As a sales manager, you are uniquely positioned to influence the level of success for your entire team. It’s important to lead by example, and show the rest of your sales force the characteristics of an outstanding sales rep. Throughout the world there are a few characteristics and skills that the best managers of sales reps have in common, and we’re going to share them with you.
Be a Goal-Setter
Set specific goals and objectives for yourself, and for the team. Make sure the timing is realistic and the goals are measurable. Include specific goals for sales rep performance; ratio of calls that convert into sales or the number of repeat customers. These goals will help you and your team to examine the progress you're making and help to see where you’re lacking to improve in order to increase sales. At the end of the timeline for your goals perform a self-assessment. Review your goal progress, and see if your reps are meeting their goals as well, make adjustments as you feel necessary.
Motivate your Reps
Provide incentives for the employees to meet these goals that you all set together. These incentives should be given to those reps that go above and beyond the basic requirements. These incentives don’t necessarily have to be in the form of money. Any additional perk you can afford to give the reps with out impacting the sales goals would be a viable incentive. For instance, rewarding additional time off, or giving a successful rep their own business phone line. These are small ways to show the sales reps they’re doing a great job and it’s being recognized. This rejuvenates their attitude toward work and will help them be more excited and positive about going into work again.
Ride with the Constant Change
The sales world is constantly changing, and if you’re not ready to keep up with the new times someone else certainly is and would be happy to take your place in line. The sales manager has the power of a fleet of sales reps that can help to experiment and add variety to create that change. Allow them to play around with new sales scripts, let them try to sell through new influencers, and explore new ways to attack the phone tree. Creating their own mini-experiments is fun and allows them to spice up their day to day job every once in awhile. Make sure the experiments are well thought out and all of the steps are in place. This will help you find a whole range if new ways to sell that you probably would never think of before.
CRM
Customer relationship management software can become an invaluable tool to incorporate into your business operations. CRM allows each member of your sales team individually enter information about customers as well as see information about the entries of others. Hence, for the manager this allows you to view all of the activity going on with the reps. Which customers they’ve called, what their incurred results were, etc. This way you can keep an eye on what your reps are doing without coming off as overly managing.
Managing sales reps can be challenging, but following these tips will make your life a whole lot easier. Are you currently managing sales reps? What do you find makes your job easier?
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