Outside sales focus

I have a team of outside account managers that I am trying to keep focused and working hard. I had heard previously of a system where you assign 100 points to a day and give points for getting appointments, closing deals, giving out business cards and so on.

The object was that if you managed to get 100 points in the day that you were probably out working your tail off and good things will come from it.

Does anyone know about this or more details, I saw this about 2 years ago and thought it would help my team members but cannot find it now.

jpdobbs;

My concern with this system you describe is the reporting issues. The time taken to report how many business cards you hand out and appointments you generated or demos you arranged and follow up meetings plus sales (this you know anyway) and then apply points and report back ... well, we don't want your team to resent all this extra work, do we?

To say nothing of the workload it places on you.

Yes, your sales people should know what a real day's work is. That is why you need to go with each of them for a day, to show them. This is the proper way to manage activity and build repor with your reps.

To rap this up without a huge explanation, there are ways to gain their eager involvement in development, but the one suggested in my opinion is wasting valuable selling time. And I don't have to tell you, this is a total no-no!

In depth analysis of your system of motivation is an advanced endeavor, one that should be discussed professionally and cannot really be worked out in a forum. There is just no way for us to advise you without knowing quite a bit more.

If you PM me I would be glad to call, no trouble. In the mean time, I hope this reality check helps.

I'll weigh in on your question, jp,

I have not heard of this system.

But if a system like this helps bring clarity to management's expectations for A.M.'s, then it probably would be a good thing.

But I also want to ask this: Is your compensation plan for these A.M.s in line with your expectations?

Presumably, these salespeople will earn more within their compensation structure for doing what you expect, and as long as they are the type of individuals that want to earn more, things should run fairly smoothly.

I know I don't know all the particulars of your situation, but in general, I have found that challenges with sales performance (or "motivation") within a sales group are often related to one of more of the problem:

- a lack of clarity of management's expectations for salespeople;
- unattainable sales goals;
- lack of proper sales coaching;
- the compensation plan does not reward employees in a manner which is congruent with management's expectations.

I hope that helps.

Skip Anderson

JPD, I'm a firm believer in the KISS principle especially when it comes to motivating the team.

Invariably, where I've seen the "sharp-shooter" type focus from SRs, the compensation program is robust. By that I mean:
1. competitive in terms of pay-out; and,
2. realistically attainable (even where plan is a "stretch"); and,
3. pays for seniority; and,
4. includes annual recognition for over-performance (eg. President's Club); and,
5. with quarterly "primers" to make sure everyone is building to the year-end target (eg. playing cards awarded for business attained to culiminate in a quarter-end poker game with large prizes);

The only time which SPIF's work is where something falls off the wagon or unforeseen competitive pressure is to be acknowledged.

On top of these, I always keep some $50.00 gift certficates in my desk. I'd had these out typically to non-commissioned, support people who've been heavily involved in the team's success.

I hope this helps.

Good luck & Good selling!
Pat

Thanks all for the replys. I am currently working on the compensation aspect of our department. The bigger issue is the company I work for has been in business for 60 years and never really had any type of sales group, now we have one. We did well with sales during the first 6months, but it has started to taper off.

We had launched new services in the majority of our service areas and this made sales come pretty easy for the various sales groups and now that it is a little tougher I am seeing a lack of focus. I am just trying to find something to spark the teams and keep them going in the right direction.

Training may be an issue too.

If I understand correctly the sales people cashed in on existing clients with new opportunities, now that the easy stuff has been done, the real selling has to begin - namely prospecting. Quite likely they are not prospecting pros and this is really the issue.

Depression when the concept sinks in that real work is required is not uncommon.

Usually when we analyze a sales team's lowering performance it is not closing skills, it is the lower number of new prospects they are dealing with at the heart of the matter. In other words; prospecting.

Love to talk with you one on one about this, a little time on the phone would sure get to the root of the problem quickly. But it sounds to be like it is not an incentive plan that is needed but a training initiative, beginning with prospecting.

Cheers.

Outside sales focus

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