Sales Management Process

If you don’t have a sales management process, no worries; we pack our sales management process into your company when we show up for work. That’s all fine and good, but if you are like most, you might ask what a sales management process is and why we need one. In essence, it’s how we work. We don’t join your company as employees, so we don’t have a job description, but our sales management process provides our direction. It also lets our client, the business owner, know what their sales manager is focused on. Our book Part-Time Sales Management outlines our system, approach, and sales management processes in detail, but let me summarize the tenants under which all our processes fall.

• Setting Clear Expectations
• Create an Accountable environment with measurements and monitoring
• Have a consistent cadence of effective Meetings (team, individuals, and owners)
• Develop the team using Conversations that demonstrate we care
• Maintain Belief in the salespeople; if it ever wavers, we adjust our perspective or manage sales performance. 

Now let me expand on what that will deliver to your company.  

Sales Department Processes (Set expectations)

Sales department processes provide the sales team with what to do, how to do it, and the expected results. They are the cornerstone of our sales management process, so we can manage the team virtually efficiently and effectively. By defining the sales department processes, we can create an accountable environment, have meetings focused on meeting expectations, and manage sales performance effectively. 

Company Vision and Goals: The company vision and goals set the foundation and direction to align the sales department processes with the business owner’s vision and goals. If a written business plan is current, we align with that. If not, we will help you create a plan. Our founder, Rene Zamora, is a certified planning consultant who enjoys helping in this area. We must understand your vision and relay it to the sales team correctly. We want our work to support your vision and goals, not ours. 

Job Description: We will update your job descriptions to ensure they include key responsibilities, key performance indicators, sales goals, activities, and duties. We will review these updated job descriptions with the current team to ensure we agree on what is expected. 

Compensation: We do not often change compensation upon arrival, but we ensure everyone understands their compensation, how they can earn, and how they are paid. Some plans are simple, and some are complex. If the plan is designed well, it should be a win/win for the salesperson and the company and drive performance. If a plan needs adjustments, we’ll do that also, with your approval. 

Sales Process: We will define the steps or workflow of selling at your business, including stages, purpose, activities involved in a stage, and what is recorded in CRM. Sales processes could be broken into lead generation and sales cycle. 

Individual Sales Plans (ISP): The ISP is a tool to elevate our monthly one-on-one meetings with each salesperson. It will include their sales and activity goals, personal and career goals, sales and prospecting strategies, intent statement, and improvement plans. The ISP is like a mini business plan as we empower salespeople to self-manage.

Accountable Environment for Efficient and Effective Sales Management

Once expectations are in place, our sales management process focuses on developing an accountable environment. We are constantly focused on efficient and effective sales management practices to make our fractional sales management practices work. How we work will not look like any full-time manager you’ve had in the past. All our work is to improve performance and develop the team and department. 

Measuring and Monitoring: With expectations developed in the sales department processes, the next step is developing dashboards and reports to help anyone monitor and measure how the team and individuals perform against expectations. 

Effective Meetings: Team meetings, one-on-ones, impromptu meetings, coaching, and improvement meetings are aligned with helping salespeople sell more and improve in their roles. Meetings often include measuring and monitoring. 

Conversations: We’ve found that conversing with our team to demonstrate our care strengthens their commitment to goals and expectations. As the saying goes, people do not care about what you know until they know you care. 

Belief: Leading others, especially in a fractional manner, requires belief in your team. This is not blind faith or trust that everything will work out perfectly. We must have enough belief in each salesperson’s ability to perform up to expectations. It is up to them to deliver, but our sales management process requires us to monitor our beliefs, and if our beliefs waver, we need to address them. Sometimes, that addresses our attitude or perspective; other times, it addresses performance or activity issues with the salesperson or team. 

Sales Team and Individual Development

As we work with our clients and teams, our eyes are on the future and the present. We consider what needs to be done and accomplished to meet our goals today and what needs to be done and developed to prepare us for the future.

Build Business Value: A sales department that is not dependent on one or two superstars but has processes and a culture that other good salespeople can easily integrate will add value to your business. We aim to develop salespeople so they are their best. Sometimes, we will lose a good salesperson to career growth opportunities, and we embrace that. If your company is known for developing people, you will attract others who want to be their best and have the processes to support them. 

Constant Improvement: We are unsatisfied with the status quo and are not obsessed with unnecessary improvement initiatives. Our focus is first getting the salespeople to meet expectations and then getting a little better each day. 

Team Sales Meetings a Learning Hub: The sales meetings are accountable and learning hubs. We take time each week to learn from each other, and now and then, we’ll bring in a book to read and study together.

Sales Management Process Requires Relating to People

Our sales management process is simple in design but requires professionals who can lead, relate to, and inspire salespeople to perform. We don’t strive to be motivators, but we do focus on relating to people in a manner that ignites and releases motivation. We create environments where motivated salespeople can be their best. We do that through our sales management process and how we relate to each member of our team and everyone in the company.