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Monday, November 6, 2006
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VOLUME 3
ISSUE 133
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November WorldWIT Website Columns
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Contact Info
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Questions? Comments? Write to info@worldwit.org. To submit an article, a question for "Ask Liz" or a story for "Pinch Me...or Don't", send an e-mail to Anne Jennings.
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Managing an Emerging Sales Staff
Selling Skills for Non-Salespeople
http://www.worldwit.org/ThinkingAloud/Se...
by Janet Ryan
I'm back after a much overdue hiatus. Thanks for all your letters and queries and sorry to keep you waiting for answers. I'll tackle the questions that have been building up over the past weeks in the columns to come.
One of the questions that immediately captured my interest upon my return was from the founder of a small but growing business, who finds herself somewhat out of her element managing a sales force. She's a strong and accomplished businessperson, but having not grown up in sales or sales management herself, finds it challenging to determine the best ways to motivate, manage and incent a sales team herself. This struck me as an all too common issue: CEOs must take charge of revenues, whether or not their own personal experience includes selling or managing a sales team.
While I can't tackle all the relevant issues in one column, I will delve a bit into one big area of concern: account coverage and territory assignments. Like most start-ups, this firm started with one salesperson, adding others as revenues allowed. But in this case, that first salesperson assumed the rights to any accounts she'd ever spoken with, on the
grounds that she's worked the business and ought to benefit if the sale ever came through. That sounds reasonable on the surface, but as the team grows, it became all too clear that the rich prospects all "belong" to the first hired, and latter, perhaps even more talented or creative or hardworking salespeople were left to sweep up the leftovers. Not a very good
incentive, eh?
There are any number of ways to divvy up sales. Territories, geography, account category, and sales potential in dollars are the most standard. When you do start off with one or two salespeople covering the whole field, it is normal and expected that their success will result in additional salespeople, and territories will be subdivided to give good, viable sales territories to the later additions.
This should be clear to any experienced salesperson, but that doesn't mean they'll go along willingly. Most salespeople want to keep as many accounts as possible on thier lists, not because they truly expect to have the time to work each and every one, but because we'd all like as wide as possible a net out there for future sales. Let's face it. It's a lot easier to go after a new prospect after getting a "no" than it is to dig deeper to find more creative ways to sell the reluctant prospect. And the longer the list, the greater the likelihood of transom business coming when market conditions change.
As a manager, you have a different goal. You want all your strong potential accounts being actively worked. If any salesperson has more accounts then he or she can reasonably call on regularly, you know you have potential business that won't be collected. If you make it too easy for any salesperson to skip from prospect to prospect looking for the quick close, no one of them will get the effort it takes to make the more difficult sale. So a sales manager wants as much coverage as possible, while a salesperson wants the largest possible pool of prospects. This will always be a source of conflict, and it is best addressed in an open and straightforward way right from the start.
If you are hiring your first salesperson to cover the whole universe, let her/him know right away that this is a point in time issue. As sales come in and revenues allow, that potential will be shared with future hires. Even if your first few are already in place, making it too late to set expectations upfront, start communicating now about future plans and the
very reasonable expectation that territories will shrink in terms of number of prospects as more salespeople come on board. If the coverage is as deep and thorough as it should be, the revenues should not shrnk, it will just take a different sort of effort to capture the potential.
Finally, it is the manager who has to reassign accounts as coverage changes. If you let the salespeople select the accounts to keep, you can bet on the new hires having far less potential with which to work. Next week I'll talk about about assigning accounts and how to make sure you not only do right by your salespeople, but also optimize your business with the best possible coverage.
[PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION]
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Copyright © 2006 WorldWIT, Inc.. All rights reserved.
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