Sales people are a special breed of people. They have a very difficult and important job to do and they must be managed to  achieve maximum success or they will cost you a fortune and deliver far less then they are capable of.

Remember most sales people and sales jobs are all about successfully absorbing massive amounts of rejection and still feeling positive and successful about themselves, their company and the product or service they are selling. This is a huge task and it requires a manager to harness their positive energy and keep them productive or most sales people will fall into the following traps.

1. Fail to prospect for new business, spending most of their time in safe ground talking to established customers.

2. Spend most of their time on the biggest accounts, feigning its importance to the company. Very safe ground again.

3. Sell only the best items you have and not the entire spectrum of product. Again its safer to sell the winners then promote all the items you sell.

4. Sell the items that are out of stock not the items that are still in inventory.

5. Always asking for something you do not have explaining that this is what the customer wants, rather then successfully selling what we have.

6. Letting the customer cherry pick the bargains, discounts and specials without purchasing anything   meaningful…Even helping them do this by pointing out whats the best deal.

7. Selling bad credit risk customers, or existing customers who are a few invoices in arrears, trying to protect their relationship to preserve their commissions by selling again to the same bad credit customer.

8. Making side deals to get a sale, extending terms, guaranteeing performance, guaranteeing the sale.

9. Selling below minimum levels, mixing and matching different colors, sizes varieties etc. violating stated company policy to create a below standard sale.

10. Cutting price without authority. Making any promise he cannot keep to make the sale.

11. Wasting time. Not filling our required paperwork.

12. Complaining about the company, his boss, the product line.

13. Come in late, leave early,” No sense in making calls Monday morning or Friday afternoon.” they say,             anything to avoid rejection yet appear busy and committed.

14. Claim entire months are not good times to ell, December because of the  Christmas season, “no business buys anything during December”, the summer, they claim everyone is on vacation, no sales opportunity and on it goes.

One needs a sales manager who can control the sales person, get the most out of him or her and prevent wasted time and money. A good sales manager is like a good team manager in professional sports, it is a huge factor in determining overall success. A good sales manager will get lots more out of an average sales force then a great sales force will get without a good manager.

Track monitor and control… train plan and review….this is what a sales manager must do, this and a whole lot of babysitting, its the nature of the beast. Its what a sales force requires. Call me if you need some help 413-549-2966.