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The key to success in sales force management is execution and implementation. Many sales managers have the tools but do not use them. This short article is meant as a check list of the tools you need to implement to increase sales force productivity in 2010.

First it is important to decide on the Key Control Points for managing the sales force in your firm. These Key Control Points will vary from one company and industry to another, but should always at least include the following.

STRATEGY: Clear and focused. If you do not know where you are going you will not get there. Is the strategy to concentrate on further penetrating of existing accounts or opening new customers?

JOB DESCRIPTION: What specifically do you want sales people to do? What are their anticipated duties?

CANDIDATE PROFILE: If you take the sales force and divide it into the best and the not so best, what do the best have in common as far as skills, knowledge, experience and personal characteristics. Decide which the musts are and which the wants are. Based on this create a profile of the candidates you would like to hire.

TRAINING CHECKLIST: A universe of topics that a sales person needs to know to be successful in your company. This is the product, customer, competitor knowledge and selling skills that you will train sales people in. Out of this should flow a development plan for each sales person.

TARGET CUSTOMERS AND MARKETS: Based on Dollar/Yuan of present and potential business, cost to sell and serve, and probability of success who are the target customers and markets.

SIZING AND DEPLOYMENT: How many sales people do you need and how big should each sales person's territory be.

SALES FORECAST AND PLAN: Blending top down and bottoms up sales forecasts and plans to create a meaningful dialogue between the sales people and the sales manager.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT: On a quarterly basis evaluating not only results but the sales person's skills, knowledge, activities, and personal characteristics that drive results.

 We manage what we monitor. Activities drive results.

 BEST PRACTICES FOR TRAINING SALES PEOPLE IN 2010

Do you have a mentoring program where your more experienced sales people are assigned a less experience sales person to mentor? How do you choose mentors? What are their duties?

Do you test sales people annually on knowledge of products, customers, competition and selling skills?

Do you test sales people after each training session to see what they have learned? This is a very humbling experience. Generally we find they need better and different training.

Do you have a competitive grid for each product, market and/or major customer? Who are the competitors? What are the competitive issues? How does the customer choose?

Do you assign a sales person to track and report on each competitor?

Do you regularly review client/customer profiles with each sales person?

What are you doing to reduce the sales cycle? The competitor who can reduce the sales cycle gets the business.

Are you training sales people in how to deal with group decision making? Who are the decision makers, who are the influencers and gatekeepers? Only one person can say yes, many can say no.

Are you training sales people in how to quantify customer benefits? How do the features and the benefits of your products/services increase customer�s sales, decrease their costs and lower their working capital needs. Can your sales people express this in Dollar/Yuan on a spreadsheet based on the customer�s inputs?

Do your sales people use funnel management? Do they discuss with you the steps necessary to open a new account or place a new product, put the steps in a time frame, and estimate the costs involved. 

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