Pick up a typical annual sales report and what words do you find? Verbs like analyze, forecast, plan, assess and schedule, are used in pursuit of organizations that are efficient, productive and predictable. What set of people are required? Obviously, people who are efficient, effective, proficient, competent, productive and co-operative.
But I believe we need to go beyond; we need to be inspired, motivated, creators, who are enthusiastic and able to consistently deliver against our key objectives. We should be developing individuals who are not afraid to challenge paradigms, who are prepared to go that extra yard in search of excellence and who understand that success is 80% attitude and only 20% aptitude.
For a group of people to remain consciously competent at optimum performance levels, they require frequent injections of stimulation, motivational guidance, prompting and directing, otherwise they can easily lapse into becoming unconsciously competent or worse, unconsciously incompetent.
The primary objective of a professional Sales Manager has to be:
“To achieve consistently superior results through the performance of every key individual.”
Here is a quick “sanity check” for you as we head into Q2:
When thinking about your own sales force …
- Do you understand their motivators – what is driving each one of them?
- Do you have visibility of their numbers – year to date, forecast vs. required performance?
- Activity levels – are they working hard and smart enough?
- Engagement – are they talking to the right level in their prospects/accounts?
- Messaging – are they capable of delivering an appropriate message at the right level?
- Qualification – are they only spending time on deals where they can compete and ultimately that they can win?
- Closing – are they constructing successful campaigns and closing business?
Good luck for Q2!