Sales Managers Who Make A Difference To An Organisation
By Adele Crane
Your sales management will define in many cases the overall culture of an entire organisation. How can they yield so much power and have such a significant impact on the company they represent?
The impact comes from the decisions they make, the boundaries they set for their teams, the people they hire and how they develop those individual. Furthermore, the standards they set and the consistency of enforcing those standards directly impacts the customer experience.
"If you have taken over a role from an under performing sales manager or been in a poorly managed, you may find that the sales force resort to discounting rather than added value / consultative selling.
This price-cutting tactic has an immediate financial impact on the organization impacting others through the lack of funds for product development, training, marketing and other discretionary spending."
The sales manager that is not focused on the quality of orders written and the timelines for delivery and inclusions, sends the company into chaos because it struggles to remedy errors through production, finance and logistics as people work to repair the damage from a simple wrong code, documentation errors or failure to note specific requirements. The cost of re-work due to incorrect orders is one of the single largest losses to any organisation.
The sales manager who does not carefully manage the representations to the market for sales opportunities including presentations made at key accounts, proposals and key account management methodology is exposing the business to high risks of unnecessary of slippage in lost opportunity and unprofessional representation. The marketing effort is consequently destroyed by disparate sales people operating in the market with their own personal interpretation rather than a company standard methodology.
As a consultant I see this many times over. Consider the potential loss in revenue:
Regrettably this is very common as many sales managers view their role as more of a fire fighter; the person who can save situations, who smoothes the way for the team to operate when things go wrong, being reactive to the team and to the market. This is what they were exposed to in the past when sales management held very little respect as a role amidst other executives such as the finance or operations. Of the 2.2m sales managers in the North American market, you would find that 7 out of 10 of them struggle with the day-to-day requirements of the role rather than actually driving the business and team forward.
The problem stemming from ineffective sales managers is that they are traditionally (and continue to be) hired through:
The successful candidate for the sales manager role, regardless of their reason of appointment, accepts that it’s their opportunity to shine, as long as the right approach is taken.
"In most roles today, you have around 100 days to demonstrate your ability to take charge of your team and demonstrate results."
Companies want to see deliverables and you have to know which ones are key points to take you forward in that particular organisation. Your actions will define if you are going to sink or swim at executive level and whether the team will follow too.
The battle of cultural change (minor or significant) begins the moment you arrive in the role. One thing we do know is that if you follow the path of your predecessor who failed to deliver results, then you are committing career suicide.
The skills that will not carry you forward are:
Things proven to make great sales managers and organizations are structure, well defined standards and roles, well documented knowledge resources and a focus on developing individuals (managers or individuals) from the get-go. Managers adopting that path are those that excel in their roles and create teams that are formidable competitors continually taking market share.
It’s about:
"Interestingly, most sales people report that on implementation of thorough systems and processes in an organisation they ‘finally understand what is required and the boundaries’. Those people can usually deliver a 20-25% increase in results. A good start for a sales manager in a new role!"
Sales Focus International have been developing fully integrated systems for sales people for over two decades and have been instrumental in sales managers delivering significant growth to their organisations. Adele Crane, Managing Director of Sales Focus International is a world renowned business consultant with over two decades of experience in cultural change and has an outstanding ability in the diagnosis of business and individuals that contribute to change. To find out more about those systems and methods that can assist you excel in your role contact Sales Focus International www.salesfocusintl.com
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