Hiring a sales staff for your small business comes with the responsibility to provide effective sales management. Learn the biggest sales management blunders and how you can avoid them.
1. Mixing Recognition with Coaching: One common sales management blunder is to congratulate your sales force for a job well done and quickly move to areas of improvement. This tactic can often be interpreted by sales staff as a lack of appreciation. A best practice is to separate the recognition from the coaching. Save the performance improvement areas for coaching sessions. Set up separate recognition of your sales rep success even if it's a small celebration. It's the little gestures of respect and celebrations of achievement that gain the hearts and minds of the sales force.
2.No Sales Plan: Another common sales management blunder is not developing a sales plan to help manage the sales team. A successful sales team requires regular planning tracking, and review to achieve the targeted results. Every sales rep requires their own action plan to direct day-to-day activities and set up accountabilities.
All sales plans have at least 3 requirements:
3. No Sales Support: A common sales management blunder is to hire a sales person without providing them with the level of support required to succeed. Even if your new rep is well-versed in your industry and a top performer, they will still require help to familiarize themselves with your company, products, and markets.
