Sales Management includes features for creating the sales force; organizing sales force, sales forecasting and planning, identifying potential customers, maintaining client information, and creating and managing schedules.
Sales management’s key functions are contemplated around procuring a clear perception into the activities of direct reports as well as the sales activities of the enterprise.
Key functions maintained by sales management are managing organizational sales structure and territories–crucial enterprises turnover; sales reporting and forecasting; quota management–handing assignments to sales representatives, implementing changes, etc.; and incentive management–producing compensation plan.
An organization’s sales management is enhanced through their workforces’ active participation to internal and external programs like symposiums–meetings or conferences conducted to discuss an issue; trainings–coaching people to a mode of performance in introductory, learning and transitional periods; and seminars–a gathering where there occurs information exchange and discussions.
These customized activities indulge the personnel’s yearning to gain more knowledge on individual productivity, team work, streamlining the sales process, sales performance precision, hiring sales champions, motivation methods that work, mastering the art of sales and sales coaching and tools, tactics, strategies for improvement.
The role of the sales manager is to provide an atmosphere where their subordinates can perform. They play a critical role in analytically examining, questioning and settling the sales productivity problems by creating structure and conscientiousness in the sales process.
To be good in these aspects, a sales manager must equip himself with the methodologies for planning sales activities and the know-how in using sound key performance indicators for managing the selling process. To increase sales productivity, concentration must be allotted to the sales process rather than consuming full focus on business outcomes.
Another character in sales management is the sales people or sales representatives. These are the people designated to solicit business in behalf of the organization in a specific territory.
To build successful sales relationships, a sales representative has to identify and attend to two necessities. These are the prospect’s psychological needs–intellectual concerns as to what makes him happy; as well as the prospect’s objective or business needs–the products, materials, equipments that are related to his profession, way of life, or hobbies.
In sales management the things that are taken into consideration are: the sales process–right variety to suit the business’s market and value delivery to consumers; psychological assessment–revolves around understanding and researching on the business and consumer needs; pre-approach planning and prospecting–understanding maximum value prospects and generating referrals; opening–engineering business affinities, establishing plausibility and gaining interest; and strategies–development of long- and short-term sales cycles.
A profitable sales management requires the comprehension of the prospect’s needs and the source of customer value. Active listening and questioning techniques should be applied to collect information on ways to further service and product value. And there should also be continuous personnel information upgrade to equip sales people with the right strategies and methods to top-notch sales and sales management skills.
Copyright 2007 Ismael D. Tabije
Sales Management
Sales Leads – How to Generate Quality Sales Leads Through Public Speaking
Delivering speeches, seminars, and webinars (online seminars) is a terrific way to generate large quantities of quality sales leads. Why is public speaking such an effective lead-generating vehicle? Here are a few reasons:
Speaking allows you to deliver your message to multiple potential prospects at once A well-constructed speech, seminar, or webinar can establish you as an expert in your field and increase your credibility with prospects Every speech has the potential to reach far beyond the original audience. If you deliver a compelling message, there is no telling how many times it will be repeated to others by your audience members.
What should you speak about?
Look for topics that are of particular interest to your target prospects. You can offer new approaches for solving especially troubling business problems. You can educate your prospects on compelling new technologies, or other concepts that will help them professionally or personally. You can discuss real-life case studies and share stories about how you (or your company) helped specific customers improve their businesses. Whatever topic you choose must relevant and important to your target audience.
How should you construct your speech?
Constructing an effective lead-generating speech requires walking a fine line. You want to provide your audience with truly valuable information. However, you also want to motivate them to contact you for additional information. As a result, you have to make sure you don’t provide so much information that your audience can solve their problems all by themselves.
This is not a big issue if you are speaking to generate leads for a product, as the audience members will likely need to purchase the product to completely solve the problems you discuss. Where giving away too much information becomes a real issue is when you sell services. If you share all of your knowledge about how to solve specific problems, why will your audience members need to come back to you?
To avoid this undesirable outcome, follow these seven steps to constructing an effective lead-generating speech:
Open with an “attention grabber”. This can be a truly startling fact or an emotionally compelling story that relates to one or more of the key points that you will address in your speech. Give the audience a brief outline of the key points you will be covering in your speech. Describe the problem or problems your speech is intended to help your audience solve. Describe the impact of each problem as graphically as you can. Engage your audience’s emotions by asking them to describe how a problem has affected them personally or professionally. Another alternative is for you to tell compelling, real-life “problem impact” stories that describe how (current and past) customers were affected by specific problems. Relieve the tension you have built up in the audience by letting them know the problems can be solved. However, DON’T tell them EVERYTHING they need to know to solve them! Provide a brief outline of the solution. That way the audience will need to come to you for more details. Use glowing word pictures to help the audience visualize how wonderful their lives will be when the problems have been eliminated. Close by revisiting the key points from your presentation and giving the audience a “call to action”.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Be very careful about selling from the stage. Audiences become disenchanted very quickly if they feel a speech is nothing more than a thinly disguised sales pitch. You must deliver truly valuable insights and information to your audiences to reward them for taking time out of their busy schedules to attend your speeches.
What “call to action” should you deliver at the end of your speech?
It is perfectly appropriate to include a gentle “call to action” at the end of your speech. Consider closing with a statement such as:
“If you would like to explore the possibility of applying the concepts that were discussed during today’s presentation in your company, please give me your business card before you leave.”
