The world of Sales management as we know it has changed. The current economic situation has sales people and sales management doing extraordinary things in these challenging times that are often unnatural. It is time to take control of your selling environment before someone else is asked to.

Companies are looking for profitability over growth which often means they require fewer sales people to get the same or better result. They are re-evaluating their priorities and forcing sales management to be accountable and do more with less.  They are looking to put structure in that when embraced has the highest likelihood to prosper in this difficult

economic climate.

Over time, sales people and sales management will become accustomed to this and eventually learn to appreciate and value a more structure selling environment.

What can your company do to ensure it will still be relevant?

Embrace Structure in the Sales Function

This will show your employees that you are in tune with the changing times and are willing to put structure around sales that you probably already have in your factories, warehouses and other functions of  you business.  It is essential to get your message out to the company in a clear, concise manner that you get it.

• Put in a Sales Accountability System
• Hold Sales Management to clear expectations on not only the numbers but on building a quality team.
• Force the issue through using a systematic approach to tracking both lagging and leading indicators as well as role-based skills or competencies.

Reduce Wasted Effort

With the proper system in place, your sales managers will not be hunting for data or spending countless hours analyzing team performance. Analysts’ statistics show that having an Accountability System in place reduces Sales Management administration overhead by over 30%.  Sales Management should also focus on where they can add value on those that are coachable. If you have built a strong team, your Sales Managers should not have to be on every call with the A players. 

Consider the Alternative

We in Sales all have a responsibility to shape our future, drive revenue and profitability.  Sales Management specifically has the extra task of managing morale and coaching while holding sales people accountable. Status quo never works, the hammer never works for long and the alternative to putting in structure is to do nothing. This will most likely be a bad choice as without a structured process you will not be able to explain who is strong and who is weak and what you are doing about it to better the team. The trends of the selling marketplace have shifted towards a more structured, accountable, coaching, more responsible-to-the-company environment. If your company genuinely lives and breathes these values it will be in a position to thrive today and in the future.