Salespeople don't have to be experts in all these areas of the business, but they
need a basic understanding of these areas. Never forget salespeople are a vital
part of the team, without whose efforts none of the bills will get paid.
Creating the climate for good sales performance
Management needs to provide the key ingredients necessary for sales force
success.
Common sales management situations
Now all of this sounds easy but in practice, it takes a sensitive and creative
manager of people to do it. Managers need to recognize the problem areas
before they get out of control and apply the appropriate solutions to fit the
situation.
All of the next scenarios are related to salespeople in some way even if the
scenarios appear to centre on other people.
Seven common salespeople situations
Seven typical situations are encountered by businesses related to salespeople.
Each scenario has three parts: a description of the scene, the problem, and
finally the possible solution/solutions.
The key ingredients are:
Strong direction and focus upon the business' production needs
Frequent communication and monitoring of the employees'
progress
Provide appropriate well-structured incentive programs that have
a major employees' input component
Integrate these incentive programs with the production needs and
capabilities of the business
Eliminate the we vs. they mentality that often exists between the
sales force and operations staff and arrange for them to work
together as a team