than selling; if you don't understand their needs, you can't show them how you can be a benefit to them. Not spending enough time on the street. To really understand how a sales team is performing managers need to get out on the street with them. There isn't a coach in the world that shows up for practice but skips the game. The field is where we see theory put into practice, and it's where true coachable moments appear. Not listening. Telling team members how to perform better isn't the same as teaching them how. We have to listen to fully understand issues, roadblocks, and what the solutions might be. There is always something to learn, even for managers. Not giving credit. Sales managers too often assume that they have to prove their worth by demonstrating the effectiveness of their own efforts. The reality is that managements effectiveness is reflected in the performance of the team. Give credit where credit is do. Promote the successes of individuals and of the team. It boosts their confidence and moral, and shows that you are more concerned with the success of the company than with your own success. It's difficult to manage a sales team effectively, but by identifying common mistakes and working hard to correct them, over the course of time, sales managers will find themselves capable of elevating individuals and teams to a new level of success. I am a certified professional coach, management and sales trainer, using the science of personality traits and communication, strengths and learning styles to help organizations develop elite teams, and help individuals realize unparalleled success. For additional discussions and insights, please visit my blog at http://trevinwecks.com/blog. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Trevin_Bensko-Wecks

What Can CRM Do For My Sales

Thanks to the large number of CRM software programs on the market today, most people have heard of CRM software. But many of those people have an incorrect or incomplete understanding of what CRM is capable of doing. This article will describe what CRM can do for your sales. After a brief overview of the concept of CRM, we'll identify some typical sales problems that CRM can solve. CRM became a buzzword in the 1990's. It referred to a technology-driven initiative to unify the efforts of a company's customer-facing departments. This new strategy would restructure these departments around the company's greatest asset - its customers! CRM would allow customer information from across the company to be available to any employee who happened to interact with the customer, enabling the sales team to sell more successfully, the marketing team to segment and market to customers more effectively, and the service team to provide more personal, more effective resolution to customer complaints or requests. Simply put, the technology available at the outset of CRM was insufficient to allow the concept to deliver on its promise. Today, however, the technology is available, and companies of every size and budget are realizing the benefits of CRM technology. Is your company one of them? Do you know what these benefits are? Why Do I Need CRM? Below are some typical problems that can be solved by implementing CRM.... "I want to improve the performance of my sales team this year." Well what do you mean, "improve?" How did you measure the performance of your sales team last year (meaning can you identify important metrics other than total revenue or number of sales)? Here are some specific questions you may ask yourself: o Can I identify the areas of performance in which my sales team did well, and those in which they underperformed? o Can I identify which of those areas has historically had the greatest impact on overall sales performance? o Which of those areas can be improved with the least investment of dollars, time, or training? o Which specific behaviors should I encourage to drive the performance increase I seek? For example, it may be that you had good lead generation and qualification numbers, but fell short in your more advanced sales stages. Or maybe your sales reps seemed to stall out in a certain part of your sale cycle, taking much longer than you would expect to achieve the objectives there and move into the next stage. There are many ways a sales team can underperform. But if you don't have a well-implemented CRM system, the odds are good that you can't accurately answer the questions that will help you improve. The truth is that measurable improvement can only come from measured results. Otherwise, your message to your sales team will continue to consist of frustrated admonitions to work harder or close better. "I think my sales team is doing a poor job of following up on the leads we receive, although I can't say for sure." There are two problems in this statement - the first is the suspicion that your valuable leads are falling through the cracks; the second is the fact that you can't measure the degree to which effective follow-up is occurring on the leads your team receives. CRM is designed to chain together a prospect's progress through the different stages of your sales efforts, from campaign to close. You can see exactly how many leads your sales team receives, and what actions are taken to pursue those leads. This information is available in high-level percentages and in detailed specifics about each lead. "I only know what's in the pipeline once a week - after spending hours calling my direct reports. By the time I'm done aggregating the data, things have probably changed anyway." It's hard to proactively manage your sales team in today's sales environment without knowing exactly how the pipeline for your team and for each rep looks. Identifying regions and reps that aren't performing well isn't possible without pipeline information. When this information is available real-time, you can use your valuable time for coaching and enabling your team rather than collecting their numbers. Opportunity management in CRM gives you and your sales reps and the ability to see what's in your pipeline in real-time. Information can be organized to show where each opportunity is in the sales stage, when it's expected to close, and what the rep expects it to be worth. Furthermore, if you know your sales process well enough to identify factors that indicate high chances of success or failure in an opportunity, certain opportunities can be flagged to help you take the necessary steps to close those deals or keep them from falling out of your pipeline. Over time and with enough accumulated pipeline data, you can begin to understand the probability related to pipeline values in different stages of your sales process. This understanding will help you forecast sales more accurately and identify the optimal pipeline numbers in each sales stage that will maximize pipeline through-put. "My sales reps don't execute the sales process properly. It's hard for me to identify the degree to which they're really following the process. It's also hard for me to mandate change in sales rep behavior." When CRM becomes the tool your sales team uses to manage the information relating to potential sales, it also becomes the medium through which you can mandate positive change. Your sales process can be integrated into the CRM system, allowing you to monitor the tasks and stages that each rep completes for each deal, or giving you high-level statistics to see the degree to which the sales process is being followed by your sales team as a whole. "My reps are not productive enough - they spend too much time doing things other than selling." CRM is designed to automate the tasks that take your reps away from selling. Whether it be · creating quotes or proposals · churning out follow-up communications · communicating internally with others involved in the sales process · saving or hunting for saved customer communications or the host of other tasks that cut into the time reps spend in front of potential customers, CRM can streamline or automate these tasks to free up more selling time for your sales team. "It takes too much time and effort for my reps to collaborate with other groups who could help in the sales process - we don't collaborate as much as we'd like to, and the collaboration we do engage in is inefficient." This is a CRM sweet spot. The whole concept of CRM is to allow information to flow across the enterprise in the instant it's created. Sales data will be made available to key players in your organization who can help move a sale to completion. This information flow can be automated, eliminating the need for manual communications. Tasks will be automatically created, both to remind your team members to complete assignments and to allow you to monitor and follow-up on tasks that aren't being completed. All of this drastically reduces the time your team needs to spend on the phone or sending emails to inform others of details relating to a sale. "My company's customer and prospect information is unreliable." Today is a great day to start reversing this trend. While you may or may not be able to improve the quality of the data you already have, you can certainly ensure that the customer data you create from now on will be complete and reliable. Good data keeping requires 2 things: a policy and a place. CRM gives you both. You define the policy by deciding what information is required for CRM records like accounts and contacts. Duplicate detection tools and other validation procedures defined by you can be created to ensure the purity and entirety of your customer data. And, of course, CRM is the place - the new center of all customer-facing information in your organization. by Andy Schultz Questions or comments? Invoc exists to help companies identify the ways CRM can contribute to measured, sustainable growth in sales, service, and marketing activities. Feel free to contact Invoc using the information below if you would like to explore the possibilities for CRM at your company. Invoc is a Microsoft Partner specializing in Microsoft Dynamics® CRM. 713-240-3549 http://www.invoc.net info@invoc.net Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_B_Schultz

