I am constantly appalled at the lack of effective sales management in companies these days. Not a week goes by in which I don’t see a company make the mistake of focusing exclusively on salespeople in trying to improve sales performance.

Experience has shown that sales managers are even more critical than sales people for creating durable performance change. Really proficient sales supervision can do wonders to improve the skills, strategies and competencies of average salespeople.

Myth: The best sales person makes the best sales manager.

Fact: Selling and managing are two very different positions with different demands and expectations.

Most exceptional sales people do not make great sales managers. On the contrary, they usually make the worst. Too many organisations promote people to sales management from within, and usually the best sales performer.

They assume that successful selling automatically translates into successful sales management, and there is usually no training to go along with that promotion. If there is training it is usually in-house with no links to current or best practice.

In my experience this is a big mistake.

Businesses will never be any stronger than the sales people they select and train to be a part of it. Sales people need to be trained or educated about those demands and expectations along with exactly how to fulfil them.

In appointing a sales manager there are a few things you need to keep in mind. I find that the best sales managers are leaders and coaches rather than administrators and organisers. They cannot lead from behind a desk.

Good sales management consists of the following:

• Planning: Developing and owning the sales operating plan for the business unit in concert with marketing, service, and all other parts of the business.
• People development: Establishing the people resources needed to successfully execute the operating plan by hiring, coaching, developing, measuring and leading the “right” people.
• Proactive review: Managing revenue and profit by monitoring, controlling and reviewing sales, business, customer and competitor activity. Proactively reviewing the sales plan and consolidating this plan into the business forecast for the organisation.

Sadly, this is not how most sales managers are spending their time. A survey of European field managers by Siebel MultiChannel Services in 1999 found most sales managers do understand their roles very well.

But most were prevented from performing their optimal role. The study found that only 37% of the sales manager’s day is spent in planning, people development and proactive review. The rest of their time was spent with administration, reporting, reacting and handling customer issues.

What is your sales manager spending their time on? If it’s not the important stuff, maybe you need to work out a way to make that change.

What impact does attending a sales training program have on change?

It all depends on what type of training format your sales people attend. Too many companies look for quick fixes and waste heaps of money in the process.

Firstly forget Event Style training – you know those one day RAH RAH sessions that promise the world and deliver nothing in the long run. They DON’T work! They have the effect of a hot bath – nice whilst you are in it but it soon gets cold.

I am not saying all the content of these programs is wrong (although some of them just plain are) its just that one-day-only of anything just don’t bring about any real permanent change.

And even if the sales training is relevant, incremental and delivered in bite size chunks over time, if the salespeople are returned to the same environment (same metrics, same rewards, same supervision, same culture) as before then training, no matter how excellent it is, has no lasting impact either.

Ask yourself these questions: What are you trying to change by offering sales training? Do you want change to occur as a result of the training if so can it be defined and measured? What is the point of doing the training? What am I trying to achieve with training?

Don’t laugh most people don’t ask themselves these questions.

Sales Training needs to be an integrated process involving role clarity, clear sales competencies, sales plans, sales metrics, regular infield coaching, etc. all linked to a strategy – not some after thought or isolated event.

No wonder if you walked into your sales staff work area right now and told them they need some sales training you’d get the following responses.

“Not another sales training seminar�? they say. or “It’s so boring, we know all that already�?.

Who can blame them? They’ve been there done that. And even if they know it all, the trouble is, many of them have not been given the right support to effectively apply what they know.

A study conducted a number of years ago found that within one week of leaving any sales skills training program salespeople had lost 87% of the new skills they had learned during the training program.

Recent research by ES Research Group shows that 90% of all sales training programs result in a 90 – 120 day increase in productivity – but after that, nothing. It was only a temporary blip! Fewer than 20% of companies show sustainable productivity gains that last a year or more.

What I have found is that sales training only works if it is carefully matched to and directly supporting the use of your sales model, methodology & sales force profile. It really is the last 10%

Then it needs the role of infield coaching to provide the reinforcement needed to maintain and enhance skills and behaviours. In fact, a well-designed combination of training and coaching is by far the most effective and economical way to develop the ‘right’ skills, behaviours and knowledge and see a change in sales performance

Effective sales training can be defined as a planned program within the organisation that endeavours to bring about relatively permanent changes in employee knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours. Behaviour modelling training has been found to be most effective.

To make sure that you are not wasting your money on sales training, I always suggest that you run through a checklist. Check your ongoing sales training agenda, does it include the following?

• Company knowledge especially current strategy
• The promise-expectation-experience proposition delivered to your clients
• Product knowledge, value propositions, competitive edge, marketing tactics & tools
• Market, industry & competitor awareness
• Prospecting strategies & plans
• The ‘right’ selling communication process & techniques
• Human relations; self awareness; salespeople motivations; values, behaviours & attitudes; problem solving & decision making; self management, planning, etc.
• Clear Performance Expectations & Rewards
• Levels of Authority & Responsibility
• Sales management support

To give a long term benefit, the training needs to give your sales staff the opportunity to apply what they learn in real life situations out in the field and have regular reviews as to effectiveness and efficiency of application.

