Author: Mark BW McDermott Account Director Prosell UK
Original Article published by Prosell UK

In Australia Sales Managers have some quite unique challenges.  Most carry targets and have to look after sales people spread over large areas. 

This means that they have to be very effective with the time they have.  Research tells us that the way in which an organisation manages the coaching of its sales people has a direct impact on results (insert SEC why so many sales people fail link).

This article looks at the 5 key elements that are needed to make it work well.

Peter Fullbrook Managing Director Prosell Australia

Planning for 2014 and beyond

High performing sales and customer service teams are likely to play an important role in gaining competitive advantage in the improving economic environment. Here are five questions Operations, HR and L&D should be asking;-

1. How well do you communicate your organisations’ strategic objectives?
Your employees should be clear about the planned direction of the business and the contribution that they are making personally to achieve these objectives. Engaged staff that feel their input is valuable to the team will be motivated and keen to achieve their personal goals.

2. What resource and skill gaps might there be?
Identify what gaps there are likely to be in terms of employee numbers, ability and motivation to achieve the long-term objectives of the organisation. For fast growing businesses recruitment, training and retention could be an issue over the next few years.

3. Do your employees feel valued and supported?
Good leadership, training and workplace coaching can be crucial for frontline staff to attain their personal objectives. As a starting point, identify what good performance looks like and support your staff to achieve this level of behaviour. Not only should each employee receive individual feedback and regular one-to-one coaching sessions, but also line managers should be trained so that these managers feel competent in coaching their teams.

4. Are your KPIs objective and relevant?
Ensure that your KPIs are meaningful and measurable? Review your KPIs against your business objectives. If you have been using the same KPIs for many years, there might be more appropriate, better statistics to indicate successful performance.

5. What impact will the external environment have?
How will the changing economic environment affect the recruitment, retention and behaviour of your employees? With an improving economy, employees might feel more able to consider other options. Businesses that work hard to make their employees feel engaged and valued could reap the rewards of low staff turnover and high performance in a more volatile jobs market.

If you would like to talk about improving the performance of your sales and customer services teams to deliver growth, please do get in touch.