Sell More - Set Great Objectives For Meetings

A well planned and structured conversation leading to agreed outcomes is satisfying for both the buyer and the seller. Setting objectives for your next meeting can have a major impact on the outcome of any meeting. One of Stephen Covey's Highly Effective habits is "Begin with the end in mind". Exactly what is it you are trying to achieve at the meeting? Once you have thought about what you want to achieve then test the objective:- Is it reasonable? Based on past experience with selling this product/service to this and other clients. 'Chunking up' and 'chunking down' as useful ways to build up a vision or break down goals - you may know what you wish to achieve overall but need to create steps en route. These smaller steps may be the objective(s) for this particular meeting. Does the person you are seeing have the authority to make the decision/commitment you are seeking? If you don't know then find out before you meet. Not selling to power is a common mistake. Are you happy to educate people and just have comfortable conversations? Unless the people we engage with have the authority to make a decision (or are willing to help us get that authority), we will not make the sale. Why is it in their interest to make the commitment you will ask for? Put your client's need before your own. To you it may another sale to reach target, a way to raise funds, first sale for new idea or product. To your client of course it is a new way to work, a way to save money, make money, improve their life etc etc. ie people buy the benefit they will achieve. Empathy is very important. In their position would you buy what you propose? Why? Can you visualise them saying 'YES!' How will they say it - exclaim it as they decide the reason to buy? Happily agree with everything you say? Raise objections then agree after rationale debate? What is their 'proof strategy' (more about this later)? How will they feel when they say yes? This is a powerful technique to align your behaviour with the expected outcome. In future blogs we will discuss NLP, which I believe has a key role to play in selling to assist you to understand your buyer and modify your own behaviour if you choose. This approach delivers several benefits. It helps to drive the outcome that you want - and by definition will also help your customer since we will be selling a solution to their needs. It also helps to weed out the meetings that you don't have time for - ie if you cannot set a worthwhile objective perhaps you should re-set expectations or cancel the meeting. In summary, you can drive the objective setting of meetings to a large extent. Test your objectives beforehand and by using your sales skills ensure meetings are as productive as possible. By owning this process to the largest extent appropriate you can relieve your buyer of effort and enhance their productivity - s/he will thank you for it! http://www.softskillslimited.com/ http://www.theRobertJohnston.com/ I am the author. For over 25 years I have been very successful in selling and management. Working for some of the world's most well known companies such as IBM and Oracle. I'm based in the UK and now decided to follow my passion and set up a business delivering sales training. At my sites you can book on a course at a great offer price. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robert_W_Johnston

LinkedIn Discussion For Sales Managers - What Do You Do When HR Can't Find the Hunters You Need?

