Sales Force Management

With an intense pressure to increase revenue, cut cost and improve sales forecast, companies are demanding that their sales force generates more and more revenue, more and bigger global account and more "A" grade clients for which they require effective Sales Force Management Techniques and Strategy to achieve sales targets and aligning the sales force with the organizational objectives. The various sales force task involves prospecting, communication, selling, servicing and market feedback.

Highly motivated and effectively managed sales force can do wonders for the business growth, profitability and make all the difference between success and failure. Managing a sales force involves recruiting, hiring, supervising, compensating salespeople, motivating them to become problem solvers and providing proper planning and back up support so that they can perform their job properly. But before recruiting the management must decide the job description, recruitment, induction, training, compensation and supervision procedure and also strategies for motivation and performance appraisal of the salesforce.

The Organization should have a well designed sales compensation Plan, Continuous Training, Coaching and Support. The company needs to provide various orientations to its sales force like Product knowledge, analyzes of:- the market potential, competition, social and cultural background of the buyer, economic factors, global environment, natural factors, technological development and political as well as legal aspects of business.

A Sales manager should effectively communicate the strategy and key action steps to its sales force. The general characteristics/traits for a good sales manager are the knowledge of teaching skills, empathy, keeping ego in check, communication skills, relationship skills, analytical skills, team spirit, ability to handle pressure, quick learner and experience because often sales representatives are aggressive, impatient, lacks team player characteristics and have huge ego. In Negotiation with the sales force the manager should aim only at "win-win" situations to build long term association.

Whereas, Successful Sales Representative who is considered to be the most productive asset in the organization should analyze the internal as well as external sales environment, clearly understand the various Promotional Mix of the company viz., advertising, sales promotion, publicity, public relations and personal selling and decides in advance the W's and H before planning a successful sales visit:-

What is the purpose of the visit?

Whom to sell?

When is the right time to sell?

Where is the buyer located?

Why will the buyer need the product?

How to start the conversation?

Finally, the company, sales manager and the sales representatives has to plan, organize and control all their activities well to meet the organizational objectives

Sales Compensation Plans - The Right Incentive!

Perhaps the item most often implemented incorrectly within sales organizations is the Sales Compensation Plan. Many of the compensation plans I look at have just the opposite effect they're intended to have-sales people hate it, management hates it, and accounting hates it.

They each have their own personal reasons why it doesn't quite work for them, but the negative result is the same. An effective compensation plan needs careful consideration in the following six areas:

Pay Mix. How much of the salesperson's target income is salary and how much is variable pay.

Quotas. These should not be set AT company goal, as only 70% of the sales team will meet "quota."

Leverage. Include both an upside for big payout if target is grossly exceeded and a downside if a minimum threshold is not met.

Variables/Levels. Variables include factors from which compensation is based on, such as revenue, product mix, new vs. existing business, etc. and levels refer to the number of payout brackets there are, such as 3%, 4%, 5% based on performance within variables.

Payment/Credit Timing. When are sales booked to commissions and how are credits handled for future refunds or bad debt.

Shortfalls/Windfalls. A shortfall is an accommodation for changes made midstream that are out of a salesperson's control, such as company re-orgs that suddenly change their territory, products that are unexpectedly dropped, etc. A windfall is a large sales event that occurs outside of a salesperson's influence.

Each of these areas must work together so that 1) you are compensating your sales team for where you want them to focus most and 2) a salesperson can quickly calculate their income at any time (this allows for them to be more proactive in their behavior).