Sales Management. Simplified.: The Straight Truth About Getting Exceptional Results from Your Sales Team

by Mike Weinberg

Let me offer a simple template for an individual salesperson’s plan that has proved helpful as a starting point: Goals—What are you going to achieve? We always start with the end in mind. Possible categories in this section would include total revenue or gross margin goals for the year, number of new accounts or new pieces of business acquired, dollars sold to both existing and new accounts, and specific product-mix goals. You might even ask the rep to “name and claim” the monster account or dream client he or she will nail this year. As an aside, it is amazing how many salespeople actually close a deal with a dream client in the year they named it in their plan. Strategies—How are you going to do it? Where is it going to come from? In this section, I like to ask questions about market focus, target account lists, major cross-sell opportunities, most growable, and most at-risk accounts. I want the salespeople to articulate what new approaches will get them in front of prospects, and how they will better penetrate current customers. If it’s a territory management job, I ask the salespeople to revisit their yearly planning calendar and discuss how they can be more intentional in segmenting accounts and covering the territory. Actions—What are you going to do? In this section, we want to hear about activity and metrics. What’s “The Math”? How many calls, initial face-to-face meetings, presentations, etc. will the salesperson commit to making? How will the salesperson block ca...

Businessplan for New Year