A more prudent approach for hiring the right sales manager is to look for a candidate who comes to the table with the specialized skill-set associated with a sales manager. This is a specialized skill set that is often portable to any industry. The role of the sales manager is to both be a leader and a manager, which are not usually skills developed in the womb; they are cultivated and developed through training and experience as a sales manager. Some of the elements that companies should be focused on when hiring the right sales manager include:
Recruitment. Whether the company has an opening on the sales team or not, the best sales managers are on a never-ending quest for strong talent. As the prospective employer, you want to understand the candidates process for screening sales candidates. How do they prime the applicant pump? Can they develop a profile of the ideal salesperson, and prioritize it between required and desired attributes? What is their process for evaluating candidates against the profile? Ask any company why they miss their revenue targets and most will tell you that having unfilled slots on the team is a contributing factor. Recruitment is a very important arrow in the sales managers quiver.
Onboarding. Rarely can you hire a salesperson, hand them their territory, and send them off with a good luck kiss. Not if you expect them to be successful. Another key skill of the sales manager is their method for quickly assimilating the salesperson into the organization. What is their strategy to minimize the amount of time that the new salesperson is in a non-revenue generating capacity? What is their plan to make them productive in the least amount of time? How do they measure whether or not the neophyte salesperson is going to be successful?
Process. Many companies have one superstar on their sales team their rainmaker. That's not exactly a scalable model. It limits growth and creates exposure for the company if the rainmaker leaves. Scalable sales organizations are based on process. The entire team follows a specified model based on a defined formula. Find out if the candidate can create this process for the company, what experience they have in doing so, and what the results were.
Metrics. The wonderful aspect of sales is that there is so much data that can be reviewed to understand trends and make changes to the business. While interviewing, scrutinize how the sales manager uses metrics in their approach. See how they have used metrics to affect performance of their team. Learn their approach to scrutinizing a sales pipeline or forecast.
Compensation. The beauty of sales is that the compensation plan serves as the salespersons job description. This can also be a curse for the company if the wrong behaviors are rewarded by the plan. This is another important skill that a strong sales manager should possess. Find out their approach for developing the right compensation plan for the company. See how they determine which behaviors to reward, when, and how.
Skill development. Sales is philosophy, so no one ever knows everything about it. Its also very easy for salespeople to develop bad habits. Thus, the sales manager should have a skill development plan for their team. Get to know their approach for developing their team members. Probe how they inspire the overachievers to continue to overachieve. Ask they manage the underperformers and lead them to either perform or deselect from the company.
Leadership. The first six items fall into a management category. However, the strong sales managers are also leaders. Their sales teams will run through walls for them. Their salespeople not only want to be successful for themselves, but also for their manager. Determine how this sales-management candidate creates an environment where others are inspired to follow them and their teachings. Leadership skills and sales force retention work hand-in-hand. Strong leaders keep their strong players on the team for the long haul.
In addition to cultural fit, these are the seven key elements that a company should use to make a decision to hire a particular sales-management candidate. What the employer will get with this hiring approach is a strong, scalable organization with fresh ideas.
- Original post by Lee Salz
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
SalesInsight Services Corporate Presentation
www.salesinsightservices.com
SalesInsightServices.com
View more presentations from Manish Chauhan.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Sales Pipeline Management
A Sales process is a systematic & methodical approach of accomplishing product or service sales.
Sales Pipeline is an integral component of a sales process as it depicts the revenue forcasts & volumentric changes of the company. It consists of various stages such as:
1) Prospecting
2) Data Exchange/Proposal in Progress
3) Decison
4) Closure or Win
The key coloumn headings for a sales pipeliene is:
1) Company Name
2) Location
3) Oppurtunity Name
4) Revenue details
5) FTE Details
6) Sales Team involved
Sales Pipeline is an integral component of a sales process as it depicts the revenue forcasts & volumentric changes of the company. It consists of various stages such as:
1) Prospecting
2) Data Exchange/Proposal in Progress
3) Decison
4) Closure or Win
The key coloumn headings for a sales pipeliene is:
1) Company Name
2) Location
3) Oppurtunity Name
4) Revenue details
5) FTE Details
6) Sales Team involved
Lead Generation
Lead generation is a process of identifying different ways of gathering details for prospective customer. This is an important part of selling process as a good database or lead set will help in targeting right customers.
Lead Source:
A lead can be generated from various sources such as:
1) Through a paid database source such as (Hoovers, OneSource etc.)
2) Telemarketing-although a time consuming process but has emerged as an important tool.
3) E-mail Marketing: Most effective means of getting leads and a quicker turnaround ratio.
4) Intermediaries
5) Internal Reference.
In current scenario where every organization want to get more & more business, it is very important to look beyond the traditional mode of selling and use technology such as e-mail marketing & internet marketing.
Lead Source:
A lead can be generated from various sources such as:
1) Through a paid database source such as (Hoovers, OneSource etc.)
2) Telemarketing-although a time consuming process but has emerged as an important tool.
3) E-mail Marketing: Most effective means of getting leads and a quicker turnaround ratio.
4) Intermediaries
5) Internal Reference.
In current scenario where every organization want to get more & more business, it is very important to look beyond the traditional mode of selling and use technology such as e-mail marketing & internet marketing.
Marketing Return on Investment For Lead Generation
How do you show the impact of lead generation programs on the bottom line for your sales organization? The simple answer is "Measurement".
Measuring the financial impact of lead generation marketing is challenging based on the dependency on Sales for appropriate follow-up, the questions of which methodology was responsible for generating the lead, and then debating with Sales over who deserves the final credit.
Contacts us for Following:
1) Aligning strategy and measurements around the customer funnel.