Here are some other effective calls to action:
Include a “please contact me” checkbox on a presentation evaluation form that you give to each audience member. Give them a form they can use to request a free special report and/or subscribe to a free newsletter. Invite the audience to visit your company’s website to download a free special report and/or subscribe to a free newsletter. NOTE: Make sure you require them to provide their name and e-mail address in order to receive the free value-added information!
How should you prepare for your speech?
Preparing for seminars and speeches is a lot of work. Here are some of the key steps:
Prepare your presentation materials, write scripts, and practice them to the point where you can deliver your presentation smoothly and convincingly without having to rely on your notes too much. If you don’t have much speaking experience, you may want to join a local Toastmasters chapter. They do a good job of teaching platform and presentation skills. Secure a facility for your speech and make arrangements for any necessary audio/visual equipment. If you are going to serve refreshments, make arrangements for the refreshments. Develop and implement a plan for attracting an audience. This might include sending direct mail or e-mails, making phone calls, and contacting trade, professional and social associations and organizations.
What can you do to maximize your return on investment?
If you are going to invest the time and effort required to deliver a first-class speech, you should also develop a plan for maximizing your return on your investment. This could include the following activities:
Give each audience member an evaluation form they can use to provide feedback and request additional information. Provide handouts that include presentation highlights and your contact information. Hold a drawing for some type of small prize (books, sample products, etc.) to encourage attendees to give you business cards and/or hand in completed evaluation forms. Block time during the day or two following your presentation to make phone calls to audience members. When you make the calls, ask for feedback and offer an opportunity to ask questions that might not have been answered during the event. Also ask for referrals to people they know who might be interested in your presentation topic. These referrals may become immediate prospects. At minimum they should be added to your invitation list for future events.
Delivering properly designed speeches, seminars, and webinars (online seminars) is a terrific way to generate large quantities of quality sales leads. If you follow the instructions provided in this article, you should see a satisfying increase in the number, size, and quality of leads in your sales opportunity pipeline!
Copyright 2005-2008 — Alan Rigg
Sales Management – Selling and Business Development in the 21st Century
The marketing components that used to generate leads — product, performance, promotion and price –are no longer effective. The tools for selling — lots of sales calls, lunches, golf and give-always — are expensive and inefficient. In the 21st century, selling and business development require the following:
* Prospecting Using the Internet
* Relationship Selling
* Network Selling and
* Investigative Selling.
Prospecting Using the Internet
Cold calling is dead. It’s not productive. It’s demoralizing. It’s expensive. Prospecting in the 21st century involves setting the stage for people and companies to find you so that you can solve their problems. Flaunting advertisements and brochures is also a waste. Everyone goes to the Internet these days to find solutions to their problems. Therefore, the successful sales person will have to know how to use the Internet to generate qualified leads. Corporations should have an Internet program, but territory and product-line sales people should have their own Internet marketing program as well. And it’s not about having a website, it’s much more. This is the passive side of prospecting. This means that sales and business development professionals must set up an aggressive Internet Marketing process for their territory or product so that the people they want to do business with will come to them.
Relationship Selling
The other 21st Century prospecting element is the active side of prospecting. This is where you use professional relationships to find out about problems or opportunities where you can assist. There are so many opportunities for a sales person or account manager to discover within their existing and old/lost accounts. Using professional relationships make this prospecting method effective and easy.
Sales and Business Development people with professional relationships are seen as a resource to protect or enhance buyers’ careers. These people will be open to give information and coach you for cross-sells into their business unit, associate divisions and/or other product lines. If you develop professional relationships, these people will give you qualified leads, buy more and more from you, and refer you to others.
Network Selling
However, one has to learn how to use these relationships to get networked to others. There are two focuses for successful selling in the 21 Century:
1. You must spread like a virus in your customers’ organizations. I use the phrase – move up and out.
2. You must get to the profit-center leaders, C-level executives, and senior staff of the business units you sell into and develop professional relationships with these people to effectively close sales, cross-sell and be seen as the preferred supplier. Hanging out with the subordinates will never secure your position with your customers.
The only way you’ll move up and out and connect with the leaders is by using your professional relationships to network you to others. People with whom you’ve developed credibility — your Golden Network as I call it — will help you if asked. But if they are not asked for a referral and introduction to others, they will rarely offer to connect you with the leaders and others you should be meeting. So you must ask for their help.
To make the networking process productive, what you ask for, how you ask for it, and where you look for help will make all the difference between getting to the right people and getting to useless people for your initiative. This process is Network Selling.
Investigative Selling
Once a sales or business development person connects with a person of value, using his or her network connection, the goal is to convert that individual into his or her Golden Network. In other words the sales or BD person will have to develop a professional relationship with this new contact.
People will consider another individual a professional relationship only if there is something in it for them. So a sales or BD person needs to investigate the critical drivers of their target contact in order to learn what this person values that s/he can deliver. Everyone is different and without knowing each individual’s triggers, a sales person will flounder or worst yet, become annoying. But if the sales person can make the connections between the desires and the deliverables, a relationship can be established, and then this new contact will continue networking you up and out until you are connected to the leaders and their staffs.
The process for determining one’s triggers is Investigative Selling. It requires knowing the questions to ask and how to ask them. Although this sounds simple, it requires finesse, skill and confidence. Investigative Selling also requires effective listening, and the ability to expose and entice. Both of these are advanced skills never taught in schools and rarely taught in product or sales training. So the successful sales or business development person will have to learn these Investigative Selling skills and be able to take them seamlessly to the street.
The sooner the sales or business development person masters these Internet Marketing, Relationships, Network and Investigative Selling Skills, the sooner sales will close and closing ratios rise.