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Mid-Year Redirect
You've got enough At-Bats through previous quarters to make intelligent sales adjustments at this point. The new product is gaining or not gaining market acceptance; the sales message is or is not resonating; the territory re-alignment is working or not working; the new sale hires are starting to cut it or are struggling. Keep at it this month but with an observant eye toward the future.
Tough calls here require clear wisdom and discernment. The danger is to jump the gun and not see the slow ramp of a genius strategy or pull the trigger on a weak and sorry mistake. If you care, your reputation can be at stake in environments and cultures where knee-jerk reactions are frowned upon or lauded.
Great salespeople and effective sales leadership see the trends, sense the momentum or stall and see the big picture. They're already tracking activity metrics and numbers and already have a hunch of what has to happen after this quarter ends to finish the game with a win.
Yes, plan your half-time talk and half-time adjustments. There's not a lot of time between halves.
Coaching Makes Perfect? But which ones? Your stragglers, high-performers, or future high-performers? Logic says leave the high performers alone and coach the others. After all, the manager/coach is there to manage and help, right? Watch your logic. CSO Insight's 2011 Sales Performance Optimization - Sales Management Analysis rated managers' ability to proactively identify which reps needed coaching or mentoring. The percentage of firms rating Needs Improvement was 37%, an all-time high, and the Meets Expectations group was at 44%, an all-time low. Firms rating Exceeds Expectations grew to almost 16%. What does this mean? Means there's lots of room for improvement. Yes, you've got to coach, but do it wisely. The best firms (effective sales management) coach to metric bars and performance analytics set by their top performers, then proactively identify (dashboard visibility) players that need help. The coaching is objective and helpful, not belittling or damaging. High-potential players develop; weaker ones become clearly identified for a new opportunity, elsewhere. Interesting also that there is a correlation between rep turnover and effective coaching visibility. There was a 10% higher turnover rate for Needs Improvement vs. Exceeds Expectations firms. Better coaching environment; lower turnover.
Rule #17 - Keep a Scorecard As a salesperson I always wanted to know where I stood relative to my sales peers and compared to my manager's and company's goals and expectations. Just like any player in sports, we have scorecards, stats and records that show us how we stand against competition, ourselves and company targets. When I became a sales manager and VP of Sales, I tracked my team against goals and expectations on issues and areas both "soft" and "hard." This rule is all about keeping score. Let's take a look at a powerful way to keep score with a flexible scorecard. This is not just for sales managers. The enlightened salesperson can apply this to their own personal scorecard. ... In all selling environments there are key designated activities and items of measurement that represent the quality or mastery of performance, or competencies. Examples of Activities to be scored are as follows: number of Prospecting Phone Calls, New Opportunities, Face-to-Face Meetings, Webinars/Online Meetings and Sales Demonstrations.... Examples of Competencies to be scored are as follows: Presentation Skills, Lead Management, Sales Messaging, Territory Management, Technical Resource Usage and Product Knowledge. In addition to Sales Performance metrics such as Monthly or Quarterly Bookings and Quarterly or Year-to-Date Quota Attainment, the total number of Activities and Competencies should not be more than 20 items.... As it was during my time with IBM, each item should be rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being "Poor" and 5 being "Excellent." This all can be tracked on one spreadsheet with monthly or quarterly comparisons. The key to keeping score with a scorecard is to use this management tool as a vehicle for discussion between a salesperson and manager. A sales manager and a salesperson can effectively use a one-page scorecard as a foundation to talk about performance quality, growth, progress, challenge, joy, disappointment and expectations - many of the things a sales manager never gets to speak about with his or her young charges because there is too much focus on quota, numbers and sales revenue. Are you keeping score of both quantitative and qualitative measurements?
2011 Summer Reading List of All Things Sales Every book and author shares something that will help you build more sales, pipeline and opportunity. Are you growing and developing by reading well?
Sales Adjustments
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