You’ve reached the head of this sales team through your own hard work. Your goal today: to lead every member of this team – and the whole department – to success… But in practical terms, how? What does good, modern management look like today? Follow this guide…
Good practice #1: Think in terms of “objectives”
You might say this is the foundation of all good sales management! With one nuance: the performance of your sales managers and your sales force is not just about hitting a certain level of turnover. Even if the ultimate aim is of course to grow revenue, your success – and your team’s – must go through managing your sales force with more precise, granular objectives.
These should be directly aligned with your commercial strategy (based on a product range, for example, a geographical area, etc.). This more precise targeting will guide your salespeople and give them a clear “course of action” to follow…
Remember to set objectives for your salespeople that match their profiles. Keep in mind that your junior, Ludovic, does not have the experience of your senior salesperson, Arnaud, nor his client portfolio. Motivate him with even more finely tuned goals than those mentioned above, using criteria such as the number of appointments to secure, the number of proposals to send out, and so on. You’ll see – this exercise will give him momentum and turn him into an “Arnaud” in no time!
Lastly, it goes without saying that these objectives must be SMART. And your team must have the right “tools” to track the progress of each indicator in real time, for example through performance dashboards.
Good practice #2: Think in terms of “people”
The days of “paternalistic” management – where the manager was a kind of untouchable, all-knowing guru – are long gone. Today, to be a “good” manager, you need to put people at the heart of your approach.
To achieve this, focus on 4 key points:
- Respect everyone’s values : in your team, everyone is different, with their own value system and intrinsic motivations. Arnaud, the most senior, prioritises human relationships over everything else; Ludovic, on the other hand, is a hungry young wolf driven by commissions and all kinds of bonuses… So it’s essential that you adapt your management style to the needs and expectations of each person.
- Be kind : your ability to listen and pay attention in a selfless and understanding way will support the smooth functioning of your team. While this approach may look like a passing trend, it remains true that sincerity, mutual support and authenticity in relationships go hand in hand with positive results.
- Focus on accountability : today, autonomy and responsibility are key for managing your salespeople. Of course, this must be combined with a basic level of control and guidance to provide clear direction.
- Be exemplary : there is no point giving directions if you are not able to apply them yourself. Remember to keep your feet on the ground so you can understand new challenges and the real day-to-day work of your sales representatives. The same goes for the processes and tools put in place: you must follow them and use them yourself.
Good practice #3: think in terms of “synergies”
Too often, marketing is seen as being at odds with the sales force or, worse still, as useless. This is where you have a role to play in showing your team the possible – and essential – synergies between these two functions:
- Marketing on its own is already a sales force, supporting the sales teams through targeted and specific actions (email campaigns, sales collateral, customer testimonials, etc.)
- Sales and marketing managers, meanwhile, need to feed the marketing team with field data so that media buys are as relevant as possible. By giving meaning to these essential exchanges, you can be sure your salespeople will work towards better informing the CRM software, for example!
Best practice #4: think in terms of “digitalisation”
There’s really no way around it. To lead your sales team to success, you’ll need to digitalise your sales force by equipping yourself with a modern CRM .
At the start, you’ll definitely have to convince your salespeople of the value of such a solution, so that they don’t see it as a “policing” tool but instead recognise the substantial benefits it brings to their daily work.
With a good CRM, you can achieve pipeline management that is fully optimised.
No more notes on Post-its, all kinds of notebooks and paper diaries!
Give your sales force the real gem of a tool that will enable them to:
- better track their activities,
- automate tasks that used to be time-consuming (such as writing reports),
- stop losing information along the way (with automatic reminders and more) – whether they’re in the car, at home or in the office – on their smartphone, tablet or laptop.
And don’t forget: a salesperson who is “well taken care of” is motivated and therefore effective. This directly contributes to the growth of your brand and your company.
So, who’s the best manager now?
