SellChology – The Seven Laws of Sales Management

Sales management is the management of the PERSONAL SELLING PROCESSESS and the leading of the PERSONAL SELLING COMPONENT within an organisation’s overall marketing program. Sales management is to TRANSLATE an organisation’s overall sales and marketing objectives into SALES FORCE OBJECTIVES. The sales force then translates these objectives into sales, thereby achieving growth.

Sales management is a specialist job. It demands insight, knowledge, and fortitude to deliver the required results. It is a job of enormous accountability and responsibility. Guided by seven specific laws, a sales manager who understands these vital laws can and will be more effective.

An overview of the program follows below.

About the program

Sales management is more than just setting goals for the sales force. It is about thinking critically and acting strategically. The sales force, headed by the sales manager, plays a crucial role in the growth, development and profitability of the organisation. Today, the job of sales management has taken on new dimensions and they must adapt and shape a game plan that will be competitive in the marketplace.

This program is about the seven laws that guide the sales manager to execute the job at hand.

What You Will Learn

Law One: Sales Planning and Sales Strategy

The work sales managers perform to shape a course of action to achieve objectives. In this law, you will begin to understand the difference between planning and strategy.

Sales planning is what you are going to do to achieve objectives. Planning is the skill in applying foresight in your decisions about what’s to be done next and next and as far as you can go.
Sales strategy is how you are going to achieve objectives. This is the work sales managers perform to execute a sales plan tactically.

You will learn how to include in your planning and strategy aspects, such as:

Market intelligence and trends.
Customer knowledge and performance data.
Pricing value and movement.
Competitor activity.
Sales force accuracy.

Law Two: Sales Force Selection and Recruitment

The work sales managers perform to ensure the correct selection of salespeople. In this law, you will learn how to place the right people with the right skills in the right sales job.

The recruitment of the salespeople can be a daunting task. You will learn about assessing people and ensure job fit. This will be of enormous benefit to you, your salesperson, and the organization. Learn about the eight critical skills needed to sell and how to recognise those skills in people. Learn about situational interviewing and the differences between ‘hunter and gatherer.’

You will learn about the four types of people who you will interview.

Those that can and will do the job.
Those that can but won’t do the job.
Those that can’t but think they can do the job.
Those that can’t and won’t do the job.

You will learn to discern between these types of people.

Law Three: Managing Sales Performances

The work sales managers perform to set a standard to which sales staff should work. In this law, you will learn about the methods to drive and manage high performance.

This is your skill in defining the quality of performance you expect from your salespeople. The sales manager who lacks this skill makes one of two mistakes:

They accept mediocre performances as the norm. or
They expect the impossible.

You will learn about the advantages of:

Vertical and horizontal standards.
The clarity between good and bad work.
How to design best practise performance appraisals.

If you cannot measure salespeople, you cannot manage them.

Law Four: Evaluation of Sales Performances

The work sales managers perform to look at past performance and guide future performance. In this law, you will learn to assess ongoing performances in all or certain areas of the salesperson.

Delayed evaluation action by the sales manager is often the cause of major setbacks.

You will learn about:

Different types of best practise sales evaluation.
identify high-cost performers and how to reduce these costs.
Identify top performer’s tactics and having other people adopt them.
Learn decision-making based on performance data and facilitate the total sales management process.
How to find fact rather than fault.

Law Five: Development of the Sales Force

The work the sales manager performs to school, instruct, and train salespeople. In this law, you will learn to develop sales people on three levels for the specific sales roles they hold in the organisation.

Conceptual abilities – Planning, strategy and seeing the whole and bigger picture.
Human relation skills – The ability to work with and relate to other human beings and selling with emotional intelligence.
Technical abilities – The ability to understand various disciplines, such as sales skills, economics, money and industries.

You will learn about:

To identify training needs by developing a GAP analysis.
When and what training is necessary?
The purpose of training and how it will improve the overall competence and skills of members of a sales team.

Law Six: Sales Leadership

The work a sales manager performs to lead and show the way to the sales team. In this law, you will learn that sales leadership is not what you yourself can do, but what you can get other people to do for you and with you.

Sales leadership is fundamentally about facilitating high performance, getting others to do things effectively and efficiently. It is to draw on the combined mental potential of the sales team to achieve results and objectives.

You will learn about:

Persuasion and possessing a sense of vision and mission.
Influence and a good character.
Rapport and job competence.
Building your leadership charisma.
Leading with emotional intelligence.
The twelve factors of your team and how to harness the power of it.

Law Seven: Motivation of the Sales Force

The work sales managers perform to encourage and boost the morale of sales consultants. In this law, you will learn that motivation is intrinsic.

You cannot physically motivate people, but you can create an environment that contributes towards people wanting to work and be successful.

You will learn about:

The power of communication.
What motivation means.
Different types of recognition.
Support and fairness.
Creating a competitive spirit.
Emotional intelligence and how it drives sales people.

Audience, Duration and Format

This program is suitable for all individuals who want to improve their sales management skills, or individuals who are about to enter the roles of sales management. The course duration is three days and can be conducted consecutively or split.