Effective Sales Force Management in Your Business

As a small business owner, you know that you may be offering the best product or the best service in the world. But if you don’t have good sales force management, you may not be able to survive in business.

Due to its importance, it is crucial to be always on top of your sales force management to ensure that it is working as it should. Frequently improve some aspects of your sales force management and discover what’s not working properly.

So, business owners and sales managers have a key role. After all, they are the ones who need to ensure that the sales team is maximizing the profits while, at the same time, they are delivering the best possible value to customers.

What Is Sales Force Management?

Simply put, a sales force management is the process that involves not only the developing of the sales team but also the implementation of different selling techniques that will allow your business to hit all the sales targets that are defined.

While many business owners believe that good sales force management only serves to boost sales, the truth is that it has other purposes. After all, it can be a great help to stay in tune with your industry as it grows as well.

The role of the sales manager, as we already mentioned above, is extremely important. After all, it includes having a clear picture of how the sales processes work and how to monitor and keep track of them. Additionally, he should also be able to notice any issues in an early stage and take the time to coach people before the sales targets aren’t hit. Last but not least, the sales manager should also have a good grasp of the tasks that the sales team is performing and the final result is growing sales.

Three Key Aspects Of Sales Force Management

Within sales force management, we can say that there are three main areas that need to be observed and well monitored.

#1: The Sales Operation: Building The Team

While you may no longer be in this stage, every so often you will need to hire new salespersons for your sales team. So, you better not skip this step just yet.

Something that you should keep in mind is that your sales team is a very important part of your business and they should feel they are a part of the entire business.

One of the things that many small business owners tend to do is look at their sales team only as money-making machines. However, you need to remember that you are dealing with human beings who need the right kind of resources in order to do their job the best way they can.

Team Building With Your Sales People

Whenever you are hiring people for your sales team, while they may already have some experience, it is always better to provide them with training so that they can develop their skills. In addition, this is also the perfect time to show them how the entire team works together towards the sales goal.

In order to have a good sales team, you need to set targets for them. However, you need to ensure that the goals are realistic and that they feel they are able to achieve them. In order to do this, you will need to:

• Set targets
• Establish quotas and goals
• Assign territories

Even though this should motivate them, the sales manager should always be paying attention to each one of the team members to see if they are losing their motivation or if they feel lost in some way.

#2: The Sales Strategy: Defining the Sales Process

Now that you have a sales team formed and educated to make sales, how will they make them?

Every business needs to have a sales pipeline. In case you don’t know what that is, a sales pipeline is the different activities that need to be done with each prospect that carries them from the beginning until they close the deal.

 

On average, 80% of all sales are made between the 5^th and 12^th point of contact in the sales pipeline. Unfortunately, most business owners give up after 1 or 2 points of contact!

#3: Sales Analysis: Reporting

Within sales force management, there is always the need for reporting. After all, this is what allows you to understand how well you are doing and what efforts need to be made to increase sales such as redistributing tasks or hiring more salespeople.

In order to make things right, you need to ensure that the reporting involves quantifiable indicators or sales metrics. These indicators should be able to tell you how each step of your sales process is working as well as whether you will achieve your targets.

Conclusion

If your goal is to achieve healthy growth in your business, a sales team can propel your business forward. Employ good sales force management and you will be able to put your growth on autopilot! Here’s a case study: Using a Sales Management System in a Manufacturing Company.