As a Chicago sales manager, you should always be looking at improvements. Assessing where you're at and where you're looking to go. I developed the ‘The Constant Sales Improvement Process’ as a way to structure some thinking around your improvements as a Chicago sales leader. I want to share it with you again today and redefine how you might want to look at it when it comes to implementation.
Skills.
Every 90 days is the recommended frequency to re-look at you and your team’s skillset. Based on where you’re at today, what kinds of skills do your people need? Is it prospecting? Is it closing? Is it enterprise level selling? Is it pipeline management? Is it getting to the right decision maker? You should always be looking and saying:
“What skills gap do we have? Where are we having some holdups in the process that could be traced back to skills?”
Staff.
Do have the right people going forward for the next 90 days, the next year, the next three years in the future? How many people do you have in comfort zones? What is your onboarding process for new hires? How are you assessing your current staff? This should be an ‘every 90 day question’. Do you have the right people? The people that got you to where you are, aren't necessarily going to get you to where you want to be. If your company is down, the people that brought you here aren't the ones who are going to get your business up again.
Structure.
How might you need to enhance your structure around sales management? Accountability? Coaching? Pre-call strategy? Post-call debriefing? Role-play? You may even need to look at compensation and hiring process. That's all around structure. What are some enhancements you can make from a sales management perspective?
Strategies.
Going forward, what are your sales strategies? For example, do you want to spend more time expanding existing accounts? Do you want to spend more time with a strategy of selling value over price? The strategies around avoiding RFPs or proposals. The strategies around prospecting and new business development. What is the overall sales strategy? Think about the KARE model. KARE is the acronym. Keep accounts, attain accounts, recapture accounts, and expand accounts. For your strategies, where are you spending your time? Where should your people be spending their time?
Take a timeout, look at the 4S's, and do a quick assessment. Where are you now and what changes need to happen for you to get to where you want to go?
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Check out some of my recent blog posts:
Time Management As A Chicago Sales Professional
The Importance Of Personal And Emotional Pain In Your Sales Process
Using Pain As A Pipeline Motivator
It's A Great Time To Be In Sales As A Chicago Sales Professional
The Importance Of Blocking Out 'Thinking Time' As A Sales Manager
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