by The success of a sales manager is a direct reflection of the performance of his sales team. For a sales manager to succeed in his career, words like ‘me’ and ‘I’ do not work. Being the fulcrum of the team, the sales manager must take on the role of a nurturer to build talent and skill of his team members. Poor sales managers can reduce the overall efficiency of their teams, while efficient ones ensure their teams work optimally and earn significantly more.
When sales managers act as coaches and nurturers to their teams:
- They help each team member reach their individual goals, while simultaneously fostering a team culture.
- They know how to leverage talent by placing their team members in the right positions.
- They are able to recruit and hire the best talent for the job.
Here are some important tips to help you become an efficient and effective sales manager in order to drive better team performance and ultimately, bottom-line growth of the organization.
- In the initial period of taking charge, it is best to observe the way the team operates to gain an understanding of the people and the sales process. By observing how the sales team carries out its tasks, you can identify where things could improve and how to communicate or approach the team members.
- As a sales manager, enabling your people to get what they want is a good way to get what you want from them. So, it is best to discuss with each one of them and learn about their goals and dreams. Planning for individual goals can help the team work as a single unit in achieving a common sales target.
- Once you have made observations about your team and have discussed their individual goals, identify the one most important change that needs to be implemented right away to improve efficiency of the sales process. It also reinstates the belief the team has in you and your ability to get things done effectively. Continue to implement impactful changes, one at a time.
- To be a successful sales manager, one needs a mentor for encouragement and to make the right sale moves. A senior and experienced member in the same field would be a good choice to talk to, share ideas, and overcome work challenges.
Improve Sales Efficiency and Sales Effectiveness
Step 1: Identify the right sales process
First comes improving effectiveness. As Albert Einstein says, we can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results each time. Tamara Schenk asserts, “It cannot be emphasized often enough that questioning the current state is a fundamental sales leadership approach to developing high-performance sales teams”.
To improve effectiveness, sales leaders need to outline a consistent sales process and then set sales objectives around those activities or related to specific sales goals. Companies that follow a defined workflow are 33% more likely to be high performers.
Step 2: Give sales reps the proper training
Less than 45% of companies have a formal sales training process. However, continuous training can yield up to 50% higher net sales per sales rep. As a sales leader, you may know what needs to be done, but your sales team may not know how to execute. The fact that 87% of training content is forgotten within weeks just reinforces the need for ongoing coaching and training.
Tools such as sales playbooks allow sales leaders to provide their teams with just-in-time coaching and best practices to ensure they have what they need to further the deal. Information such as talk tracks, training materials, kill sheets, and persona-based selling tips can be instantly accessible to reps for any given sales situation.
Step 3: Optimize these activities
After identifying which processes are effective, you can work on improving efficiency by optimizing those activities. According to a 2015 study from Aberdeen, investing in sales analytics and forecasting solutions is directly correlated to better sales and business-wide performance results. Organizations that use sales analytics increase team quota attainment 4x faster than non-users. Best-in-class sales leaders are open to ongoing analysis, learning, and adjustment. It’s important to use KPIs and metrics to determine what works, what doesn’t work, and areas for improvement in terms of factors such as speed, accuracy, and quality. Consider metrics such as call rate, win rate, sales cycle length, pipeline conversion rates, and average number of touches until conversion. Use dashboards to visualize trends and gain valuable insights into sales rep activity.
A modern selling strategy requires modern sales tools, such as sales enablement technology. A sales enablement platform such as Seismic aims to align marketing and sales processes and goals and then arm sales teams with the tools and content to improve sales execution and drive revenue. Sales enablement, by nature, empowers and enables sales reps to work more efficiently. And remember, a more efficient and effective sales team means more revenue is being generated.
