A sales manager must always set his or her goals on maximizing the company’s profits while also ascertaining that the customers receive the best services possible. While there are no two ways about this known fact, there are multiple levels of micro-management required from a sales manager.
There are diverse operations taking place within the framework of an organization. Moreover, the core team also needs to ensure that a thorough analysis has been made, a competent and comprehensive sales strategy has been devised apart from, of course, addressing the customers’ perspective.
So, when there are so many things happening around and at such a large magnitude, it becomes all the more important for the sales management to pick up and look into each and every piece of the sales process. After all, it is the sales that make all the difference to the financial existence of the businesses.
From the journey of sales management to the relevant role played by a sales manager, here is what this article brings to you:
- What is Sales Management?
- 3 Cruxes of Sales Management
- Sales Manager: An Introduction
- Sales Operations: The Process
- Sales Strategy-What is Sales Pipeline
- Sales Analysis
- Key Stakeholders in Sales Management
- Sales Manager
- Salesperson
- Customers
- Managing Customer Relationships with Advanced Tools
- Career as a Sales Manager and Salaries
What is Sales Management?
In simple terms, the sales management process is all about building an efficient sales team that not only takes care of the sales operations but also pulls off effective sales mechanisms that expedite the goal achievement for a company.
Everything from monitoring, planning, training, coordinating, and what not, comes under the umbrella of sales management.
This is to say that good sales management not only helps accomplish the sales targets but also paves ways to surpass these goals and reach newer heights. When businesses generate revenue, there has to be a steadfast sales team that makes efforts to attain a certain pedestal. The key is to look into all the primary components that shall be instrumental in generating profits.
It goes without saying, a process as crucial as sales management requires to have an adroit captain or leader who excels at driving the whole process in a serialized manner. This is the place which demands a Sales Manager to come into the picture.
As a sales manager, you will not only drive processes but will also be in charge of captaining the sales team to ultimately increase sales. To draw it out clearly, we can see a sales manager leading with these responsibilities:
- Assess the core processes of the sales
- Have clear visibility of the complete sales canvas
- Know what and how to monitor
- Keep a track of issues and be able to precisely recognize them
This could be a crucial and significant point in the whole journey to look into and learn a few tricks from a Beginner’s Guide to Sales Cycle.
3 Cruxes of Sales Management
Big or small, any business needs to have the three basic pillars or the cruxes which the sales manager will have to monitor. Not all business requirements are the same, and therefore, there may be a slight fluctuation in the way things progress for each business.
Still, there are a few things which all of them have in common, namely the:
- Sales Strategy
- Sales Operations
- Sales Analysis
For the success of any business, there has to be a great start. A robust sales strategy, operations, and an effective analysis are the three bottom lines which each business must be mindful of. All this is possible only when the sales team thoroughly grasps and understands the sales cycle.
Sales Manager: An Introduction
As we have seen so far, businesses are driven by an excellent sales army which is headed by the sales manager. Right from strategizing to executing and setting up an expert team is part of the job of a sales manager. Think of a sales manager as someone who not puts up an action plan but also guides the salespeople in the desired direction.
It is the sales manager who would shoulder the role of making the team realize and adopt the proven ways to increase sales. Having understood the importance of the role of the manager, we shall now move on to understanding the next key processes.
Sales Operations: The Process
Now, you already have a competent sales manager and this next step shall mark the beginning of setting up or expanding your sales team. This must be considered as one of the most prominent tasks as salespeople are your bridge to connect with the target audience or the customers.
Isn’t it only fair to term the sales team as the game changer for any business, when they shoulder the responsibility of getting the customers directed towards the business! Simply put, it would be a near-impossible task to imagine the success of an enterprise without its dynamic and skilled salespeople.
The question is how do you enable and equip your team to contribute to their best abilities? The solution to this is simple and there are ways you can achieve this:
- The team as a part of the huge commercial family: You must ensure that the team considers itself as a part of the family and not merely members who have to struggle through the process of goal-accomplishment.
- Sufficient training: Ensure that the team receives adequate training and support before they are selected for a particular action. Their skills need to be honed and polished irrespective of their individual experience. This will help bring all the team members on the same page and ensure everyone works towards a common goal.
- Set Achievable targets: Giving your team realistic and achievable targets will help you assess success much better. Also, it would be motivating for the team.
- Assigning Territories: A sales manager must also take the responsibility of assigning territories to maximize the utilization of its talent pool.