However try as we might you can’t improve sales and salespeople without improving sales management – now that’s another blog for another time.

Would we expect Melbourne Victory or any other elite sporting team to enter a competition without a clear game plan, talent plan, fitness plan, business plan and action plan?

No, of course not. We expect them to be aware, organised, focused and determined to play their best and aim to win.

Well, more than 90% of sales people do not follow any logical process when selling. They are often left to their own devices and simply fly by the seat of their pants, relying on intuition and hoping for the best.

They often cannot articulate their value proposition or know how they compare to the competition. Nor are they clear about what activities they need to do on a daily basis to achieve sales success. Most make it up.

No wonder many don’t meet entrepreneurs’ expectations.

But sales people are not solely to blame. Too many businesses have not yet defined what they really want by way of talent when it comes to translating sales strategy into action.

Too many organisations have not done the work to build viable sales plans that allow sales people to apply tactical sales actions and achieve real results. And too many businesses do not give their sales people adequate training and in-field sales coaching support to enhance and improve performance.

Now you may be very tempted to move your low performing sales people on and find someone new. But often managers grossly underestimate what is involved in improving and/or changing a sales force. It can be faster to build efficiency, for example increase call rates or decrease expenses, than it is to consistently recruit, build and coach the levels of skills and effectiveness needed for selling today.

So how do you fix the sales force you have?

Start at the top. Start with management. Ask yourself:

• What skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviours do my sales people need to demonstrate to be competitive and successful in our market place today?
• What activities do they need do, how often to they need to do them and how well do they need to do them to achieve sound sales results?
• How do we compare to our competition and can we clearly articulate our value and competitive edge (in language the customer understands)
• Is our formal training and infield sales coaching program set up to train and develop our sales people in the areas that can make us a success?
• Do we measure the inputs (quantity of activity and quality of activity; that is, behaviours) as well as the outputs (results) that make up sales success?
• Do we have an ongoing, in-field sales coaching program that helps sales people migrate to better levels of performance based on something they can see and measure?
• Is our management team supporting the right behaviours skills and values to have a highly effective sales team?

Remember most of your sales people have at least some sales potential (maybe more than you think) and often can perform much better if given the right framework, plan, support and management.

And here is what you should have:

• A clear up-to-date sales strategy (plan) that shows how to link real actions to real results (from the business, the team and the individual sales person).
• A clear map of the kind of sales competencies (skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviours) your sales people and business need apply consistently to be competitive and successful in your market place.
• An actionable sales fitness plan that regularly trains your sales team in the skills and qualities needed to be fit and competitive today.
• A sales coaching plan that allows your sales people to give and get feedback and communicate with management on a regular basis their findings in the field.
• Clear, simple sales success performance indicators that allow individual sales people to measure, monitor and adjust their performance for success.
• A business that philosophically and practicallly supports a proactive professional sales culture.

And strong, clear and focused leadership.

But that’s another blog.

I received yet another call today from a sales manager asking me where he could find a really good sales pefomer for his business. He complained that most of the sales people in his industry had been around the block too many times and no new skills, ideas or talent where being brought into his industry. Same old people, same old things, same old results.

Trouble is he is not alone and the Elite Performers you want are most likely working in other industries or markets and are not even thinking about working for you.

Relying on ‘experience’ as a major determining factor in your sales selection process can severely limit your potential to develop a competitive edge in your industry and find elite sales performers.

I recall another client saying they didn’t want to hire people from their industry because they just weren’t competitive in the current market. They wanted to refresh the gene pool and bring in fit sales people who were not tarnished by the industry and its way of doing things. They knew that in this overcommiditised marketplace that their sales people where their competitive edge. They were on the right track trouble is they didn’t know how to start.

So here are some tips on finding elite sales peformers

• Review your sales strategy and ask “what qualities (skills, knowledge, competencies, attitudes) do we need now to translate our sales strategy into sales action and results”?
• Define the Threshhold competencies (i.e. sales and comminication skills, self motivition, social skills, etc.) and more importantly define the Differentiating Competencies (those qualities that separate high achievers from everyone else) that you want and need.
• Look in industries and other professions where the qualities you want already exist
• Targets those industries that have the talent pool you want (mixture of headhunting, networking, reading other industry journals, asking clients, suppliers about their experiences with good sales people from other industries, etc.)
• If advertising write ads that attract and describe the style of person you want; DON’T describe the role
• Use a structured sales recruitment process that uses a multi assessment competency based approach (The average percent increase in output from improved selection is approximately 2.5 times greater in sales jobs than in low-complexity non-sales jobs.)
• Build a proper sales induction training process
• Make sure you have a sales management support system

Defining and finding Elite Sales Performers for your business should be happening on a regular basis and be a part of any sales manager’s role even if you don’ have a vacancy. You are always recruiting sales people.

That client who wanted to refresh the gene pool did look outside and found elite sales peformers. Result: the elites sales performers achieved a sales closing ratio of 4:3 within 2 months. Their learn to earn curve was great and there was a definate ROI.