Successful Sales Force Management

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Successful Sales Force Management

• AHTD
• October 12, 2007
• Paul Pease

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What is successful sales force management?

• Simple objectives
• Get engaged
• Reward Excellence
• Mutual Accountability

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Simple Objective- SCAN Healthplan

• Create the elated customer
• End state is NOT the order- it is to get a
  referral.
• Referrals from elated customers shorten the sales
  cycle.
• Elated customers build background positive buzz.

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Engaged Manager

• What it is
• No ducking v-mail or email.
• One-on-ones most valuable to reinforce right
  behaviors.
• Open forums with sales team.
• Connecting the pulse of the field to the heart of
  the organization.

• What it is not
• Hiding behind v-mail or email.
• Public hangings- The beatings will continue
  until morale improves
• Management-by-directive.
• Make them come to you

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Reward Excellence

• What it is
• Stretch, but reachable goals.
• Respected rewards.
• Competitive fun.
• The private impact is more positive than the
  public impact.

• What it is not
• No goals, or unreachable goals.
• Steak knives.
• All work and no play.
• The private impact results in resumes being
  updated.

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Competitive Fun
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Mutual Accountability

• Management and sales commit skin to the growth
  game.
• No excuses, no apologies.
• Minimum performance standards and clearly spelled
  out consequences for not achieving those
  standards.
• Sales is not for everyone.

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Lead by Example

• If a successful salesperson has to deal with the
  objections of customers and influence them to
  buy, then what is a successful sales manager?

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Successful Sales Managers

• Engage the sales force every day.
• Dont hide, dont duck.
• Get up after being flattened by execs.
• Manage field complaints.

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Successful Sales Managers

• Manage company issues that kill sales numbers.
• Can walk back through any door they walk out of.
• Communicate and are team players.
• Are strategically three steps ahead of their
  sales team.

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Four Successful Sales Management Measures (6
Months)

• Did each individual improve?
• Did the group improve? NOTE Each individual
  improving does not equate to the group improving.
  Group performance dynamics are different than
  individual performance dynamics.
• Is each person connected to the mission?
• Is the group connected to the rest of the
  business?

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For the sake of brevity.

• We will only talk about individual improvement in
  this program.

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Salespeople complain.

• If salespeople arent complaining, youve got a
  problem.

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Individual Improvement
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Individual improvement

• Identify and reinforce desirable behaviors first
  to get better long- term results. Then tactics.
• One-on-ones
• Identifying and leveraging individual strengths.
• Coaching ONE improvement area.
• Connecting local strategy to overall mission.
• Obtaining resources for local success.

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Right Sales Behaviors

• Self discipline.
• Strategic thinking.
• Effective communicator.
• Business sense.

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Individual Improvement Managing Strategies for
Different Sales Performance Levels

• Survey results of over 200 sales managers and
  executives.
• Survey is based on prioritizing what the top,
  middle, and bottom performing salespeople do.
• This will show you how to manage each performing
  level more effectively.

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Ranking Top, Middle, Bottom Performers

• It is NOT by numbers.
• Behaviors.
• What do they prioritize as activities?
• NOTE If behavior reinforcement has not been
  managed, middle performers may appear to be on
  top by numbers.

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Defining the Top Performance Level

• NOT necessarily top revenue producers. Top
  revenue producers could be lucky or in a
  target-rich environment.
• Top people are the ones that get more out of a
  given situation than anyone else given the same
  set of conditions.

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Top Performers do NOT naturally rise to the top.

• They may be thwarted by ineffective management,
  systems, or strategy (usually all of these).
• They may not have been recognized as being top
  potential performers.
• They may have already left, are plotting their
  way out, or never took the job to begin with.

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Managing the Three Performance Levels

• Top planning is 1 priority
• Middle only lacking strategic thinking and
  activity. Use strategic activities to connect.
• Bottom Need specifics. Here is the problem with
  many training programs they assume that
  specifics are what everyone needs, when in fact
  they are only what is needed by the bottom

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Each performance level interprets each priority
differently. Get an order has a different
meaning to each level.

• How do we manage each performance level for
  success?

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Top Performers

• NEVER assume their large check is sufficient
  acknowledgement they are doing well.
• Connect them to a bigger picture-
• Sales/ rep council participation
• Business advice for your business.
• Best practices sharing and facilitation.

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Middle Performers

• They typically are task masters.
• To them, doing better is equated to doing more.
• PROBLEM They are paid for their time, and there
  are only 24 hours in a day.
• SOLUTION Manage them to be more effective by
  acting strategically. Act into a new way of
  thinking Larry Bossidy

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Middle Performers

• Managing them to act strategically
• Use their activity-task oriented thinking.
• Tie activities to
• Learning the difference between a strategically
  good opportunity and triaging out bad
  opportunities.
• Managing other experts in the sales process- team
  selling.

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Bottom Performers

• Put on performance review
• Time frame 3- 6 months.
• Specific metrics, measures, milestones.
• Sales development related (leads, quotes)
• Feedback mechanism/ frequency.
• Objective is to manage the person to succeed.
• Re-assign or remove.

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Many people jump to the last slide to get the
slackers in gear.

• If sales managers are not managing the whole
  team, they are not engaged strategically- they
  are putting out fires.

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Food for Thought Where do you invest ?
Lead/Prospect
Qualify
Most Value per unit Pay For Sales Function
Proposal
Order
WIP
Ship/Invoice
A/R
Referral
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Summary Successful Sales Force Management

• Strategy is local, but connected to the big
  picture.
• Take notes, take notes, take notes.
• Analyze the notes- look for patterns.
• Define what it means to be top, middle, and
  bottom performing salespeople, but distinguish
  this from the numbers.

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Audience Inputs Take-aways

• Sage advice from a 33-year straight commission
  salesman.