Three Problems in Sales from the Point Of View of Owners and Directors of Companies

1. Three Problems in Sales from the Point Of View of Owners and Directors of Companies I often ask directors of companies what, in their opinion, can be changed in the company's sales system? In 90% of cases I hear one of the three possible answers or a combination of them. So, the top 3 problems in sales, according to managers and owners: 1. "Bad payment system for sellers." The main claim of managers to their own sales system concerns the system of remuneration of sales personnel. At the same time, no manager wants to pay more! They are interested in the “secret formula” of material motivation: how, without increasing pay (and ideally even lowering it), to achieve one hundred percent return from people. 2. "Bad people." The second claim to the sales system is addressed to employees who sell. “I have a bad/weak/lazy/illiterate staff,” the manager says. "Let's do something with my salespeople or hire new ones." Check here for more details about Mastermind groups at The Moose Consulting. 3. "Bad boss." The third complaint that leaders make of themselves is accompanied by a note of masochism. “I’m a bad salesman, I don’t know how to manage sales,” some company director admits and immediately justifies himself: “But I’m a good production worker / engineer / doctor ... Let’s hire a sales ace in my company, for example, a commercial director. Let him sell. However, in reality, in my practice, only 30% of projects were related to the solution of the above problems. Only in 3 projects out of 10 did the problem really lie in an ill-conceived system of remuneration of sellers, in the insolvency of the latter in sales or inability of the director to manage sales. What do you really have to deal with? Nine Key Success Factors in Sales In order to achieve a visible improvement in sales, you need to pay attention to the nine factors listed below. The rest of the book is based on the concept that in most cases (90%) a visible improvement in sales can be achieved by changing the conditions that affect sales performance. That is why I call them key success factors in sales. Moreover, the company does not need to change everything at once. Moreover, it is very dangerous. But it is from nine positions that you will have to choose what, in your opinion, to a large extent requires changes. Long-term sales planning. It is about how the company determines its results, what and how it plans for the long term (usually a year in advance). Key questions can be formulated as follows: What does the company want in terms of sales? How were these goals and plans determined? Operational sales planning. This factor emphasizes the importance of the mechanism that ensures the translation of planned sales figures into specific actions of specific performers. Key questions: How it is determined what sales managers should do today, tomorrow, next week, etc. How are the actions of sales managers related to the fulfillment of financial plans? Sales structure. It is important to ask questions about the distribution of sales responsibilities in the company: Who actually sells in the company? What should sales managers do and what do they actually do? Sales technology. This crucial factor is related to just one question: how to sell? However, the answer must be received for sales as a whole: from finding customers and ending with their retention and development of relationships with them.

2. Operational control of sales. This is a mechanism that allows you to obtain information about the actual sales results, as well as a mechanism for using this information to improve the situation in sales. Financial motivation of sales personnel. Associated with the choice of the optimal approach to determining the size, calculation and payment of remuneration to sellers. Topical issues: How to pay How much to pay What exactly should you pay for? Seller’s involvement. In this case, the problem concerns the need for non-material motivation of sales personnel, which would make it possible to achieve real involvement and return from employees. Accordingly, we ask the following questions: How to ensure that sales managers really give all the best at work; How to use the personal motives of the sales staff? Sales staff training. Should be seen as an important factor in sales success. We must find answers to the questions: Whom to teach What to teach What training formats are the most suitable? Reorganization of the sales system. It implies the rules and principles in accordance with which changes will be made to the sales system. Often managers correctly identify the problematic link in sales, but make mistakes in implementing changes, which leads to the failure of the entire project. The most relevant questions are: How to transform your sales system What should be changed first? How to reduce the risk of failure? As you can see, among the nine key factors, there was a place for issues related to sales force management. However, these issues are neither the first nor the only ones to achieve a visible improvement in sales. I note that most of these factors are not related to sales as such, but to their organization and management: often, in order to achieve better results, there is no need to change anything in the sales themselves, but you need to change the approach to management. Finally, the principles for implementing improvements in the sales system are themselves considered as a separate success factor in sales. Why? The fact is that, unlike other areas of the company, which can also become the object of change, sales are the most sensitive. And the cost of mistakes when implementing changes is usually higher. Therefore, the principles