The stresses of this economy are affecting entire sales departments from the leadership down to the trenches. One piece I have noticed is a distinct aversion towards customer relationship management software. Interestingly, the resistance is coming from sales managers. What I believe I am seeing are sales managers with less than solid forecasts…and they know it. However, one of the oldest games in sales is fudging the forecast. Sales managers typically inflate the forecast to buy time. They know certain deals are soft, to say the least, but they are hopeful they can cover those loses with new, undiscovered opportunities. It is some twisted logic for sure. I once worked… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Enormous Forecast
Shrinking revenue reports are the fear of most sales managers. This fear is further intensified during this economy. There are salespeople who are attempting to leverage this fear by submitting an inflated forecast. These salespeople provide forecasts that are filled with large deals that are welded to the 90 days out category. The sales managers who buy into this approach are trading accuracy for enormity as they submit the aggregate forecast from their team. I suppose the sales manager’s thought is that the salespeople will get shot before he or she is shot. Perhaps, but the business pays a tremendous price for this obfuscation. There are two antidotes to this… Read More
Continue ReadingPipeline Or Pipe Dream
One of the tenets of successful sales management is effective pipeline management. Sales managers have to have an accurate read on their team’s opportunities and a good understanding of when they will close. This truth is never more important than in a capital equipment sale. If a product has a long lead time or a highly customized build, the sales pipeline is even more critical. ManageSmarter.com discusses this topic in their article Pipeline = Lifeline (great title): “Pipeline management is a critical issue,” Stein says. “Few companies have it figured out.” For those that do, they will reap a myriad of benefits, including better forecasting the length of the sales… Read More
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