Cracking the Sales Management Code

Methods, Measurement and Sales Management

Sales success once depended on hiring the best salespeople, developing a strong sales strategy and training salespeople to be skilled and effective. These remain vital but three additional factors can matter even more: how you manage and supervise salespeople, how you use metrics to go beyond conventional measurement of sales efforts, and the methods you use. Base your sales “methodology” on developing and implementing an intelligent, systematized approach to selling.

Sales executives love sales metrics, including reports of sales data per manager, per product, per region, per customer type and per individual sales-cycle stages. They love aggregated data, analyzed data and abundant data. But they don’t always know how to deploy this information to increase sales.

Sales Data

The point of sales data is to enable sales managers to target trends and to guide salespeople to success. The best data enable straightforward conclusions and curative actions. For example, if your sales pipeline is too narrow, step up prospecting. If your profit margins fall, stop discounting. If your forecasts are flawed, increase sales reporting...