A Career as a Sales Manager Essay Example
Finding innovative new ways to motivate and inspire a salesforce is something effective sales managers should do to drive sales and surpass competitors, but it is dually important because it is the secret to hard working sales rep who are passionate about working at your company. Although I am new to the many concepts of sales management, I know that it is a multi-faceted practice. A sales manager needs to be proficient with the numbers, able to interpret any report and then communicate ways it did and didn’t meet sales objectives, and ways they can change their sales activities. Any manager knows that they can communicate what they want, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that your workforce is going to respond the way you want them to. Your recommendations must be supported by tangible ways they can improve, supported by metrics and baseline numbers. However, even if you are approaching your team with a winning plan, they will not want to follow it if they don’t understand why they should want to improve. John Henry Patterson and Simon Sinek’s sales management techniques outline two effective ways that a sales manager can get more results from their reps, especially when they are used in tandem.
John Henry Patterson created structure for sales forever. Within his sales force, Patterson implemented sales quotas, commission rates, territories, and training programs, all essential to measuring the true success of sales objectives. John realized that his employees needed expectations set for them, so that he didn’t have to leave success on the field up to chance. His reps were equipped with the proper training to make a proper sales call, implementing systemized selling and pre-call planning. The revolutionary aspect of this technique is that is allows managers to monitor the individual success of reps, allowing them to intervene as soon as a problem begins. The new sales manager is no longer leaving what happens on the field up to luck and can directly influence the numbers. When numbers are met, reps are celebrated and invited to attend local conventions, where they are recognized for their achievements and their contribution to the company’s success. Sales contests and other forms of recognition worked as the main motivating factor, on top of proper commission. However, ample training and frequent conventions wasn’t always enough to demand the desired results from sales reps.
It is Simon Sinek’s theory surrounding the Golden Circle that fills the gaps John Henry Patterson left within his sales techniques. Within his TED talk, Sinek explains that people’s most basic decision-making process occurs in the limbic part of the brain. This part of the brain can hear all the facts and the numbers needed to make best business decisions, but that doesn’t mean it will choose to. He goes on further to discuss the phenomenon of “just not feeling like it”, a common conundrum faced by sales managers. The attractive commission is there, the staff has been trained, they are diligently attending frequent meetings with managers, but the numbers aren’t improving. No reason can be found, other than that the reps aren’t willing to take your suggestions and work harder. They know what they’re selling and how they need to do it, but they are lost as to why they care about the organization. A sales manager taking Sinek’s advice will explain the “why”. This manager will understand the reasons the company exists, besides to make money. They will be able to easily express the purpose and very reason for the existence of the organization. People are only ever going to do business with people who believe what they believe, as the limbic system is driven by “why” and the overall purpose of actions.
These two forms of motivation are entirely different and have foundations in two completely different parts of science. The biological component driving motivation in Sinek’s model is better suited for selling that is service-based industries, as it is easier to communicate a powerful purpose statement that compels reps to meet sales objectives. It is easiest to begin with explaining the why and following this with equipping your sales force with the “how”, meaning the proper training to complete calls, fulfill opportunities, maintain account relationships, and to handle their territories. Finally, you educate your team on what they do within the organization; make X number of prospective calls, close this many deals, sell that many new products, etc. that is needed to accomplish the desired business results. A drawback of this sales management technique is that it is more difficult to implement within larger salesforces, unless the company is also large enough to have an ample sales management team to spread their message. Most of the time, a sales manager may have difficulty imparting this management style for every single rep in a large sales force. In this case, the management will have to utilize what is of easiest access to them, which is the numbers. John H. Patterson’s method is also more effective in product-based industries, which tend to require bigger workforces in general. It is more time efficient for the manager to use this method when reviewing and rewarding a large amount of people. In most cases, a sales manager will find most success implementing parts of both strategies if they wish to have sales people who meet sales objectives and are happy to do it.