I recently posted this question on LinkedIn: Sales Managers: What do you do when your HR group isn't able to identify the hunters you need? With the incredible costs due to unfilled positions (customers going with the competition, RFPs not completed and generally missed sales opportunities), what do you (the sales manager) do to help HR see the need to use an outside source? I have 2 managers right now with open jobs, no real candidates in the pipeline and HR says that they want to fill the job internally. I got some really great answers from sales managers, business owners, recruiters, and HR people from around the country, and I thought the gist of the discussion was worth posting here for you. The general consensus seems to be that HR departments are difficult to work with on a candidate search because (1) there are often corporate politics coming into play, (2) HR doesn't have the expertise to handle finding specialized sales professionals, and (3) HR doesn't understand the true cost of a vacant position (and might not be all that interested). Especially if HR is working with a limited budget, they're not going to be interested in using an outside recruiting source-because they don't grasp the true cost of a vacant position to the company as a whole. So, they should stick to the onboarding portion of bringing in a new candidate. More than a few say that sales managers should just bypass HR entirely-because sales and marketing departments are much more equipped to recruit than HR departments, much more versed in what it is that they need in a new sales rep, and should already have an extensive network of sales reps to mine for their needs. (In some cases, these were also their arguments for not using a third-party recruiter.) Most importantly, if the sales manager is going to be held responsible for making the numbers, he or she shouldn't have to rely on another department to that extent for their team's success. My position is, of course, that sales managers make much more productive use of their time by working with the team they have in place to make the sales, and leaving the candidate search to a recruiter. The more money a manager generates in a normal cycle, the more it costs to use that time finding a new sales rep. And if recruiting isn't your business, you're almost never going to have access to the kind of candidate pool a recruiter has, no matter how extensive your professional network is-which means you'll be missing out on some very high-caliber talent. If the sales manager (or the HR department) has to run ads to find talent, that becomes a costly gamble which can easily bring you no results from your efforts. A good recruiting team saves time and money, while increasing productivity and sales force effectiveness. Peggy McKee is the CEO of PHC Consulting, an executive search firm that specializes in finding top sales, sales management, technical support and marketing talent for the medical and healthcare industries. We specialize in laboratory, medical device, healthcare IT, health care and hospital administration, and health care supply. Our clients include companies that are on the Fortune 5, 50, and 500 list, as well as Fortune 100 Fastest-Growing companies. Our clients' call points are the pharmacy, hospital administration, laboratory (both clinical and research), and the physician or surgeon. Our clients say that we provide the most pre-screened, pre-qualified candidates and talent that they receive. They love our follow-up, and they love the fact that we listen to what they truly need, and identify and exceed their goals in the candidate search. Our candidates say that we listen to what they are looking for in a career--that we help them find the best positions that are truly a long-term fit, and that we help make a stressful job search a little easier. See our website at http://www.phcconsulting.com. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peggy_McKee

7 Simple Tips to Create Success Within the Sales and Marketing Industries

It doesn't matter what the marketing or sales opportunity that you're in is, there are always a few things that remain constant in order to achieve success. In this article I would like to talk a about 7 tips to creating success within the marketing or sales industries; actually these tips can be used by anyone involved with business. Here are 7 simple tips to creating success within the sales and marketing industries: 1. Be Punctual There is nothing worse than someone that is always late; it's rude and unprofessional. If you're supposed to call or meet someone at a certain time then you've got to be punctual. Showing up on time shows that you're professional and you respect other peoples time. No one will ever take you serious if you're constantly showing up late. 2. Warm Up the Client The best way to warm up a client is to become their friend. In a way I would rather have people view me as their friend than just some sales person or business man. When you're able to find some common ground with a person you'll have a much easier time transitioning into you your business. 3. Knowledge You've got to know your product and business inside and out. Remember that people aren't just buying a product they're buying you; the second they see that you don't know what you're talking they'll decide right then and there that they don't want to do business with you. 4. Adapting To Your Buyer Every one of your buyers or clients will be different from the other. You can't say or do the same thing over and over; you've got to adapt to your buyer and make them feel comfortable and relaxed. 5. Trust Building a trust bridge between you and your client is one of the most important things you can do. This can be done by accomplishing the things that I've mentioned so far. Once you've established that trust you don't want to do anything that could ruin it. 6. Have a Plan Don't be one of those business men or women that think they can "wing" their presentation. Have a well thought and organized plan and you'll see that your presentation will go much smoother. 7. Closing If you do all the things that I've mentioned above then closing will be easy. The key to closing a sale is make sure your clients understand why they need whatever it is that you're selling. Once they feel the need for your product or service closing the sale will be the easiest thing you've ever done. I've been trained and mentored by some of the best online marketers on the web today. Our team is one of the best in the business. I would love to help you make a change in your life, and help you learn how to make money online. Take a look at http://www.todaysbiz.org/ and make a change in your life today! Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Michael_Sanofsky