On my flight to Seattle I was pondering what this week’s blog might contain; it occurred to me that in reflecting on the past year and looking forward towards 2013 a quick summary of a few basic actions sales leadership must take to succeed would be of value.

Step One: Develop an active recruiting plan. Many sales managers lose their jobs for not meeting sales targets, often because they don’t have enough salespeople promoting their products or services. You need to know your average transaction value compared to your monthly or yearly sales goals. The key question is: “Do you have enough salespeople to meet your monthly sales transaction targets?” A sales manager should plan 90-120 days ahead, keeping future revenue goals and staffing needs in mind. Recruiting is a crucial marketing effort for sales leaders to generate leads. Create an ongoing program to ensure you have the right talent to surpass your objectives.

Step Two: Understand your pipeline metrics. I’ve talked about this before, but it’s crucial for sales managers. You need to know the accurate value of the pipeline 90-120 days out (based on your sales cycle). The key question is: “Do you have enough opportunities in both value and quantity to meet your upcoming monthly target? If not, what can you do to increase the pipeline values so that you have enough opportunities to reach the monthly goal? It’s November; what will your pipeline value look like in February? Will you have the required values to meet February’s targets by the first of that month?

Step Three: Is your team trained? Recently, at one of my new clients; my client, a technical team member and myself “listened in’ as two of their salespeople gave a demonstration to a major new client sales opportunity. It became obvious to the president that the salespeople were not professional or even capable of handling the meeting. It was enlightening and a crucial step towards increasing the need for continued focus on sales training. The sales team had been neglecting our recommendations as to improving their skill level, and now there will be an increased buy in by management and peer levels to focus on sales skills.

  • Make more sales calls with your team,
  • build in a quarterly salesperson skills evaluation process,
  • increase more role playing in your sales training meetings
  • Build a quarterly sales training programs

Step Four: Improve your professional business acumen. 1) Make sure you read the local business sections in your local papers, the Wall Street Journal, business magazines/web sites, 2) read 3 business books a year and 3) join a sales leadership “peer group” of other sales managers to learn how others are increasing their leadership skills. This step will improve your ability to discuss the business trends of the day with prospects and your sales team, increase your stature within your management team and improve how you manage your team.

Follow these four steps and your odds of surviving the normal 18 month window that most sales leaders live under will improve. If you have not downloaded our White Paper “Top 40 Sales Management Actions To Build Predictable Revenue” from our website: www.AcumenManagement.com , send me an email [email protected] and I will send it to you. Have you registered for our monthly newsletter: “Why Sales Manager Succeed!” Hit our web site.

Finish the year huge and make sure you are ready to slam the first quarter!