Being an inside sales manager is tough these days.
Technology (which is supposed to make your job easier), is overwhelming and there are just too many new data points technologies allow us to measure:Top, middle, bottom of the funnel?Attention time on the demo?Lead conversion rates per vertical?Recording metrics measuring keywords, talk time, etc.,I mean, where do you spend your limited time?Oh, and don’t forget the meetings, the reporting, the personnel, the emails, and the hundreds of other things you need to do. And, by the way, how are sales and how are you trending this month?And you’re also asked to train and improve your team—daily. So how can you do that effectively?Here’s how:
sales management is easier than you might think if you break it down to its three most important elements.If you concentrate on the three areas below, and make it a priority to implement them, your job will get so much easier, and, more importantly, you and your team will
start closing more businessand the metrics your technology is measuring will look much better.
Here’s what they are:
1) Give your team a consistent, best practice approach.
Provide your team with clear, easy to follow sales messaging. Write this messaging down and give them scripts and rebuttals to follow—specific qualifying questions, proper closing techniques, rebuttals to objections, etc.—and get your team’s buy in on them.Once you do, then:2) Role play this sales messaging and then implement and monitor the use of this best practice approach.Think of a great football team. The coaches come up with the best game plan (the system—messaging, if you will), and then they teach it to their players and practice every play and every technique. They drill over and over, and they watch film of each practice and each game to make sure their players are following the plan and using the best techniques.And that’s what you need to do with your sales team as well.Once you’ve given your team the
best sales messaging and techniques, it’s up to you to train them on it and reinforce adherence to it. You do that by:• Observing your sales reps as they are on the phone with their prospects and customers (listening in live).• By recording their calls and reviewing them with each rep.Then you make sure they are using your messaging.If you do that—actually get your reps to use the sales messaging that you know works—then they will finally improve and make more sales.3) Next, you need to discipline your team members when they aren’t following your sales best practices.When I say discipline, I don’t mean to beat them up if they don’t use your sales messaging. Instead, discipline comes from the Greek work that means to teach, not to scold or make others feel bad.Related:
The Sale Is Always in the Follow UpThe proper role of a teacher, coach or sales manager is to point out when a student or sales rep isn’t following the proven tools needed to succeed, and then to help them, or “teach” them to do it better. And that’s where your skills as a manager (and where your time) will be most effective.You can do this in your one on one’s with each sales rep, and you can do this in sales meetings where you can play recordings of reps who are doing it correctly, and you can do it by feeding lines to a rep while they’re on the phone, or by instant messaging while you’re listening in, etc., or by role playing.The bottom line is that it’s your job to give your team the right sales messaging to succeed, train them on this, and then monitor and teach them to use it consistently.Getting your sales team to follow a winning sales message (consistently) is the ultimate key to your
success as a sales manager.And by the way, as an individual producer, you can manage and coach yourself by doing the three steps above. Y
our success is always up to you, so if you don’t have proven scripts and you’re not recording yourself and you’re not coaching according to your recordings, then get busy—as soon as possible…
