Sales Managers — Spanning out of “Control?”

Many organizations are getting flatter and cutting costs. If this has resulted in you having more salespeople on your team, what tactics are you using to ensure you are giving them the support they need?

Quote:

Originally Posted by richsales

Many organizations are getting flatter and cutting costs. If this has resulted in you having more salespeople on your team, what tactics are you using to ensure you are giving them the support they need?

What do you mean "flatter"?

I think it becomes necessary to become a master of time management. I have management meetings, marketing meetings, PR meeting, and in between all of that I have to plan my training, do weekly one on one meetings with every rep, and also stay current on phone and interview observations. I have started using tools like Sandy, Jott, and Evernote to keep me a bit more organised. I am also syncing my work Outlook with my home through Google calendar.

It's not easy to stay on top of everything, but it can be done if you leverage technology.

-Brad

Rich, it's seems to be a fact of life in this economy but it certainly is counter-intuitive. After all, the SM role is, in large part "motivation" (keeping the team focused on the goal). I'm not quite sure how the job gets done effectively when you're managing 10 to 15 SR's.

The sweet-spot is about 8 direct reports. With a team of this size, there's plenty of room to get out there with them. 2-man calls are the only way to do a professional skills inventory for each team member. As well, it's the only way to maintain contact with key customers.

When the team size balloons, you need to:
1. manage the sales numbers every morning (I used to take the system-generated numbers and dump them into a special spreadsheet which I built to compare actual-to-forecast and which injected the # of days left in the period); then,
2. communicate this performance measurement via email to the entire team (usually weekly) with actions where short-falls are illustrated; and,
3. copy management on this weekly missive; then,
4. forward that missive to your manager where there are issues where his involvement is required;
5. be more precise in your weekly team meetings as there is little likelihood of 1-on-1's with the entire team;

This might sound like over-kill but it's really the only way to keep the issues manageable.

Good luck and Good selling!
Pat

	#1
richsales "Top Sales Expert"	Sales Managers — Spanning out of “Control?” Many organizations are getting flatter and cutting costs. If this has resulted in you having more salespeople on your team, what tactics are you using to ensure you are giving them the support they need? __________________ Richardson More then just sales training... http://www.richardson.com

	#3
bmtrnavsky	I think it becomes necessary to become a master of time management. I have management meetings, marketing meetings, PR meeting, and in between all of that I have to plan my training, do weekly one on one meetings with every rep, and also stay current on phone and interview observations. I have started using tools like Sandy, Jott, and Evernote to keep me a bit more organised. I am also syncing my work Outlook with my home through Google calendar. It's not easy to stay on top of everything, but it can be done if you leverage technology. -Brad __________________ Sales Management 2.0 Discuss, Blog, Network, and Connect.

	#4
OUTSource Sales "Top Sales Expert"	Rich, it's seems to be a fact of life in this economy but it certainly is counter-intuitive. After all, the SM role is, in large part "motivation" (keeping the team focused on the goal). I'm not quite sure how the job gets done effectively when you're managing 10 to 15 SR's. The sweet-spot is about 8 direct reports. With a team of this size, there's plenty of room to get out there with them. 2-man calls are the only way to do a professional skills inventory for each team member. As well, it's the only way to maintain contact with key customers. When the team size balloons, you need to: 1. manage the sales numbers every morning (I used to take the system-generated numbers and dump them into a special spreadsheet which I built to compare actual-to-forecast and which injected the # of days left in the period); then, 2. communicate this performance measurement via email to the entire team (usually weekly) with actions where short-falls are illustrated; and, 3. copy management on this weekly missive; then, 4. forward that missive to your manager where there are issues where his involvement is required; 5. be more precise in your weekly team meetings as there is little likelihood of 1-on-1's with the entire team; This might sound like over-kill but it's really the only way to keep the issues manageable. Good luck and Good selling! Pat __________________ OUTSource Sales Consulting Visit us: www.OUTSource-sales.net

Sales Managers — Spanning out of “Control?”

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