The term Sales Management is an oxymoron. Why? Because no one can actually manage sales; they either happen or they don’t.
Sales Management is all about managing salespeople and finding ways to help them become more successful.
The challenge is that unless you know the point where any sale was lost, stalled, or put at risk, you will never know how to coach improvement.
Rugby League coaches in Australia measure on-field performance, including tackles made, missed tackles, meters gained, meters gained post-contact, and more.
Without actually seeing the missed tackle and knowing why it was missed, the defensive coach cannot help that player reduce the number of missed tackles in their game.
Poor positional play always puts stress on any defensive team. It allows the attacking team to run through gaps in the defensive line, causing other players to move into assists, creating more pressure on the defensive.
Coaching better positional play techniques and ensuring the skill is retained is the preferred option rather than allowing the poor technique to continue.
Either way, how can any coach do their job effectively without seeing the play and determining what the player needs to improve?
Coaching a salesperson is no different. You can be a sideline coach motivating your team, a boxing coach giving half-time analysis and motivation, or the water boy on the field—not to offer water but to coach, motivate, carry instructions from the coach, and, by the way, offer water to the players.
Do you think for one minute that if the coach were actually allowed onto the field, the water boy would still have a job? How much more effective would a coach actually be if they were allowed onto the field and were able to direct, motivate, and muster their players?
Technique
It all boils down to technique. As a salesperson, what I say, what I do, and how I do it are some of the Micro Skills I use every day. The only way to achieve sustainable long-term improvements in any salesperson’s capacity to deliver sales forecasts is to observe their individual Micro Skills where and when they happen.
From this, you need to develop a coaching plan to improve the skills your observation identifies as needing improvement. Concentrate on only three skills at a time and confirm by further observations that these skills have improved and are being used.
In one of my future newsletters, I will share with you the results of just a 5% improvement in three different Micro Skills of a five-person sales team. Remember, these results have a sustainable long-term effect on a person’s ability to deliver sales forecasts.
Sales Management is an oxymoron or just bittersweet.
Next week, we will jump into discovering an individual’s selling level Micro Skill Assessment