Leading High Performing Sales Teams

Getting the most out of your sales team is an essential part of ensuring your business achieves its full potential.

Salespeople operate in a stressful environment where they are frequently exposed to rejection and frustration. Along with ensuring your sales staff have the right skills and attitudes, you need to support them and keep them motivated to ensure success.

Objective:

By the end of this interactive training programme, you will be able to:

• Define the key functions of a sales manager.
• Manage your sales team more effectively.
• Adapt your leadership style to suit the situation or individual.
• Set meaningful objectives for individuals and the team as a whole.
• Design incentive programs that produce the desired results.
• Use sales meetings to increase team enthusiasm and boost performance.
• Manage under performance effectively.
• Keep top performers motivated.
• Develop your team’s skills through coaching.
• Recruit the right people for the team.
• Plan sales team activity to ensure the sales plan is achieved.

Course Outline

Module 1 - Introduction to Sales Management

• 21st Century Sales Management
• The key sales management activities that underpin success.

Module 2 – What kind of leader do you want/need to be?

• Personal goals and vision
• Management v Leadership
• Situational Leadership

Module 3 - What kind of team do you want?

• Determine the size and shape of your team.
• Identify the skills required
• Personality/attitude
• Product/market knowledge
• Experience
• Motivation
• What learning and development is needed?

Module 4 - Recruitment

• Attract the right people with the role itself, reward and incentives
• Interview
• Agree terms
• Appoint

Module 5 - Training and development

• Induction
• Training
• Coaching
• Performance monitoring and continuous feedback

Module 6 - Team objectives

• Set sales targets with your team
• Set stretching but achievable targets for individual accounts, individual team members and different sales teams.
• Agree key performance indicators
• Allocate responsibility for different accounts, products or geographical territories

Module 7 – Manage and Develop Performance

• Monitor individual performance through observation, agreed KPIs and review meetings.
• Recognise strong performance and deal with poor performance.
• Appraisals

Module 8 - Organising the team

• Agree priorities in terms of products/services, customer type and market.
• Agree a sales budget.
• Ensure the team are clear about sales margins and pricing.
• Empower the team to negotiate discounts and set clear boundaries.
• Sales reports
• Team meetings

Module 9 – Resourcing and providing the right tools for the job

• Sales materials and support
• Promotional material
• Documentation
• CRM and database management

Module 10 - Motivating the team

• Create excitement around the product/service
• The power of recognition
• Reward and the dangers of getting it wrong
• Work to minimise stress levels among employees.
• Plan social events and team building activities