What is a Sales Manager’s Job?
A Sales Manager’s job is to deliver results, which means to deliver sales production. Obviously the way he or she does that is most often through the efforts of talented salespeople.
When you see a sales organization selling large numbers of systems, far more than the averages, why do you think they are able to do so well? How come one office in a city selling basically the same security system to the same type prospect sells 100 monitored systems or more per month while other companies in the same city selling the same product to the same type prospect can’t manage to sell, try as they might, more than 10 or 15 on average per month?
What is the secret? How do they do it? One of the secrets is that the top dealers quit waiting for the phone to ring. They quit spending big dollars on Yellow Page advertizing in hopes of driving “qualified leads” in the door. They quit spending big dollars on direct mail campaigns that produce ½ of 1% response on average and less of that number results in a closed sale. Instead they employed aggressive self generating lead programs of all types run by their salespeople, not advertizing agencies.
They hire Sales Managers and develop team leaders who recruit salespeople. Instead of having 2 or 3 salespeople waiting for their advertizing to work, they employ 20 or 30 salespeople who are taught how to prospect and sell. They make things happen instead of waiting for something to happen.
A Sales manager’s job is to grow sales. However, sales managers should know that in order to accomplish that task they have to be able to develop salespeople. What does that mean?
I believe that most salespeople, regardless where they sold before, can be better than they are when I hire them. I believe we all can be better at what we do if we have a manager who is focused on us and truly wants us to be more successful. We all need to have our skills sharpened from time-to-time. Salespeople of all skill levels need training.
Lou Sepulveda Consulting & Training
985-778-1571
Book Titles by Lou
Selling Security Systems like a Pro
How to Manage a Security Sales
Organization
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& Closing the Sale (at www.lousepulveda.com
Right on the mark, Lou. Really enjoyed this post.
ReplyDeleteAs you point out, the most effective marketing is done in the field by sharp, well-trained salespeople. With the right training and initiative, a salesperson can transform him- or herself into a trusted security advisor and even something of a "security celebrity" in their market area.
But for that to happen sales managers (or company owners) need to know how to put a game plan together and "coach" their salespeople into becoming self-sufficient and successful. In this day-and-age, "dialing for dollars" or waiting for the phone to ring ain't going to cut it.
Greg Rankin
Security Marketing Resource
securitymarketing.com
securitysalestraining.com
Excellent read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch because I found it for him smile So let me rephrase that.
ReplyDeleteBusiness Sales Training Programs