Part 1 of a 4-part series for sales managers.
The vast majority of salespeople at Research firms are “seller-doers.” That is, they are senior managers, subject matter experts or longtime researchers, who have also been tasked with selling… part-time. And not surprisingly, their sales manager is most often the business owner, president or managing director who has also been tasked with managing the seller-doers… part-time.
If you’re one of those sales managers (with little or, likely, no formal sales management training), this 4-part blog series on sales management will cover the fundamentals to make sure you get the most from your seller-doer sales team.
Part 1: Create a sales-friendly culture
Within every market research agency, the sales function is generally looked down on by most of the employees in the firm. It’s regarded as a necessary evil, only there to support the researchers. Most employees in a firm don’t ever want to talk about it. In fact, they respond to it with, “Why does salespeople get commissions when I do all the work?”
I even had a client several years ago who would not allow the word “sales” to be used in the office! Ugh!
If your organization is going to have any success with its sales efforts – and even get your employees to like and appreciate the role of sales – then it needs to develop a sales-friendly culture. And that is your responsibility… the sales manager. Here are some ideas to help with that:
- Don’t avoid sales-related conversations in public. The more you talk about it, the more you’ll talk about it… until it becomes common and comfortable language inside your organization.
- Give sales a ‘seat at the table.’ Literally! Most firms have some sort of weekly staff meeting where the major topics are operations/projects and financials. It’s time to add ‘sales’ to that conversation. As the sales manager, you can talk about recent successes (new clients and renewals), review the pipeline, share sales reports, etc. Make it part of your firm’s SOP.
- Celebrate sales… publicly! If one of your seller-doers brings in a new client or up-sells an existing one, don’t just talk about it in the sales meeting, recognize that seller-doer publicly and celebrate it in a company-wide meeting and on your slack channel. Talk about how hard your seller-doer worked to win the project and what this means for everyone at the firm. You want everyone to get excited about sales success… because sales success = your firm’s success where everyone wins!
- Be willing to invest in sales. Your firm sends its employees to conferences and workshops to help them enhance their research skills. Why not help your seller-doers enhance their selling skills, too? It can get them – and others in the firm who might become seller-doers in the future – excited about the selling part of their job (in addition to improving their selling skills). And it helps everyone appreciate an employer who invests in their employees’ development. [Looking for seller-doer sales training? Check out: SellerDoerWorkshop.com.]
Summary
Changing culture of any kind is not easy… but if it’s going to happen, it always starts at the top. And in this case, it starts with you, the sales manager! Commit to making your firm the kind of firm that likes, respects and appreciates what your seller-doers make possible for everyone else there.
Part 2 of this series will be published next week.