How To Measure Sales Success is the question on most sales managers lips at this moment in time when every sales is vital, alongside measuring those who are delivering in your team.

Companies most likely to thrive are those that scrutinize their strategic sales-management plans, from forecasts to pipelines. They look hard at the cost of sales, percentage of market share, salesperson-effectiveness ratios and customer lifetime value. Conversely, companies that struggle often lack such blueprints.
Effective plans require combining an organization’s goals with the individual salesperson’s business plan with a set of metrics designed to gauge everyone’s progress in meeting those objectives. The fundamental metrics to include in “dashboards” for measuring sales team effectiveness:

Accuracy percentage for monthly forecast, by salesperson
Dollar or pound value of pipeline by stage; number of opportunities by stage
Dollar or pound value of pipeline ratio to future monthly quotas
Actual sales activity compared to a defined set of standards
Average order value
Win/loss percentages by salesperson

Beyond the Basics
As you continue developing your dashboard, consider additional metrics such as:

Value of net new account sales as percentage of total sales for month and year to date
Existing account sales as percentage of total sales, month and year to date
Salesperson profitability to sales volume
Revenue per current customer per year as percentage of total sales
Cost per lead by source
Sales-cycle time from initial contact by salesperson to decision
Number of days with sales outstanding, goal vs. actual
Blended billing consultant rate, goal vs. actual
Realization consultant rate, goal vs. actual
Utilization consultant rate, goal vs. actual
Consultant backlog days, goal vs. actual
Direct sales expense as a percentage of volume, margin and quota

Looking Ahead: Leading Indicators

Leading indicators are activities or ratios that can predict revenues at least 60 days out. While simply looking at future pipeline values can provide a similar forecast, these indicators are also useful. In most cases, certain events early in the sales cycle are most likely to lead to high-percentage sales opportunities. If these begin to fall, future pipelines and revenues will probably do the same. Potential leading indicators include:

New-prospect calls made per week
Face-to-face sales calls made per week
Subject-matter expert or pre-sales tech-support calls made per week
Discovery calls made per month
Demonstrations and executive presentations made per month

Graphs comparing these numbers to dollars booked or margins generated help salespeople see the relationship between indicators and results. Finally, the ultimate goal is improving ratios and results each month and each quarter-not simply tracking them. That’s the real reason for developing a dashboard and the real route to success.

Ken Thoreson, Acumen Management president, is a recognized sales management thought leader with more than 20 years of software/technology experience, including 17 in niche market distribution with emerging and high-growth national companies. The sales management strategist is regarded worldwide as an expert in sales execution, channel management, revenue generation, sales analysis, forecasting, recruitment, and training within the sales function. Prior to founding AMGL, he led development-stage, entrepreneurial, and $250-million national vertical software sales organizations as vice president of sales.

Ken is a frequent speaker and keynote presenter at major industry conferences, including Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conferences, Cisco Systems Worldwide Partner Conference, Sales and Marketing Executives International Conference (SMEI), CA World, TechData/TechSelect Member Conferences, Ingram Micro’s XChange Conferences, SAP Partner Conference, SolidWorks World, Gartner IT Visionshare, CompTIA BreakAway, and NASBA Management Academy. He has authored two books and many articles spanning a variety of sales management topics, which have appeared in Personal Selling Power, VARBusiness, Reseller Management, Business Products Professional and SmartReseller. He is currently a columnist for Redmond Channel Partner Magazine.

” In seeking happiness for others,you find it for yourself”

                                                                           Anon

Anyone who has ever worked in any form of customer service relations understands the phrase, “the customer is always right”. 

Of course, it doesn’t really mean that they are always correct, but the idea is that you will do whatever is in your power to make your customer happy. The general idea is that they then keep coming back for more.

It has been proven through countless studies that keeping an existing customer is far easier and less expensive than attracting new customers.

Did you know your boss  (the big cheese head honcho etc etc or various other names! )is a lot like a customer, too? 

