|
|
Sales Management
Sales Management Tools
Sales Management Advice
Sales Management Support
Do you have sales
management responsibility for technically qualified staff?
Do you struggle to keep them focused on business development activities?
The
Choice: Reactive vs. Proactive
Technically-trained and professional staff often prefer to work in response to client
requests. They like to address pressing issues, solve problems, feel
needed, and keep their clients happy.
They like to stay within their comfort zone of technical knowledge
and specifications.
This reactive approach is usually well-intentioned, but it rarely
brings in significant new work.
Even worse, their time can get absorbed by 'service' issues that
could be delegated to others within your organisation. |
|
Instead of being perceived by clients as valued advisors, these
highly-qualified staff can easily be seen as support personnel, on-call to
handle problems. This type of relationship does not position your staff to
easily pursue sales opportunities.
Keys to Sales Success
To be more successful in winning new business your team needs to:
- Be more proactive in initiating and
managing sales discussions.
- Understand about communication styles, and being adaptable with
clients.
- Understand what their specific sales
goals are, and the steps they must take to reach those goals.
- Expect to be held accountable for their sales results.
- Be supported with
sales tools and skill development opportunities.
- Understand that selling is a required
professional skill, and that they don't have to be pushy,
manipulative, or use high-pressure tactics to get results.
It isn't simply a matter of telling business development staff to 'sell
more'. They need to be educated in how professional selling skills can be
used to enhance client relationships and help them earn 'trusted advisor'
status with their clients.
Technical and professional staff need to develop confidence in their
selling abilities to equal their confidence within the field of technical
expertise. They also need to be held accountable for taking action to
reach their business development goals.
Many sellers with a technical or professional competency have a part-time
business development responsibility. That is, often their primary focus is
to deliver the service or technical knowledge that they are trained to
provide (examples may be: a financial analyst; a water treatment
technician; printing services; or an environmental consultant).
A key function of the Sales Manager role is to keep these technically-oriented staff
focused on achieving their business development objectives, which the
staff may view as being less important, less personally satisfying, and
much more demanding to perform.
Overcoming Sales
Management Challenges
Common sales management challenges include:
- Staff not knowing how to approach prospects
about new business.
- Reluctance to 'ask for the order' because it feels pushy.
- Staff not wanting to get 'caught' in conversations outside their own
field where they might not know the answer to every question on the
spot.
- Staff not knowing who they can call on for support.
- Time management and issues with priorities.
- Reluctance to involve other staff from your company and extend
relationships within the client organisation for fear of not remaining
the 'main point of contact'.
- Establishing an expectation of sales performance within the team.
- Encouraging senior staff to apply their expertise to business
development.
- Creating adequate sales tools for use in sales discussions with
clients.
- Documenting client information in an accessible manner.
- Creating a career progression path, enabling junior members of the
team to gradually learn and take on business development
responsibilities.
Many of these sales management challenges do not
occur in isolation, they are often inter-related and may have multiple
causes.
Sales management solutions may involve:
- Training in professional selling skills including interpersonal
communication skills.
- Training in presentation skills.
- Training in setting goals and time management.
- Developing new sales reporting formats to reflect objectives.
- Making sales activities the focus of regular reviews
(accountability).
- Executive coaching for the Sales Manager role (who may also be the
GM, CEO, Senior Partner, or Operations Manager).
- Creating a career development path regarding business development.
- Profiling team members to determine potential and suitability.
- Enhancing teamwork by proactively fostering trust and cooperation.
- Creating a sales manual that outlines expectations and processes.
Free Sales Management
Report
You are welcome to download The
Assassin Analogy, an exclusive report written by Stuart Ayling on
why technical staff don't like to sell and how you can help them succeed.
You will also receive a number of extra bonus resources focused on the
issues raised in the report.
Request Further Information >>
|
