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Getting sales means managing the sales force, period.

I recently visited with a rep friend and client who was complaining that his four-person sales force had not delivered significant sales and commission increases for several years.

As we discussed the individual salespeople, there were certainly issues with each of them. But, it also became increasingly clear that my friend, the owner of this supposedly successful independent rep firm, was not functioning in a pro-active manner as sales manager.

There was a glaring weakness in the way he approached his salespeople. Yes, he called them occasionally. He also demanded sales information from them, but usually only when a principal demanded a report. He did not do any planning with the reps, and he did not require them to keep him informed in any formal manner.

On most days he spent his time answering phone calls, fighting fires for manufacturers in any number of ways, and generally doing non-essential administrative tasks.

The bottom line was that as his firm had grown, he did less and less. He could not produce a job description for his job. He did not function as the primary salesperson for any key accounts. He did not function as a professional leader of his team. He just existed as the owner and the key contact for the principals.

Turning This Situation Around

I was not at all sure my friend could turn things around, but I knew what I had to tell him:

• He had to be much more involved in the day-by-day sales business with his reps.
• He had to know what was going on at all times.
• He had to demand that his individual salespeople figure out how they were going to get significant increases in sales from their top five to seven lines that represented 80 percent or more of their sales and commission.

Up or Out Is the New the Operating Philosophy of the Firm!

He could not tolerate a continuation of the weak, sloppy, unproductive performance of his salespeople. He had to set up rules, systems and procedures that would produce immediate and sustained results.

We set up a sales management procedure with the following specific activities:

Every salesperson had to have his calendar for the next week on the owner’s desk by Sunday night preceding the next week. This was to be done every week for each salesperson no later than 9:00 p.m. on Sunday night.

He, the owner, would call each of the salespeople at an appointed, early time every other Friday, every month of the year. That meant that he talked to each salesperson, one-on-one, two times a month.

It was anticipated that the call would last 60-90 minutes. And, it was agreed that every call did not have to cover every one of the top lines. Nor did it have to cover every important customer every call.

But, it was absolutely required that every major line and every major customer be discussed and analyzed at least once a month.

Each salesperson was to report on every call about what happened the preceding two weeks and what he had planned the next two weeks.

He, the owner, was to take notes on everything said and reduce those notes to a confirming memo to the salesperson that would be the basis of the next discussion and for the owner to be able to send an update e-mail to each of the major principals.

Keeping the principals informed was a side benefit of the sales management procedure. This two-call-a-month process would put the owner in complete charge of the sales programs and totally knowledgeable of the sales results and challenges.

There could be no surprises. The rep firm would be delivering on the sales because the owner and each salesperson would be working toward specific goals at all times.

It is a system. It requires discipline. It requires commitment. It requires absolute consistency.

If you are feeling flat, unresponsive, unproductive — try this type of sales management program to pull you and your firm out of the mud and back on the right track for increasing commission and managing for your principals.

Good luck and good selling.

MANA welcomes your comments on this article. Write to us at [email protected].