“Shaun, I am VP of sales of a seventy person company with eleven total people in sales and marketing including myself. My sales director quit on me and I was totally blind sided. He got a job at a larger company and said there were two primary reasons he left is he no upward mobility and poor internal communication. It must be internal communication because, there was opportunity for him. Being a small company we have a very loose and casual sales division. My question is how often do you meet with your sales managers and sales execs?” James L.
James, I am a big believer in constant and consistent contact with my sales team. I have many standing calls with my sales team, sales managers, and individual sales people. There multiple reasons why I have so many scheduled calls on my calendar: I want to have a cadence and rhythm with my team; I have remote sales people on my team, who I don’t see at the office; with my busy schedule, I often only talk to some of my team members during these calls; I want my team to have a constant channel to give me feedback; and lastly my sales team is close to our clients and prospects that I want to know what is going on in the market.
My weekly call schedule includes hourly calls with: all sales team; a call with my sales managers; plus my sales managers have individual weekly calls with their sales executives, and I personally join these calls every other week. Because we have so many calls, we often cancel calls based on travel schedules, meeting conflicts, or for example if we recently traveled together. At the same time, if we go a couple of weeks without a call, I will reschedule in the current week of we have a conflict versus cancelling. This takes a big time commitment on my side but as you read I believe these calls yield results in closing deals and retaining quality sales people.
I am going to assume your next question, What do we cover during the calls? First and foremost is their forecast. The forecast tells me the most about their territory. Depending on where their forecast is, we will review specific deals and what we need to do at a detailed level to earn the business. If they are a newer rep, we will focus on funnel building activities. If they are underperforming, we will set up specific tasks to be tracked and monitored. I need to understand their forecast to work with them on specific deals and to have knowledge of deals when update our senior management team. Second, I want their feedback. How are they doing and feeling about the company, solutions, territory, etc.? How am I doing? Are they getting support from other departments? What are they hearing the field? Etc. And thirdly mentoring and training, the calls / meetings give me an opportunity to give them feedback.
'Good Managing' and good recruiting to fill your open position. Reader Feedback, please click the comments below to give ‘James' additional recommendations and I want your feedback on my response. Shaun Priest aka CloserQ.
James, I am a big believer in constant and consistent contact with my sales team. I have many standing calls with my sales team, sales managers, and individual sales people. There multiple reasons why I have so many scheduled calls on my calendar: I want to have a cadence and rhythm with my team; I have remote sales people on my team, who I don’t see at the office; with my busy schedule, I often only talk to some of my team members during these calls; I want my team to have a constant channel to give me feedback; and lastly my sales team is close to our clients and prospects that I want to know what is going on in the market.
My weekly call schedule includes hourly calls with: all sales team; a call with my sales managers; plus my sales managers have individual weekly calls with their sales executives, and I personally join these calls every other week. Because we have so many calls, we often cancel calls based on travel schedules, meeting conflicts, or for example if we recently traveled together. At the same time, if we go a couple of weeks without a call, I will reschedule in the current week of we have a conflict versus cancelling. This takes a big time commitment on my side but as you read I believe these calls yield results in closing deals and retaining quality sales people.
I am going to assume your next question, What do we cover during the calls? First and foremost is their forecast. The forecast tells me the most about their territory. Depending on where their forecast is, we will review specific deals and what we need to do at a detailed level to earn the business. If they are a newer rep, we will focus on funnel building activities. If they are underperforming, we will set up specific tasks to be tracked and monitored. I need to understand their forecast to work with them on specific deals and to have knowledge of deals when update our senior management team. Second, I want their feedback. How are they doing and feeling about the company, solutions, territory, etc.? How am I doing? Are they getting support from other departments? What are they hearing the field? Etc. And thirdly mentoring and training, the calls / meetings give me an opportunity to give them feedback.
'Good Managing' and good recruiting to fill your open position. Reader Feedback, please click the comments below to give ‘James' additional recommendations and I want your feedback on my response. Shaun Priest aka CloserQ.
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