In other words, you can keep your boss happy by understanding what is important to him or her.

Does your boss want you to reach a certain sales target or market share. Are they more intersted in people development? Is one product more important than another. Do they want to rise up the organisation and take you with them?

Top tip.  Whatever it is that is important to your boss should also become important to you as a manager. 

As you set your daily to-do lists and plan your time, you’ll want to be sure to factor in tasks that bring you closer to completing the agenda that is most important to your boss.

Additionally, now being part of the management team means the work you do is meant to make the boss’s responsibilities a little easier to manage. 

Think about ways you can make your boss’s job a little easier whenever possible, as it shows you’ve taken the initiative and are dedicated to your position.  It also demonstrates  that you are willing to go above and beyond in order to get the job done.

Whenever you meet or exceed your boss’s expectations, they are going to see you in a positive light, of course.  Top tip!

It shows you are reliable and dependable, not to mention worthy of your management position.  Meeting the expectations of your boss shows you understand your work responsibilities and are capable of fulfilling them.

A sad fact of life is that not everyone you work with will be cooperative, loveable or even likeable. 

In fact, you may have to manage people who can only be classified as downright difficult.

There are a number of approaches to managing difficult people – the trick is to find ways that you feel comfortable with and that are also effective. Getting a great result for both parties

All Managers  at some point during their career will deal with a variety of personalities.  Luckily, most people are cooperative and operate in a reasonable, rational manner. 

There are some employees in every organisation who turn out to be difficult to work near or with.  We can all have a bad day and are hell to live with!

What we are talking about here are people that generally always seem to be angry or self centred. These people are generally focused on their own agendas and needs and are unable to see past themselves. 

It is interesting in that often their behaviour has been left to fester for years. Without anyone actually pointing it out to them. Yes that is actually true. I remember taking a team over a few years ago and having to deal with the rep from hell! or so everyone said.

What was fascinating was that nobody had actually pointed out to him how his behaviour was effecting everyone on the team. The poor guy was giving all this negative energy out. So what must he have been feeling like. 

Being constantly angry is not good for you physiologically let alone your relationships. I digress. Maybe the subject for another post.

Going back to the team you are managing and how Mr or Miss angrys behaviour effects them.  Usually you will find increased tension, conflicts, alienation to name just a few.

So far we have talked about the angry guy or girl. Usually quite extreme though in some ways easier to handle. What can be more challenging are the other “difficult” types.

Lets explore a little more

As a generalisation There are three types of difficult people:
1. Aggressive People
2. Victims
3. Rescuers

In order to develop effective approaches to managing difficult people, you’ll need to understand a little about each type of person.

Aggressive People

You’ll notice the aggressive people right away – they are demanding and loud.  They rarely listen and they talk over people when they try to speak.  The general attitude of an aggressive person is one of being right all the time, while everyone else is wrong.  In short- aggressive people are often seen as bullies.

Aggressive people tend to use phrases like:
 “If you don’t like it, there’s the door! Don’t let it hit you on the way out.”
 “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
 “That’s wrong. This is right.”
 
As a manager hoping to work with aggressive people, you’ll want to give them opportunity to vent and speak what’s on their minds first.  They are easily angered and will not be able to calm down until they’ve blown of steam.  Use your active listening skills to show them you are listening and attempting to understand what they’re saying.

Your job when managing aggressive people is to get them to understand that there is often more than one right answer, that while their opinions are valued – other people have equally valued opinions and ideas and need the opportunity to express them.

Victims

Victims in the workplace complain, moan, and whine constantly.  They blame everyone else for their problems and often seem timid or helpless. 

Other people also feel depressed being around victims.

Comments victims are heard making include:
 “Why do things like this always happen to ME?!”
 “There isn’t enough time in the day to get everything done. I never have time for myself. I can’t get it all done.”
 “They won’t do their work so I can’t get mine done.”

