The Term Sales Management is Actually an Oxymoron

The term Sales Management is actually an oxymoron. Why. Because there is no way anyone can actually manage sales, they either happen or they don’t.

Sales Management is all about managing salespeople and finding ways to help them become more successful.

The challenge with that is unless you know the point where any sale was lost, stalled or put at risk you will never know how to coach improvement.

Rugby League coaches in Australia measure on-field performance including tackles made, missed tackles, meters gained, meters gained post contact and many more.

Without actually seeing the missed tackle and knowing why it was missed, the defensive coach is unable to help that player reduce the number of missed tackles in their game.

Poor positional play will always put stress on any defensive team. It provides an opportunity for the attacking team to run through gaps in the defensive line, causing other players to move into assist creating more pressure on the defensive.

Coaching better positional play techniques and making sure the skill is retained, is the preferred coaching option rather than allow the poor technique to continue.

Either way without seeing the play and being able to determine what the player needs to improve, how can any coach do their job effectively?

Coaching a salesperson is no different. You can be a sideline coach motivating your team, a coaching box coach giving half time analysis and motivation, or you can be the water boy who is on the field - not to offer water but to coach, motivate carry instructions from the coach and by the way offer water to the players.

Do you think for one minute if the coach were actually allowed onto the field the water boy would still have a job? How much more effective would a coach actually be if they were allowed onto the field and were able to direct, motivate and muster their players.

Technique

It all boils down to technique. As a salesperson, what I say, what I do and how I do it are some of the Micro Skills used every day. The only way to achieve sustainable long term improvements in any salespersons’ capacity to deliver sales forecast is to observe their individual Micro Skills, where and when they happen.

From this you need to develop a coaching plan to improve the skills your observation identifies as needing to be improved. Concentrate on only three skills at a time and confirm by further observations these skills have improved and are being used.

In one of my future newsletters I will share with you the results of just a 5% improvement in three different Micro Skills of a five person sales team. Remember these results have a sustainable long term effect on a persons ability to deliver sales forecast.

Sales Management the Edge you Need

Robert McAnderson will show you how he achieved 180% growth in hardware sales by using his Micro Selling Skills analysis and coaching skills to improve individual performance standards.

With over 45 years Sales Management and Marketing experience, with a strong emphasis on Sales Management, Internet Strategy, Website Visibility and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) he has a wealth of knowledge he is willing to share.

Robert McAnderson’s Sales Management philosophy achieved 180% growth in hardware sales, pioneered the concept of Customer Relationship Management concepts before CRM as we now know it was offered to the market and used Data Based Marketing to identify highly probable future customers from acquired prospect lists.

These achievements resulted in a member of his sales team nominating him for Australian Sales Manager of the Year.

Sales Managers have become reliant on software that measure activity, performance, and the conversion ratios of each of their salespeople. While these tools play an important role in helping Sales Managers manage their people and record the outcome, they do not record or measure the play by play actions that actually win or lose business.

The ability to fine tune a salesperson’s selling skills, storytelling, oral communication skills, telephone skills, listening skills, written communications skills, prospecting skills, to mention but a few can only be achieved when the Sales Manager Spends 80% of their working hours in the company of the people who report to them.

Sales Managers

·         Need to now the strengths and weakness of each person in their sales team.

·         Have a strong opinion about what training is needed for each salesperson in their team.

·         Know how to help each salesperson win more business.

Sales Managers cannot be present when every sales opportunity is identified, qualified, demonstrated, closed and during each of these phases see the sales process that either won the business or caused it to be lost.

By spending 80% of their time with their salespeople in face-to-face calls, phone calls to suspects/prospect/customers and any other sales engagement process and you will build an extraordinarily strong understanding of why conversion ratios differ from salesperson to salesperson.

Investing time seeing first hand the twists and turns that either win or loose business and developing a coaching plan to improve these micro event is the only way to sustainably achieve the Macro results CRM report.

According to Robert McAnderson if you want to make a difference as a Sales Manager (Coach) you need to spend time with your salespeople while they are engaged in all aspects of selling your product or service. Time spent here is pure gold as a coach given you see firsthand the selling process unfold before your eyes.

Fine tuning a salesperson’s selling skills, storytelling, oral communication skills, telephone skills, listening skills, written communications skills, prospecting skills, to mention but a few, can only be achieved when you spend time in the company of the people who deliver the results.

You cannot fix what is broken until you know it is broken. That means you must be present when there is a breakdown in the first instance—before you’ll know how to coach the salesperson on ways to secure the required outcome.

Statistics give you a measure of what happened; observations let you understand why it happened, and no CRM or Business Intelligence system will provide you with that perspective.

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Sales Management

The Primary Objective of any Sales Manager is to achieve and consistently exceed sales forecast.

Sales Managers have become reliant on software that measure activity, performance, and the conversion ratios of each of their salespeople. While these tools play an important role in helping Sales Managers manage their people and record the outcome, they do not record or measure the play by play actions that actually win or lose business.

The ability to fine tune a salesperson’s selling skills, storytelling, oral communication skills, telephone skills, listening skills, written communications skills, prospecting skills, to mention but a few can only be achieved when the Sales Manager Spends 80% of their working hours in the company of the people who report to them.

Sales Managers

• Need to now the strengths and weakness of each person in their sales team.
• Have a strong opinion about what training is needed for each salesperson in their team. 
• Know how to help each salesperson win more business.