Sometimes these quick tip articles provide little usable information.  This article at Eyes on Sales is not one of those articles – there are excellent suggestions within the 6 tips (pay special attention to number 1):

1. Lack of Process – The cure for this problem is to take your time to document the processes associated with finding, acquiring and retaining customers. Don’t make the mistake of focusing only on sales processes, as there are sales support, customer service, operations and many other processes that need to be examined through this exercise.
2. Lack of Proactive Funnel Management – The number one problem facing many sales managers in this area is the inability of the sales manager to have clear visibility as to what goes on within the funnel, there are no guidelines against which to measure funnel activity.
3. Lack of Preemptive Actions – As a rule, all sales managers should have an action plan in place for all poor performers, all of the time.
4. Lack of Training – Sales managers rarely get the training they need before becoming a sales manager. Likewise, very few sales managers conduct ongoing training sessions with their sales team. Selling requires cognitive skills as well as practical skills, which cannot be developed without practice.
5. Wrong Selection/Promotion Criteria – Frequently, good salespeople are ruined when they are promoted to sales management.
6. Too Many Administrative Tasks – To many talented salespeople become sales managers and then, due to the environment within which they are working, are forced to become administrative managers.

You may be thinking nothing really earth shattering here, but they are all great reminders.  The first tip is one that we find many companies have under valued and one that needs to be better defined.  Many of the other tips flow from the first one.  Whether you are talking about closing sales or hiring sales people, this one little piece of information can mean success or failure.  If you need help in defining how a sale is won in your organiztion, check out this information from one of our previous newsletters.

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