Sales Management Success

3A Strategy for Managing Sales Performance

YOU HAVE PROBABLY HEARD a version of the comment: “Sandy is a great salesperson because she __________”

• knows how to sell value.
• is fantastic at prospecting.
• sells strategically at high account levels.
• has super closing skills.
• has an awesome personality.

The true fact is that few salespeople succeed by performing one skill, activity, or behavior well. While the superstars may have a dominant skill or behavior, they usually exceed expectations because they have mastered a variety of the critical sales skills, tactics, and strategies and can build them into a winning combination.

Considering that there are a multitude of skills, behaviors, strategies, and actions that make up the “complete salesperson,” how does the sales manager know which buttons to push and what actions to take for development purposes?

MANAGE PERFORMANCE GAPS BEFORE THEY BECOME PROBLEMS

Our research in studying and observing thousands of salespeople on the job has validated that most salespeople have a need/capability to perform (rotate, repeat) about 50 actions (skills, subskills, behaviors, decisions) during a typical selling week. The bottom line is that the typical sales manager manages 10 people (on average) but also needs to track and monitor their 500 combined skills and behaviors being used differently on an ongoing basis. Equally important, he has to constantly monitor that the right ones are being used, that they are employed in the right sequence, and ...