Sales Management – focus on the fundamental

Sales; the life blood of any and all organisations; and if the act of selling is not diligently pursued then the organisation will be in trouble. Therefore, most organisations will employ and pay a handsome price to those who can – sell. In sales lexicon we call these creatures, who accept the company’s shilling, Sales Executives; Salesmen; Saleswomen; Account Executives; Account Managers; Business Development Managers; Business Development Executives; etc. For those with egos, and there are many, the word ‘Senior’ will often precede the sales role title… as if the customer is going to be impressed that they are dealing with a ‘senior’ salesperson… for whose benefit is the word ‘senior’ added? Same goes for the VPs of this world.

The company’s salesfolk – the collective noun – are responsible for ensuring the company has the sales it needs to pay its way. All companies need a certain level of sales, often called a sales target, which will make them happy. If the salesfolk attain the target then the company does well. Sales Management will ‘divvy’ up the target and give each their own target; well, most do. Therefore each salesperson – the generic singular noun for all salesfolk – will have their individual sales target to attain. In most companies good things happen if over attainment is achieved – the commission payments accelerate; meaning the salesperson’s pay increases at a higher rate of accumulation after the target is attained. Therefore it is in their interest to overachieve their target.

So, there we have it; a common goal. The company wants sales to attain target and will pay even more money if they over attain. Each salesperson wants to attain target and most will want to over attain. Unfortunately there is often not enough focus on those wants. The ‘want’ is so basic – achieve target – it is frequently taken for granted that is what everyone is focused on. Sales management is in place to herd the salespeople to achieve the common goal – attain target.

I often wonder what it would be like if email was taken away from everyone, I wonder how productive people would become. They would have to find something else to do with their time. Equally, I believe spreadsheets should be taken away from sales management. This will give them the time to focus on the one fundamental thing they should do… get each and every member of their sales team to ‘show how they will be making their number.’ By showing; the salesperson has to name the deals that will close. None of this hiding behind pipeline factoring malarkey; but real forecasting: naming the deals that will close. The sales manager then tests the plan to make sure it is real and by so doing adds value. If there is a gap between forecast and target the sales manager discusses how the salesperson will be making the gap up.

Sales management is really that simple – make sure every member of the team can show how they are going to make their number – and everything else flows from there.

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