You have come to the head of this commercial team with the sweat of your brow. Your goal today: to lead each member of this team and the entire group to success ... But concretely, how? What are the good practices of modern management today ? Follow the guide…
Good practice # 1: reason "goals"
This is the basis, you say, of all good commercial management ! With the nuance that the performance of your sales managers and your sales is not only to obtain a certain level of turnover . Even if the purpose is of course the development of the CA, your success and that of your team will necessarily go through the management of your sales force via finer objectives.
They will come in direct agreement with your commercial strategy (depending on a range of products for example, a geographical area, etc.). This more precise targeting will allow your salespeople to be guided and to have a "course of action" to follow ...
Remember to objectify your salespeople according to their profiles . Keep in mind that your junior Ludovic does not have the experience of your senior commercial Arnaud, nor his client portfolio. Encourage it by reaching even finer goals than those defined above, on criteria such as the number of appointments to be made, the number of commercial proposals etc. You will see, this exercise will give him the rhythm and make a "Arnaud" very quickly!
Finally, it goes without saying that these objectives must be SMART . And your team must have "tools" that will allow them to monitor the progress of each of these indicators in real time, for example through monitoring dashboards.
Good practice # 2: reason "human"
It is far from the time of "paternalistic" management where the manager was the great "guru", directive and untouchable leader. Today, to be a "good" manager, it is necessary to put the human at the heart of his approach .
To achieve this, 4 key points:
- Respect everyone's values : in your team, everyone is different, with their own system of values and their intrinsic motivations. Arnaud, the dean, prefers human relations to the rest; Ludovic, meanwhile, is a young wolf thirsty for commissions and bonuses of all kinds ... It is therefore essential that you adapt your management according to the needs and expectations of each.
- Be kind : your ability to listen, to be attentive, in a selfless and understanding way will serve the good functioning of your team. Although this approach may seem like a fad, it is none the less true that sincerity, mutual support and authenticity in relationships are synonymous with positive results.
- Focus on accountability : today, autonomy and responsibility are the watchwords for shipping your salespeople. All associated of course with a minimum of control and direction to give direction.
- Be exemplary : there is no point in giving directions if you are not able to apply them yourself. Do not forget to keep a foot on the ground to be able to understand the new stakes and the real daily life of your sales representatives. The same goes for the processes and tools put in place: you must apply them and use them.
Good practice # 3: reason "synergies"
Too often, marketing is seen as antagonistic to the commercial force or, in the worst case, useless. This is also where you have your role to play in demonstrating to your team, the possible and essential synergies between these two businesses:
- Marketing alone is a sales force that supports sales forces through targeted and specific actions (emailing, sales documentation, customer testimonials ...)
- sales and marketing managers , meanwhile, must feed the marketing of field data so that the media are the most relevant possible. By giving meaning to these necessary exchanges, you can be sure that your salespeople will work to better inform the CRM software for example!
Good practice # 4: reason "digitization"
You will not be able to override! To lead your sales team to success , you will need to digitize your sales force by equipping yourself with a modern CRM .
You will certainly, at first, evangelize your salespeople to the interest of such a solution so that they do not see a tool of "copying" but rather perceive its substantial benefits in their daily lives.
With a good CRM, you can do a pipeline management optimized.
No more notes on post-its, notebooks of all kinds and diaries!
Give your sales force the pearl of pearls that will allow them to:
- better follow their activity,
- automate some hitherto time-consuming tasks (writing reports for example),
- no more losing information on the road (automatic reminders among others) in the car, at home or at work on their smartphone, tablet or laptop.
Finally, do not forget that a "well-treated" salesperson is a motivated and therefore efficient salesperson. This will contribute to the development of your brand-company.
So who's the best manager now?
