Every salesperson needs a partner. In many small companies, however, there is only one salesperson, leaving the representative few people with whom to share ideas. As a manager or owner, you may need to play a dual role. You need to manage your company as well as become the sales manager. If you have a designated sales manager, then he or she must become not only the sales manager but also a sales partner.
Every employee needs advice, encouragement and understanding of their role and the challenges they face on a daily basis. They need someone with whom to brainstorm marketing plans and to validate what is or is not working.
Try these ideas to help:
- Weekly meetings with your sales team
If you do not schedule regular meetings with your sales team, they will not happen. Having meetings will first let your staff members know that you as a manager are committed to helping them, listening to their issues and working with them to ensure their goals are met.
- Review all accounts — the good, the bad and the
ugly
Review information from all accounts. Remember that you want to hear all the news about an account. Encourage salespeople to share information about any account changes, problems, special requests or issues they have had with the office. The more everyone knows about the special requests from any account, the better able you will be to meet their individual needs.
- Review sales expectations and goals
Every salesperson wants to be successful. They want to meet expectations, but they need to understand what those expectations are and how they can be met. Continue to share not only the goals of the company but how the salesperson's work contributes to those goals. It is a great time to understand if those goals are realistic, need refining or whether new goals need to be designed.
- Review all sales documentation
Sales documentation is like having company insurance. Comprehensive paperwork allows us to review where the salesperson has been, what has happened and what we need to bring up during the next appointment. If you do not review or analyze the sales staff's reports, do not expect clear and accurate reporting; filling out the reports will be seen somewhat like homework that the teacher never reads.
- Visit and meet with your key accounts at least once or twice
a year
Just because you as a manager have a salesperson calling on your key accounts, do not let your relationship with this account be forgotten. It is always important for owners and managers to maintain some contact with these important accounts. You should meet periodically with your key referral sources to let them know how important they are to your business. It will also help cement the relationship your sales representative has with this account.
- Determine ways that you as a sales manager can assist your
sales team
You do not only want to be the sales manager or owner, you want to be a part of the sales support team. Determine what you can do to make the sales team more effective and productive. It may be realigning sales territories, creating new marketing materials or providing additional training on a piece of equipment. Solicit suggestions from your salespeople. You never know what support they might request.
- Encourage sales staff to communicate customer information
with the entire company
Salespeople must be encouraged to share account information with all members of the team. At your weekly staff meetings, make sure you leave time for salespeople to report on their work, key issues discussed on the past week's sales calls and anything the office needs to be on the lookout for.
If you are thinking salespeople can work all alone, you may be right. If you think salespeople do not want any assistance from owners or managers, you are probably wrong. Everyone in our business works better when they work as part of a team.
As a manager, don't separate yourself from your sales staff. They will be far more productive and successful with your encouragement, advice and help.
Louis Feuer is president of Dynamic Seminars & Consulting Inc. and the founder and director of the DSC Teleconference Series, a teleconference training program. He can be reached at www.DynamicSeminars.com or by phone at 954/435-8182.
