Successful selling requires excellence – in talent, ability, communication amongst other factors. Successful sales management requires pursuing excellence in each team member. Unfortunately, many sales managers are able to define failure in the position but they find defining success to be far more elusive.
When running our hiring process, we see this play out time and again. Sales managers are adept at describing past failures in exquisite detail. There is value in this knowledge so we gladly record it.
However, the conversation almost always slows down when we turn our focus to success. The obvious answers are provided – revenue goals, customer acquisition, etc. But what about the traits, behaviors and skills that lead to success in the position? These topics often lead to the sales manager squirming in their seat.
Here is where we start:
This formula is difficult for sales managers to complete since no 2 sales go down the same way. Yet, the sales manager must have a general understanding of this formula based on experience. It is still surprising how many sales managers we encounter who cannot supply the numbers for these boxes.
Here is why this is important – if you know the numbers to close 1 sale, you can build the skills and traits needed to be successful in that sale. One thing is for sure, you cannot ask a new salesperson to do something 10, 20, 50, 100 times that you cannot clearly define 1 time.
The information in the above graphic allows the sales manager to search for excellence. The skills, traits, style, rewards and motivations necessary to succeed all start with an understanding of that one simple formula.