- Lending ears and help: There will be times when the team will succeed and as a manager, you will be cheering them on and motivating them to continue with the great job done. However, there will also be difficult times when you will have to lend a helping hand and share your stories of overcoming challenging situations. You can assist and guide them to understand the sales funnel and move ahead with confidence.
Doing this shall ascertain many things for the company. When the team is adept enough, they will have a better ground to sell your product. To be great sellers, it is important for them to feel integral to the organization and understand the product and services of the company. We need to remember that customers form an opinion of your company based on the experience they have had with your salespeople.
Moreover, when people work as a team and have a common aim, chances of hitting the target are much higher; providing a more systematic approach to the whole process of sales.
What is Sales Strategy?
Sales strategy refers to the process of creating a plan that enables the transaction between your company and its prospective customers.
Drafting a sales strategy is the step you take once you have your team and have your targets set. With a sales force, you shall need a plan that helps you initiate a sale. With every company trying to reach out to its customers, the first thing they need to do is have a sales cycle that will expedite the sales. This is where defining a sales pipeline or a sales funnel becomes relevant.
What is Sales Pipeline?
The sales pipeline is a process in which the sales manager or the salesperson evaluates the sales volume a prospect will be capable of bringing in. Besides, the sales pipeline also presents clarity on the chances of the leads making a purchase and monitors the different sales stages until the final sales are made.
For a better understanding, we may put it as a process that lets you keep tabs on opportunities as they develop, ultimately increasing sales.
Here are a few advantages an organized sales pipeline will facilitate for you:
- Enhance Work Productivity
- Sales Process is clearly illustrated
- Helps close the deals faster
- Keep a tab on the team’s performance
What is Sales Analysis?
A Sales Analysis is a process that is required to understand if your efforts have been in the right direction and if all the hard work is paying off. It helps you assess if there is something that could have been done better to achieve better results.
For a successful Sales analysis or reporting, you shall need the Sales KPIs or any other parameters that provide insights into the sales operations. A sales funnel, at this point, will be able to provide you with a lot of precision over the journey of the customer.
Right from Awareness to Intent and then to purchase and retention, the various stages of the sales funnel are a great way to measure the other key parameters. With the help of the sales funnel, you will be able to know the number of deals in your funnel, the approximate deal size, an estimate of the close ratio. Apart from this, it will also let you assess the average sales velocity.
It is of utmost importance to understand the gravity of these aspects i.e. the sales operations, sales strategy, pipeline, sales funnel, and sales analysis. Once you have observed them closely, the steps in a sales management process will become easier.
Key Stakeholders in Sales Management
If done well, the process of sales management can prove to be extremely beneficial for the company, the sales team, and also the customers. The whole idea centers around how organized is the process and how well the manager (and his team) have adapted to it.
It would, therefore, not be inappropriate to say that the primary beneficiaries of a great sales management process are the Sales Manager, the salesperson, and the customers. Let us look at their roles in detail.
Sales Manager
A person who oversees the process from end to end, along with directing the teams is the sales manager. The sales manager is in charge of the team’s progress and their overall development.
Let’s list down some of the key responsibilities of the sales manager:
- Developing strategies for enhancing sales
- Training and honing the sales representatives
- Deploying and delegating tasks to representatives
- Compiling Sales figures
- Supervise team’s performance
- Reporting to higher authorities
Lucidity and accuracy are the two main qualities that the sales manager needs to possess. These are the factors that drive them to oversee and also supervising the team for an improved performance each time. It’s the manager who sets the path for success when it comes to sales. It is their clear vision which is then articulated by the team.
Once the team has a clear vision on how to move forward, they contribute to the effective progress of the company as one collaborative effort.
Salesperson
The salesperson is someone who interacts with customers through various modes of communication while also representing the company. A salesperson is usually closely monitored for performance by the sales manager.
Being a competent salesperson involves leveraging the existing clientele and develop new connections as well. It is also vital for the salespeople to have a clear vision of their work processes and work in order to reflect their expertise in their performance. Having a sharp sight of the goals and the motivation to capture the goals are the prerequisites to becoming a good salesperson.
Customers
The whole energy of the company is channelized towards achieving better sales. This starts from strategizing an effective sales plan which is then taken forward by the manager and the sales team; to ultimately reach the customers. With so much endeavor, we can say that all the steps are taken by keeping in mind the sales as a primary factor.
