Sales Management For Dummies

Chapter 8

Defining Your Expectations

In This Chapter

Writing down your expectations

Setting up guardrails to keep your team on track

Designing effective incentives

Your sales team is trained and ready to hit the streets. But wait: Have you told them what results you’re looking for? Have you communicated with them what your expectations are for each territory or division?

In order for your team members to gauge whether they’re succeeding, they need to know whether they’re failing to meet, meeting, or exceeding expectations — and what, specifically, those expectations are.

In this chapter, I look at how to establish clear expectations and get everything down in writing so there are no misunderstandings about what milestones they need to be hitting to achieve the level of performance you demand — so you’ll know, they’ll know, and you’ll know they know. And they’ll know you know they know. (Okay, that’s enough — this could go on all day!)

It’s important in your role as a professional sales manager to lay out the ground rules, enforce them when needed, give proper guidance, and set an example.

As you read this chapter, keep in mind the best way to make your expectations clear is to ...