Mastering the World of Selling: The Ultimate Training Resource from the Biggest Names in Sales

Chapter 81. Superior Sales Management

Brian Tracy

Brian Tracy International

THE PIVOTAL ROLE IN THE SALES TEAM

You are a sales manager. Your job is the pivotal skill in the sales organization. What you do and how well you do it has more of an impact on sales results than any other factor.

Of all your responsibilities, your ability to get the very most out of the salespeople you manage is the area where you can make the greatest contribution to your company. Every skill or behavior that you learn and practice that motivates your sales team will increase and improve sales activity, and boost sales volume.

According to Columbia University, the average salesperson works only 20 percent of the time, about one-and-a-half hours per day. The rest of his or her time is spent preparing for sales work, warming up or gearing down, coming in late or leaving early, drinking coffee or eating lunch, taking care of personal business, chatting with coworkers, and surfing the Internet.

When is a salesperson actually working? Only when he or she is involved in the direct process of generating sales. And when is this? It is only when the salesperson is face to face or ear to ear with a prospect, defined as "someone who can and will buy and pay within a reasonable period of time."

All other activities are secondary to those specific actions that are responsible for generating the sales upon which your company depends. Your job is to keep your salespeople focused on doing these things more and more often all ...