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Sales Associate Program Presented By: Shawn Morris Manager of Talent Development. Sales Associate Program. The Principal Problems to be solved: Too many rookies don’t succeed. Too many veterans are no longer as successful as they were in former years.
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Sales Associate ProgramPresented By: Shawn Morris Manager of Talent Development
Sales Associate Program The Principal Problems to be solved: • Too many rookies don’t succeed. • Too many veterans are no longer as successful as they were in former years. • Today’s young people are different from the cohorts who went before. • Over the years, turnover of sales rookies at Cox Media Group San Antonio alone has resulted in considerable amount of lost compensation-guarantees each year, without even taking into consideration the costs of hiring, training, benefits, and damaged client relationships. The Secondary Problems to be solved: • Salespeople always say they don’t have enough time to prospect. • When sellers get around to prospecting, they do a poor job – they rush the process and end up selecting Target Accounts not by their value or potential, but rather by whether they can get an appointment easily or not. • Once veteran sellers get in front of a good prospect, they often do a relatively good job with the CNA and with providing custom solutions.
Sales Associate Program The Solution: • Stop hiring rookies. • Only experienced Account Executives will deal with clients. • Sales Associates will do active prospecting for firms that appear to fit the Ideal Customer Profile and will create appointments for Account Executives. • The following diagram is helpful in understanding the new paradigm: FIND Mostly Science Principally the responsibility of Sales Associates APPROACH DEFINE Mostly Art Principally the responsibility of Account Executives SOLVE PRESENT FULFILL
Sales Associate Program The Program: • CMG San Antonio has three sales departments, headed by 2 GSM’s. The Manager of Talent Development will be placed in charge of the Sales Associate Program. • The MTD is responsible for hiring, recruiting, developing, and overseeing all Sales Associates. • Sales Associates must meet the same talent standard as any other salesperson (ASI). • Once an SA is hired, they go through a comprehensive training program that includes 3R Selling, Radio 101 training and training on all of CMG San Antonio’s assets. • The training puts very strong emphasis on FINDing ideal customers. • Once a valid prospect is identified they move into the APPROACH stage. • Once the appointment is set, the MTD and GSM’s determine which AE is the best fit for the prospect and that seller takes it from there. • Goals set: • All calls are logged. SA’s are expected to make 100 appointment-setting calls per week. • Their work is expected to result in 16 high-quality appointments each month. • Three SA’s thus can create 48 excellent appointments each month.
Sales Associate Program Benefits of the Program: • A sales support staff that is motivated to do well, work hard and learn. • An increased likelihood of succeeding in their first year of outside sales. • A stronger loyalty to the company and sales managers. • An Account Executive who is more compassionate to the support staff and will more eagerly participate as a mentor to the current generation of sales associates. • An Account Executive (and sales staff) that takes a longer term view of broadcast sales as a career. • How SA’s will be recruited: • The qualifications, interests of candidates (Interest, desire and passion for sales) • Networking, Referrals and Recruiting (Getting in with College of Business at all local campuses) • Interviews (Both inside and outside of the building)
Sales Associate Program Summary: • The SA Program will begin as soon as we find the 3 best qualified candidates. • SA’s will be put through a 3-month training course where they will meet everyone in the building while they work on the 3R’s of Selling and book reports. • This training will be held every day of the week and will periodically include different guest speakers (specialists). • At the end of the 3-month training, we will hold individual evaluation meetings with each SA to let them know how they are progressing. These meeting will be set on Day 1. • Months 4 through 6, SA’s will be finishing up with 3R’s of Selling and they will set appointments for Account Executives. • At the end of month 6, we will hold individual evaluation meetings with each SA to let them know how they are progressing. • During this time, we will be able to decide the direction that each SA is going. • We will also begin to recruit for the next round of SA’s during this time.