Sales is like a Marathon, not a Sprint

Sales management is a business discipline which is focused on the practical application of sales techniques and the management of a firm's sales operations. It is an important business function as net sales through the sale of products and services and resulting profit drive most commercial business. Sales management is the process of developing a sales force, coordinating sales operations, and implementing sales techniques that allow a business to consistently hit, and even surpass, its sales targets. If your business brings in any revenue at all, a sales management strategy is an absolute must. Sales management is the act of overseeing and leading sales representatives to create strong relationships with prospects and close more deals.

Sales management has gained importance to meet increasing competition and the need for improved methods of distribution to reduce cost and to increase profits. Sales management today is the most important function in a commercial and business enterprise. Stabilizing and growing sales is essential to operating a profitable business. In pursuit of this objective, it's important to set goals, monitor sales performance and trends, and identify potential obstacles to optimized profits. Building a great sales management team is key to a sales team’s success. Sales managers are the front line leaders that make or break an organization because they are the ones who have the most influence on a given sales person’s performance.

Sales enablement is the process of providing the sales organization with the information, content, and tools that help sales people sell more effectively. The foundation of sales enablement is to provide sales people with what they need to successfully engage the buyer throughout the buying process.

Frictionless Selling is a way of rethinking sales to effectively reduce friction and create more convenient experiences for both buyers and sellers. Frictionless sales means reducing the pain for customers to adopt and use a service/product and consequently reducing the cost of sales and marketing to get a customer and generate revenue.

Inbound sales is a sales methodology that prioritizes the needs, challenges, goals and interests of individual buyers. Instead of focusing on closing the sale as soon as possible, inbound salespeople work to meet consumers where they are and then guide, not push them through the decision-making process.

The 5 Stages of Sales Management

Anytime someone moves into a new role, there is an adjustment period to figure out how to be effective. When that transition is from an individual contributor to manager, that adjustment can be even more jarring. We all know the typical story with sales managers – they were a top performing salesperson, had ambitions to move up in their career, and then a position opens up and they are managing a group of salespeople. Every sales manager can go from good to great as they progress in their career by following a tried-and-true path. Here is an outline of the 5 common stages of sales management:

Stage 1: Initial

I see lots of sales managers in this stage when they are new to management, or they work for firms that are “stuck in the dark ages” when it comes to technology and developing culture. This sales manager only talks and cares about what is closing, and how much someone has sold. Nothing else matters.

Stage 2: Motivate

In this stage, the sales manager identifies key steps of the sales process that are being missed. For example, she may notice that some reps get easily distracted in customer service issues or proposal writing. This prevents them from moving their late stage deals to close on time. Others sales managers may observe that their reps are not spending enough time prospecting, or building pipeline from the right subset of customers.

Stage 3: Execute

Here the manager defines a more clear sales process with defined pipeline standards and sales KPIs for their sellers. These standards and KPIs are initially created by based on the intuition of the sales manager, and they are improved by observing what her top performers are doing consistently and what the middle and bottom performers seem to miss. While the sales manager is still focused on closing, she understands that “inputs drive outputs”.

Stage 4: Coach

In this stage the sales manager starts running what I like to call a “Closed Loop Management Process.” The idea being that in Stage 3 she has defined the key metrics to manage around, and she ensures that these metrics are regularly reviewed with her salespeople – in their weekly team meeting and in one-on-ones. As a sales manager develops her craft, she now begins to realize what being a “coach” really means. She helps set the vision for the team, has a plan to execute against, and works with her sellers to master their craft.

Stage 5: Align

Here there is full alignment from the executive team right down to the sales manager and her sales team. There is a common language around the key steps and measures of the sales process, metrics and goals are personalized for each salesperson, and everyone has a real-time view of where they stand. At any given moment, the sales manager can see if her team is ahead or behind on a key metric, which empowers her to make corrections and get things back on track.

Summary

An experienced sales manager uses all aspects of the stages listed above, and none of these stages are bad. Rather, these 5 stages provide a framework that you can apply to your sales team so you know where you stand, what you need to work on, and build a plan to improve. High performing salespeople are often successful for reasons they do not fully understand. They have an attitude of “getting it done” to beat their quota, but in reality they naturally have the discipline to consistently execute the actions that lead to success. They are regularly prospecting, networking, building pipeline, qualifying that pipeline, and maintaining momentum with current opportunities. They follow a defined process, but often do not realize that they are doing it – it just comes naturally to them.