As each new month begins, those who run the company and sales managers have high expectations and enthusiasm for reaching and exceeding the planned objectives.
However, and according to a recent research carried out, reality leads them to face a recurring theme where only a few team sellers will achieve it (12.4%), while the rest (87.6%) will approach in some way or another without getting it.
And it is logical that this should happen, since all the potential that each seller has to generate their management results that is expected of them, is worthless when there is not in each period with a greater number of qualified opportunities to apply it.
Seen in another way, this would represent something like all the wonderful voice of a renowned tenor being wasted on a stage in a wonderful theater before a non-existent or insufficient audience.
The causes of this scenario
It is important to know where this situation comes from and is generated, so that everyone can analyze their own management and make the best decisions in this regard.
In this sense, and from consulting experiences in sales direction and management, the causes of greater probability of incidence in companies facing this situation are described below:
1. The Responsibility of the Direction and Sales Management
This first aspect deserves particular attention, meaning that it requires a good dose of objectivity and humility in order for it to be fully understood and to generate the desired positive effects.
Based on one of the elementary principles of Management, it will be better understood that: “When a sales team does not sell what is expected, it is not the fault of the salespeople. The responsibility for this to happen lies with those who selected, trained and put them into service, directing their productive capacity day by day to generate greater and better results.
Managers know about business, but this does not imply that all those responsible for the area have sufficient knowledge and have experienced everything that is required to professionally sell their products or services. This is what leads to developing quality management (customer satisfaction), in quantity, with productivity and profitability.
It is not intended to be a sales specialist, but based on another managerial principle, each manager or entrepreneur may delegate management to obtain the vital periodic results of the business.
For this they should have a responsible and experienced manager in this management to efficiently delegate this key business activity to him; Otherwise, it will not be able to provide a more effective methodology to provoke the management that leads to the planned goals in a consistent and productive way.
And to delegate this vital activity for the success of the business, the manager must have knowledge and fundamentals of sales and management (management) so that he can have the best sales manager in his organization. (Bibliography: Keys to a successful sale)
When these shortcomings are present at the top levels of the company, the logical consequence is that the salespeople join and enter into activity without getting to know or receive instruction from their superiors in the company where they describe what they “should do and what to do. what way »to generate the goals required of them in each period of the year.
2. The Key to Management in the Sale
According to the above, and especially when there is no Sales Management Methodology, effectively verified and applied in the organization, this forces each of the sellers to apply in their management what they "believe is the best", By "failing to do what is really meant to be done" to achieve goals.
The own criterion of each one of the salesmen applied to the management translates into an unavoidable fact: "a total heterogeneity of results in quality and quality", which is appreciated in the results obtained at the end of each period.
The key action that should be an essential part of any management refers to Prospecting, which is defined as "the systematic and constant action of generating fresh sales opportunities." (Bibliography: Prospecting)
Prospecting is so essential that we can affirm that it is the only thing that allows us to safely achieve periodic goals. This is because, with its application, it is possible to generate in advance a number of contacted and qualified opportunities that far exceed its sales objectives.
Conclusions
«When faced with an organizational problem, first ask: what is the best solution? And then ask: what can be done? Peter F. Drucker (father of modern administration).
There are three ways to address a problem that afflicts us:
One of them consists of not deepening your analysis and letting time pass, perhaps in the mistaken hope that somehow its unwanted effects will be attenuated and with time it will extinguish like a candle flame when it is completely consumed. In other words, this option means "doing nothing" and simply "living with the problem."
The second way consists of applying different circumstantial solutions, although not substantive, that solve the problem in installments or in stages, without objectively measuring the cost of the consequences that this produces in the organization and in the market.
The third path represents making a diagnostic objective, which represents analyzing it in depth until the true causes are found. For a high dose of objectivity and knowledge on the subject is required. Only from there can the best alternatives and their implementation costs be sought to finally decide on the one that will definitively solve it in the short term and with a vision for the medium and long term.
Each person may try different options to solve it, but when in the diagnostic stage it is necessary to strengthen knowledge or expert opinion, it should be considered as the best investment in the matter, especially if the cost of not solving it exceeds it.
© Copyright 2005, by Martín E. Heller