When managing “victims” you’ll want to listen to all of their complaints because these people complain so often- no one really listens to them anymore.  They feel neglected and forgotten. 

Give your  understanding of what the victim feels and then try to get them to prioritize their problems and work with them to develop a course of action to resolve the problems in order of importance.

If you can help a victim to realize he or she is not helpless, they can become vital assets to the team.

Rescuers

People who are rescuers need to be liked and appreciated by everyone they meet.  They will go out of their way to help people and avoid confrontation.  Rescuers will say “yes” and never think about the implications of saying yes.  They often over commit and then can’t get their own work done because they’re off helping everyone else.

You’ll hear rescuers saying things like:

 “I know this is your project, but if I add it to my list it will help take some of the burden off you.”
 “Oh just put it on my desk, I can get to that in a few minutes for you.”
 “I’ll help you with that!”

To effective manage rescuers, you’ll want to hold them accountable for performing their own job responsibilities – if they have extra time that they use to help everyone else, you can assign them larger or longer tasks to work on.

Understanding these approaches to managing difficult people will help you lead a wide variety of personality types in the workplace.

Communication is important in any relationship, whether it’s on a personal level or in the workplace.  

Effective communication in the workplace is the foundation of a strong sales team, a healthy work environment that people actually enjoy coming to each day, and the ability to more effectively manage people in general.

If the sales team has certain targets and agendas that must be met on a monthly basis- the first step as a sales manager is to be sure that everyone understands what that target or agenda is, and their role in getting there.  This requires communication with the team. 

If the team is unable to understand what you expect of them – you can guarantee that you will not get the desired results from the team members.

Once the team understands what is expected of them, they’ll need communication whenever they’re unsure how to achieve those expectations so that they can effectively ask for help when needed. 

If the team are unable to express their ideas or problems, they are not going to be able to get the assistance they need and again- the work is not going to be completed as expected.

Good sales managers are constantly working to improve their communication skills.  Here are some methods to strengthen your communication

skills:

1. Increase your vocabulary and think of different ways of saying the same thing
2. Practice speaking and using different voice tones. Not everything has to be shouted!
3. Learn how to listen. Really listen without interrupting
4. Improve your written communication skills

There are certain words that can be misinterpreted in general conversation,  in emails or during a presentation.  Along with words, facial expressions are often misunderstood and play a large role in communicating.

You can prevent miscommunications by increasing your vocabulary, asking people what a word means during a conversation if you are unsure, and making sure the people you are talking to understand what you are saying. 

If people walk away from a conversation or meeting and have no idea what you’ve just said; or have an entirely different interpretation of what you’ve said, trouble will be the result! 

It’s a good idea to ask people to clarify what you’ve said to be sure everyone has the same understanding of the situation and eliminate any misunderstandings.

When possible, take the time to practice speaking.  As a manager, you’re often going to be speaking to your team – whether it is one on one or as a group.  Particularly for presentations or meetings, take some time to practice what you’re going to say so that you can deliver the message as clearly as possible to avoid confusion. 

One trick, and particularly helpful during conversation, is to visualize the words on a sheet of paper before you say them.  That way, you can almost “read aloud” the words you want to say.  You’ll find you speak much more eloquently and in an easy-to-understand manner if you visualize the words on paper before you say them.

Learning to listen is as important, if not more so- than having the ability to speak your words clearly.  Conversation is useless if you don’t understand what is being said, and conversation and communication requires input and output. 

It doesn’t work if someone is providing all of the “output” or feedback, only to have the receiving end completely tune out and not hear anything that’s being said.

As a manager, you may be required to develop training materials or other documents to communicate with your team.  If you aren’t able to effectively convey ideas on paper, you’re going to leave room for many misunderstandings.

Managers can improve their communication skills by attending courses on the topic, bringing in communication consultants to work with the entire team for a few days, or by signing up for online manager communication courses. 

Whichever method you choose, communication is one of the most important skills a manager must have, and all management begins with effective communication.