Sales Management Training
Sales Management Training
“To survive in Sales Management, you need to be bullet proof and able to walk on water (almost!)”
Any sales manager (worth his salt) in direct selling has got to be friend, motivator, psychologist, mentor, disciplinarian, teacher, mind reader and more.
He has to live and breathe the highs and lows of his team. He gets blasted from above when the results are down and given grief from below when things aren’t going too well. Plaudits are rare.
Sales management is a multi-faceted role that is pivotal to the success of the company. And yet the strange thing is that around 85% of sales managers are just good salesmen who have been promoted. “Well done, George – you were the top salesman last year – you’re in charge now.”
So George does his best. He feels great now that he’s been promoted but…..sales management is a vastly different skill …..so, how does he learn?
Trial and error, that’s generally the answer. But George learned his sales management techniques from his manager, who learned from his manager, who, in turn, learned his techniques from his manager etc, etc.
So, he’s already struggling with techniques that may be way out of date and the skills he learned as a salesman applied to selling – not managing. And it’s a fair bet that George’s job description was something like:
Title : Sales Manager Function : Manage!
Without extensive sales management training, the likes of George will “manage”, but in essence the word “manage” will take on the much lower interpretation, as in “just get by”.
No doubt he will give it his best shot and hold it together for a while but, when the team hits a bad patch, George will likely hit the panic button.
The signs of all this are easy enough to see very early on, in areas such as Sales Meetings. Many times the weekly or monthly meeting takes on the sinister undertones of a witch-hunt with everyone feeling jittery….
Manager : “You guys have produced another poor result this week – conversions are way low.”
Owner : “And the lead cost is still very high.”
Salesman : “Lead quality is worse than ever.”
Manager : “Perhaps it’s just poor selling.”
Salesman : “I’ve given every lead my best shot.”
Owner : “I’m paying high commission and I expect good results. These leads cost over £80 each to obtain.”
Manager : “Each salesman has had around 8 leads each this week and converted around 1:3.”
Owner : “That’s 8 leads x 9 salesmen x £80 = £5760 this week to secure only 24 orders. That’s……..”
Manager : “That’s £240 per sale!”
Owner : “And that’s before we add the cost of the salesmen, overheads etc.”
Salesman : “It’s a tough market and given the poor quality of the leads, I think that the conversion rate is pretty good.”
etc….etc
There is always a danger that a minor internal war will break out as each party gets increasingly defensive….and this sort of “conflict spiral” only goes one way…….down!
The owner is tearing out the remainder of his hair; the manager is panicking because he’s first in line to shoulder the blame and the salesman’s morale is grounding out on every call.
Today’s direct selling marketplace is very different to that of 10, or even 5 years ago. Rely on the same old, outdated sales training techniques you’ve been using for years, and you could end up in the conflict spiral!
Make sure your sales team are working with the right tools. Contact DSM sales training now to find out more about sales management training techniques for today.
Sales Management Training with….
