- Acquire an effective approach for hiring talented sales people
- Learn how to coach and develop sales people
- Run effective sales team meetings
Overview
This programme starts by covering how to hire good quality sales people by using key competencies and, having hired them, how the competencies can be used as the basis for ongoing development. The course then goes on to look at feedback and coaching strategies for motivating employees as well as how to develop a sales culture that will boost team performance. The final part of the programme is to review the tools needed to plan, direct and monitor the activity of the sales team as they carry out their work.
Learning objectives
By attending this two-day highly interactive course you will:
- Gain an insight into the ‘golden rules’ and guiding principles of effective sales management
- Acquire a tried and tested method for hiring good quality sales people
- Understand how to give feedback to people on their performance
- Learn some key coaching skills that will help sales staff to win more business
- Discover a number of outstanding planning tools for controlling day to day activity
Who should attend?
All existing and potential managers who want to acquire a methodical and professional approach to managing their sales teams.
Day 1
The ‘inner game’ of high performance sales management
The phrase the ‘inner game’ is a term borrowed from sports psychology. It is a reference to the fact that what is going on inside a person’s head (their state of mind) is crucial to good performance. Here we consider the role perception and beliefs of expert sales managers.
- Examine your current beliefs
- Reviewing expert beliefs
- Making changes that you feel are appropriate for you
Exercise: applying the 'Affirmation' technique
Day 1 (cont)
Understanding sales competencies
A good sales team is made up of good individuals, so if we hire a high potential candidate in the first instance it makes hitting the sales targets that much easier and more enjoyable for all concerned.
- Understand what a competency is
- Sales Competency profiles
- Interview techniques – the Behavioural Event Interview (BEI)
Exercise: conducting a BEI recruitment interview
Day 1 (cont)
Providing feedback
Once a person has been hired they need to be given appropriate training so that they can start to be effective in the shortest possible time. They then need to be given feedback on their performance so that success is rewarded and weaknesses are addressed. The use of competency profiles to structure the training and give the feedback makes this process efficient, fair and consistent from person to person.
- Positive, Constructive & Facilitative feedback techniques
- Formal training & development plans
Exercise: giving feedback
Day 1 (cont)
Counselling interviews
Counselling interviews need to take place when a sales persons performance is consistently below target or there is a sudden and unexplained change in the sales person’s behaviour. The initial aim of counselling interviews is to identify the reason why a ‘problem’ is occurring and then to offer help and support so that the individual concerned can address it e.g. by offering coaching
- Professional Counselling Vs the manager using counselling skills
- Six stage counselling process
- Developing SMART action plans
Exercise: role-playing the counselling interviews
Day 1 (cont)
Coaching - the GROW model
One source of sales excellence is the use of superior coaching skills to develop talent. Here we look at the GROW model as a simple, direct and effective coaching process that can get the most out of the sales team.
- What is coaching?
- An overview of the GROW model
- The GROW model questions
Exercise: coaching in action
Day 2
Getting the culture right
Every work group (including sales teams) operates in accordance with a set of values or ‘house rules’. These values, which can be implicit or explicit, specify ‘how we do things around here.’ Expert ales managers make sure that the code of conduct that the team operates to is explicit, agreed and will drive outstanding sales results.
- Example house rules
- Developing values process
Exercise: role-play to develop a set of team values
Day 2 (cont)
Running effective sales meetings
An important part of what it takes to motivate a sales team is to give them regular feedback on performance and to provide a forum for debating issues and concerns. In this part of the programme we look at running powerful and meaningful team sessions.
- How to structure a sales meeting
- Briefings and feedback
- How to structure a discussion or debate
- Team building activities
- Meeting control techniques
Exercise: planning and running a sales team meeting
Day 2 (cont)
Segmentation and target setting
This part of the course focuses on how to segment the customer base, decide the size of the sales force, allocate territories to the sales team and to set targets.
- Segmentation strategy and channel policy
- Market potential and sales forecasts
- Mapping the sales processes – the ‘campaign action plan’
- Territory planning
- Setting monthly targets in SMART goal format
Exercise: SMART goals
Day 2 (cont)
Controlling the Sales Process
The sales aids, which are developed in order to achieve a consistent approach during the sales process, are intended to allow the sales people to deliver compelling messages to the customer base in a targeted and professional manner.
- Standard IFAB matrixes
- Proposition Selector Chart
- Presentation Packs (including the role of IT in developing set formats)
- Capturing learning points
Exercise: developing a Standard IFAB chart
Day 2 (cont)
Activity management
Activity management is about tracking the work of the sales team as they go about their work on a day-to-day basis. It involves identifying trends and patterns and taking corrective action where this is appropriate.
- Vitality Index
- Bid Pipeline
- Bid Assessment Matrix
- Standardised reporting
- Tracking Performance ratio’s
Exercise: developing a bid pipeline
Feedback
Feedback is based upon peer reviews using Boulden assessment checklists. Completing the assessment checklists is not only valuable to the people involved in a given case study, or exercise, it also helps those completing them to gain an in-depth understanding of the building blocks that make up an excellent sales management.
Remote Training
All of our workshops can be delivered as Remote Training via e-learning modules plus Zoom based virtual workshops. Please see our Virtual Training page for more information.