2) Using ROI to manage key profit drivers for lead generation activities.
3) Applying customer and sales analytics to balance lead value and volume through the use of CRM best practices.
4) Prioritizing strategies and tactics for more profitable marketing programs thorugh effective campaign management etc.
Measuring the financial impact of lead generation marketing is challenging based on the dependency on Sales for appropriate follow-up, the questions of which methodology was responsible for generating the lead, and then debating with Sales over who deserves the final credit.
Contacts us for Following:
1) Aligning strategy and measurements around the customer funnel.
2) Using ROI to manage key profit drivers for lead generation activities.
3) Applying customer and sales analytics to balance lead value and volume through the use of CRM best practices.
4) Prioritizing strategies and tactics for more profitable marketing programs thorugh effective campaign management etc.
Need of the hour
Since buying behavior of customers is changing due to recession and therefore we need to move strategically smarter to consumers than just harder selling. We need to spend more time in assisting them and go for consultative selling approach. Following are the tips for sales professional:
- Apply Consultative selling approach
- Do a lot pre-sales preparation
- Need to understand consumer needs than pushing our services or products.
- Have to apply pull marketing strategy
- Have to be more specific in identifying our target audience based on the strengths
- Have to improve on weaknesses and time to get better on what we do
- Change the routes to get success into market based on the strengths
- Be fast and consistent.
- Speed up decision making processes and response times.
- Apply Consultative selling approach
- Do a lot pre-sales preparation
- Need to understand consumer needs than pushing our services or products.
- Have to apply pull marketing strategy
- Have to be more specific in identifying our target audience based on the strengths
- Have to improve on weaknesses and time to get better on what we do
- Change the routes to get success into market based on the strengths
- Be fast and consistent.
- Speed up decision making processes and response times.
Marketing & Sales Support Solutions from SalesInsight
What is the need for Marketing and Sales Support Solutions?
1) To improve productivity & efficiency of sales & marketing teams.
2) To leverage new oppurtunities in different markets & locations.
We at salesinsight can provide customized sales support solutions that are targeted towards helping professionals who spend majority of their time on higher value-adding activities and reach out to customers in newer markets without increasing the cost of sales substantially. We do not provide direct sales capablity and therefore are not an alternative to clients in house sales force. Instead we can help in catalyzing your efforts towards meeting your specific needs across the sales value chain while reducing sales cycle and sales costs.
In a tycpical scenario, the majority of an average sales professional time is consumed by lower end activities such as lead generation, RFP & RFI building, cold calling & telemarketing, preparing collaterals etc.
We can help in the following:
Sales Lead Generation
1)List/database generation and profiling of prospects,
2) Cold call prospects, generate interest in clients product or services.
3) Primary research for e-mail id's & contact management through CRM.
Proposal and Collateral Production
1) Custom collateral development, sales pitchbook & presentations, brochures, website content & development
2) Proposal and RFP development
3) Customer reference management
1) To improve productivity & efficiency of sales & marketing teams.
2) To leverage new oppurtunities in different markets & locations.
We at salesinsight can provide customized sales support solutions that are targeted towards helping professionals who spend majority of their time on higher value-adding activities and reach out to customers in newer markets without increasing the cost of sales substantially. We do not provide direct sales capablity and therefore are not an alternative to clients in house sales force. Instead we can help in catalyzing your efforts towards meeting your specific needs across the sales value chain while reducing sales cycle and sales costs.
In a tycpical scenario, the majority of an average sales professional time is consumed by lower end activities such as lead generation, RFP & RFI building, cold calling & telemarketing, preparing collaterals etc.
We can help in the following:
Sales Lead Generation
1)List/database generation and profiling of prospects,
2) Cold call prospects, generate interest in clients product or services.
3) Primary research for e-mail id's & contact management through CRM.
Proposal and Collateral Production
1) Custom collateral development, sales pitchbook & presentations, brochures, website content & development
2) Proposal and RFP development
3) Customer reference management
Automate your sales cycle
How do you track your efforts in sales? There are couple of automation tools available in market like SalesForce, SugarCRM, etc.
For small businesses it is better to choose free opensource SugarCRM and install it on there web hosting like www.mycompanyname.com/sales/sugar/ . Start using it and see how easy it is to automate your sales.
Thanks
For small businesses it is better to choose free opensource SugarCRM and install it on there web hosting like www.mycompanyname.com/sales/sugar/ . Start using it and see how easy it is to automate your sales.
Thanks
Pre Sales Preparation
What you have to sell, for and to Whom you have to sell, in Which market, at What prices, Where you are competing?????
Acquiring knowledge about these kind of questions is the first task of a sales person.
Initially you have to find out what all collateral's and material available with you. Some of the required documents are:
Corporate Presentation, Case Studies, Company Introduction, e-mailer, letter, brochures, sales pitch and scripts,previous work demos, etc.
Also you have to collect information about your company (history, finances, management, size, policies etc. ), product or service you are going to sell, its features and benefits,competitive analysis, etc.
Another important factor is knowledge about your competitors.
This preparation will help you in proposing a much credible picture to your prospects and build trust.
Acquiring knowledge about these kind of questions is the first task of a sales person.
Initially you have to find out what all collateral's and material available with you. Some of the required documents are:
Corporate Presentation, Case Studies, Company Introduction, e-mailer, letter, brochures, sales pitch and scripts,previous work demos, etc.
Also you have to collect information about your company (history, finances, management, size, policies etc. ), product or service you are going to sell, its features and benefits,competitive analysis, etc.
Another important factor is knowledge about your competitors.
This preparation will help you in proposing a much credible picture to your prospects and build trust.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)