Any executive sales managers here? I would like to pick your brain.

[Fluid Power]

I own a small industrial distribution business. I need some advice on sales management. Anybody interested sharing ideas?

thanks,

Darren

[NOPANTS68]

What's on your mind?

[cluxford]

Agree with NoPants68

I run a sales innovation consultancy helping companies globally with their sales GTM innovation and strategies.

It's a broad question you've asked. Are you interested in sales channels, methodologies, tools, systems, people, techniques etc

happy to help where I can

[Fluid Power]

In a nut shell, I bought a business about 8 years ago and we have never had any real structured sales process or protocol. I am looking to develop a formal sales structure, ie, call reports, planning, etc. I have no experience with this side of the business. I have read a ton of books, but I thought talking to others might help me move down the right path. I know it is really broad, probably to broad for an open forum.


Thoughts?

Darren

[cluxford]

Darren,

Happy to send you some stuff over email, you can reach me on [email protected]

But to give you some food for thought.

Sales measurement is critical to a successful sales outcome. In fact companies who run a structured sales process with sales measurement generally have 2-3 times higher success rates selling.

1st things 1st. You need a documented sales process. There are thousands out there, key is pick one, any one...rarely will one be right for a given business. Each business, it's approach and policies and processes differ, so key is to take one tweak it for your business. I can share with you a bunch of basic process. key here is sequence of activities you expect your sales people to adhere to that aligns with how your buyers buy

2nd make sure your process has 2 versions. one for demand creation and another for demand reaction. Both are critical and both result in sales, but you need to have two versions of the process

3rd make sure you have an agreed objective qualification process. Qualification happens a number of times through the sales process. It's critical it's objective. This allows you to "lose early". The worst thing for a company is expending all it's sales efforts and resources only to lose. If you know early you can't win (for whatever reason and again I can share all sorts of qualification questions) it's far better. Spend the time on the opportunities you've got a genuine chance of winning

4th document the steps / activities and make sure the sales team understand how to execute these

5th measure everything. We normally suggest measuring the behaviours and activity completion...NOT things like $$ sold versus targets. That's an output. You need to measure the inputs.

Like you say way too broad for here, but hope the above stimulates some thinking. I can share a ton of info in each and other areas, but won't do that here.

Rgds
Chris