Therefore, such an organized and smooth process will also ensure that even the customers benefit from it apart from the business itself. Along with a good experience, the happy customers also take good words around; they are the best when it comes to spreading the word or publicizing the brand among the newer customers; thereby generating more leads. This will eventually translate into a meritorious venture for the company.
Managing Customer Relationships with Advanced Tools of CRM
To take bigger leaps towards success, the sales team needs to be able to view things from a distance. They need to visualize how things might be before they actually arrive at the said juncture. A Sales Funnel could draw out things more clearly for them here, which would present them the data or indicate the amount/revenue they can aim to achieve in the coming months.
Charting out the future course of action can be very convenient when done with the help of a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool. From gauging KPIs to providing an overview of the current financial position can all be done through the CRM tool. Technological tools can help you expand the horizons of your vision to a great extent.
Moreover, implementing your sales planning via a CRM tool could facilitate you with a much feasible path to bring out enhanced collaboration. Before you make a decision of having a CRM tool, learn about it and familiarize yourself with certain basic information about it.
- Does the CRM tool fulfill your requirement criteria?
- Will it be user-friendly?
- What about the accuracy of sales reporting?
- Does it prompt and notify you of taking the next action?
- Can it be integrated with other platforms?
- Can it be accessed and used on a mobile phone?
These are some questions you could fetch answers to before selecting a CRM tool.
Career as a Sales Manager and Salaries
Having a career in sales management or as a sales manager will need you to have a farsighted vision. The vision assists you with planning, defining key processes, and ensuring that the company is swiftly moving towards its set goals.
The roles in this field could be anywhere from a Director of Sales, General Manager, District Sales Manager, or the Regional Sales Manager. Based on the structure and size of the company, some of these positions are even exchangeable.
The academic background of an individual can be a determinant of them taking up the role of a sales manager; although, an individual with a Bachelors Degree in Commerce, and MBA in Sales and Marketing with sufficient experience stand a good chance of getting selected. Some of them may not see a very bright beginning but they can certainly work their way up the success ladder.
Opportunities and Salaries
Sales Managers find a vast range of employment opportunities in the sales division of a company. From IT to healthcare and from agriculture to real estate, regardless of the sectors, eligible sales managers face no dearth of jobs across the globe.
Although not limited to, here are some industries that recruit sales managers:
- Retailing
- Advertising
- Consultancies
- Finance and Insurance
- Government Enterprises
- Education
- Hospitality
Salaries of sales managers depend on many factors including the kind of industry, the size of the business, geographical location. Glassdoor, a website that collects data from the users or the professionals, mentions that an average salary of a sales manager in 2020 has been recorded as about $99,000 in the U.S.
How Can Deskera CRM Help You With Your Sales?
With Deskera CRM Plus as your partner, you can be sure of covering multiple sales aspects under one roof. From managing the sales pipeline, deal management, to activity management and knowledge base management, the software lets you keep a track of all the prominent elements.
If you are looking for a tool that enables you to get a complete overview of all the stages of your pipeline, then Deskera CRM is what you need. Simply drag and drop the deals to update your pipeline stages.
In addition to this, maintaining holistic contact management is now a breeze. All you need to do is signup for the free trial today. You can now view all the contact information, notes, communication history, and also the open and close deals, with Deskera CRM by your side.
Moreover, as a part of the software, you can also drive automatic email marketing campaigns. This task is made easier with the templates that are integral to the CRM software. As an added advantage, you can also create your own landing pages.
What’s more! As a sales manager, you may also be required to assess the financial KPIs, retail KPIs, and so on. Besides this, maintaining and monitoring the various financial statements such as balance sheets, income statements, cash flow statements is now made simpler with Deskera CRM.
For quenching any doubts, a simple video tour shall be immensely helpful in guiding you.
Key Takeaways
Let’s revisit the following key points from the article:
- It is always important for a sales manager to maximize the profits of the company while also providing the best customer service.
- It is all about putting together an effective sales team that not only runs the sales operations for a company but also executes effective sales strategies that facilitate the company's goal achievement.
- All aspects of sales management, including tracking, planning, training, and coordinating, are placed under sales management.
- Sales Strategy, Sales Operations, and Sales Analysis are the three cruxes of sales management.
- The process of developing a sales strategy involves formulating a plan that allows your company to conduct a sale.
- Salespersons interact with customers through a variety of communication methods while at the same time representing the company.
- A Sales Funnel could draw out things more clearly for them here, which would present them the data or indicate the amount/revenue they can aim to achieve in the coming months.
- Choosing an adroit CRM tool can boost the way things work in the sales management process.
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