Sales management - What's Involved? Part 1

Managers - Sales management - What's Involved? Part 1

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What any private Sales manager actively does is conditioned by the size of their company, the products it sells and the way they are sold, the organisation of functions within it, and possibly their own extra ability. They may carry most or all of the responsibilities which would be those of a Marketing Manager, if this position does not exist within their company.

What I said. It is not the conclusion that the actual about Managers. You read this article for information on anyone want to know is Managers.

Managers

Essentially, however, the task of the Sales manager is to furnish income for their business straight through the operations of the sales staff for whom they are responsible. The size of this revenue, and the behalf (however defined) which it should show, are regularly predetermined in order to perform the aims of business policy. The objectives which they set for the discrete activities which are complex in carrying out this task should therefore be derived from, and be compatible with, business objectives, such as return on capital employed, cash flow, store position, growth.

Characteristics Of The Sales Manager'S Job

o Many of the factors which sway success are not within their operate (such as competitors and government legislation)

o They are nevertheless required to forecast time to come sales and to plan their carrying out accordingly, using their judgement and experience.

o They must depend on other departments for the design, production, potential and delivery of products for which they gain orders, just as those departments must depend on them to get these orders.

o The sales staff that they rely on to furnish the results they have planned for, are for most of the time working alone, not under their immediate control.

o They are engaged in a constant struggle to gain increased sales against competitors with the same aim.

Although the basic functions and skills of management, discussed later, apply to their job, it is clear that such qualities as creativeness, flexibility, tenacity, and potential to deal effectively with people, will be particularly important. At the same time the potential to analyse store situations and form sound judgements on them, is equally indispensable but may not sit de facto with the kind of qualities mentioned.

The Selling Role

Since, like other managers, the Sales manager depends on those who work for them to furnish the results by which they are judged, notice of their job can usefully continue by examining the nature and characteristics of market selling and, hence, of the salesperson's job.

Personal selling is only one of any potential ways of communicating with customers and potential customers but, particularly where market goods are concerned, is de facto the most effective in terms of achieving the objective - influencing the decision to buy. It is also, even though selling costs may be a small percentage of revenue, expensive. Sales staff should therefore be treated as a scarce resource, to be used as effectively as possible.

Selling itself is a process of bringing persuasion to bear, to;

- Awaken awareness of a need or problem

- Establish that the need can be satisfied by a single type of product

- Convince the prospective user that the salesperson's own product can offer a excellent satisfaction.

The actual selling job for a single product or business may embrace all three of these stages, the last two, or the last only, depending on the situation requirements.

- An innovatory product, hitherto unknown

- A product for which there are alternatives

- An established store in which the user can choose from a amount of makes.

For cheaper of attempt the salesperson's task (and possibly the kind of someone required) should be defined accordingly.

Other Tasks Of The Sales Staff

Although selling is the basic justification of the salesperson's existence and The Sales Manager's purpose in employing them, all sales staff have to spend part of their time doing other things (e.g. Travelling and preparation reports). Sales staff are, however, often also required to:

- Provide technical information other than that strictly needed to make a sale

- Give some kind of after-sales service

- Conduct store study (going beyond the normal, indispensable provide of store brain about customers, competitors, etc)

- Check credit status of potential customers

It may or may not be that the salesperson is the best someone to do such things as these. As, however, he is a scarce resource, expensive, and employed to gain orders, the cost-effectiveness of using them for such purposes compared with other means should be examined - remembering also that there may be some loss of sales to take into account (the "opportunity cost")

The Sales Manager'S responsibility For Sales Staff

Some characteristics base to most forms of selling are:

- Smaller sales soldiery in market selling than buyer goods selling, regularly dealing with a very much smaller amount of clients

- Responsibility and power to make decisions vested in the
individual salesperson

- The need often to deal with a amount of people in the buyer business in order to perform buying decisions.

These characteristics must sway the nature of the Sales Manager's responsibility for their sales staff and the forms it takes.

One effect may well be that a good deal of the store analysis and planning which is part of the Sales Manager's responsibility, is delegated to sales staff who, to this extent, are the managers of their own territory. If this is so, the need for clear objectives and adequate farranging operate is stronger than if sales staff were more closely directed. This also emphasises the importance of good communication and information, flowing in both directions.

The Sales Manager's general responsibilities for his sales staff may be summarised:

o Planning

He is given resources, human and financial, and has to plan to use
those in the most effective aggregate to perform predetermined
results. They can do this only by knowing his staff and insight
the nature and behaviour of costs.

o Organising

The way in which he develops his sales staff - either on a general or territorial basis, or. Specialising in types of product or by class of buyer or end user - should gain from a study of the market, taking into account also the qualifications and the sense of the sales staff.

o Training

As products, markets and objectives tend to be continually developing
and changing, training also should be a continuous process. With small
sales forces, formal training presents difficulties, but the need to always
seek a higher acceptable of carrying out remains.

o Control

This involves setting targets and standards for estimation of performance, and taking acceptable action when they are not met.

o Motivation

Motivation implies two effects in the sales staff: the right attitude to their job and willingness to play their part to the best of their potential in achieving aims set by their manager. It results partly from training, partly from incentives (financial and other), and possibly most of all from the leadership given by their manager. Quarterly appraisal of carrying out and attitudes by discussion with the sales force, and notice of their work, are leading for this purpose.

Recruitment Of Sales Staff

Selecting a someone who will become a prosperous member of the sales force for any single business is very difficult, either they are appointed from within the business or are recruited from outside. It is often made more difficult than it need be by the lack of an adequate specification of the job the sales someone is to do and, derived from this, a specification of the kind of someone who might be likely to succeed. Such specifications introduce some objectivity into the selection process and provide some measures of comparability in the middle of candidates.

The importance of the sales someone to their company, and the indispensable speculation made in them, interpret a systematic advent to the ways in which, as a candidate, they are assessed and decisions are made about them. The validity of assumptions made about them at the time of appointment should be checked against subsequent performance, and the reasons for mistakes investigated.

The subjective element in selection will never be eliminated, and in at least one respect it is a valid criterion. The someone chosen must "fit in" to the team comprising the Sales manager and their sales force. If they do not do so, no matter how convenient their qualifications and sense may be, friction is likely to ensue.

The Nature Of Management

A Sales manager may or may not be an excellent sales person. The leading thing is that he should be a good manager. This is their private and unique contribution to their company.

The essentials of management are:

Measurement or assessment

Planning, which includes organising

Direction and control

Plans, and the direction and operate of activities to put the plans into effect, depend on the range and analysis of information, from which decisions are made.

The initial plans (say for 12 months, on which a allocation will be based) results from analysis of the store and environmental factors (such as economic conditions) and from the appraisal of the resources ready to the manager. operate requires an input of information about carrying out which has to be measured against the standards set in the plans. Where there are discrepancies the manager must decide what to do about them.

The two basic requirements for good management (apart from personal qualities which make the manager an acceptable leader) are therefore:

Adequate information

Decisions which take account of the relevant information

Adequate information about markets is hard to get, and the cost of obtaining it may outweigh the advantages of having it. The Sales manager is therefore often in the position of having to make decisions on the basis of incomplete information or assumptions. They must then rely to some extent on past sense and their own judgement of the probability that this or that will happen. The leading thing in these circumstances it to narrative (preferably in writing) the assumptions that have been made so that, if subsequently information becomes ready which falsifies these assumptions, some appraisal can be made of consequences for plans based on them.

Copyright © 2006 Jonathan Farrington. All proprietary reserved

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