There are fundamental selling functions that should be a part of the routine of sales people on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis. Add to those functions, which we can discuss in another posting, techniques that should become part of the essence of the sales person. The issue however is that while we know the things that make us more successful as sales people, we either don't learn and practice them, or we forget them. And when that happens, sales suffer!
The core function of a sales manager is to ensure that his/her sales people are performing the fundamentals of selling and achieving their potential. If the sales manager ensures that sales people's skills are at the highest level, all the other management functions will become routine... and things like end of quarter rants will not be necessary. Sales people will be hitting booking, revenue and margin targets; maintaining key account relationships; forecasting accurately; attaining product mix plans; communicating through management key market feedback and information... and doing so with a minimum of personal, family or company stress.
So, if sales are suffering and corporate executives have assured them selves that other issues are not the cause (product problems; new competition; marketing miscues, manufacturing delays and such) its time to look at sales management. What are the managers doing? Perhaps, it is just as important to look at what they are not doing!
Very few if any sales managers have had formal sales management training, and they are not prepared for the position they are promoted into, simply because they are very good sales people. Unfortunately, the skills that make them 'very good sales people' are not the same that will make them successful as a manager. It will take years to learn them on their own... there are few sales management training books, seminars, CDs and so on. It is a problem for companies, particularly those without significant training means, that has no quick solutions.
When a sales person is promoted to a sales management position, or a new hire into the position starts working, it is critical to communicate expectations to the new manager. This should come in the form of a job description, and written performance expectations relating to the job. The new manager should also have a designated coach which may be a second or higher level sales manager... or in small companies, the owner/president. There should be non-financial goals and target dates set as a part of the expectations... for example, travel with and assessment of each subordinate sales person; internal training on administrative processes such as forecasting; and so on. These will give a gifted manager an opportunity to get started on the right foot.
In most situations, I also recommend formal training for new managers. Companies should consider investing in their new sales managers by having them trained. One way to accomplish this is though intensive one week university courses. For example, the University of Michigan (among others) has their Effective Sales Management (ESM) course in their Stephen M. Ross School of Business. Its highlights are as follow, from their website...
http://execed.bus.umich.edu/CentersOfExcellence/Products/Search_Programs.aspx
Within these highlights are the keys to the function of sales management in my opinion. First, sales management needs a formal job description because it is not an intuitive process. There are things that should be done routinely, and when they are not, the performance of the sales people suffer. I have attended other courses at the U of Michigan, and can attest to the quality of their faculty and the materials. I recommend that anyone wanting a career path that goes through sales management, attend this course. It will put things in perspective, and teach the management tools critical to success.
It should be recognized that these courses teach what I call 'vanilla' sales management. There are certain fundamentals of sales management that should be the core training and core to every sales manager's administrative processes. There are also skills that are specific to the type of market and products that the sales team are focused on... these are not taught in books or courses like the ones in universities. It is important for companies to communicate effectively what those specific sales person skills and management processes happen to be, so the manger can ensure that they are internalized.
The initial position taken in this post is that once sales managers understand their job description better, and start acting the part, sales people respond to appropriate management by increasing productivity... and that should beget performance improvement. Supposing that the manager has had training and a good job description... what needs to happen next?
