- As a field sales manager,
one of your most important responsibilities
will be communicating with different parts
of the organization.
In fact, you run the risk of going
from the relative freedom of a sales representative
to a manager now trapped in a calendar
full of meetings and requests for your time.
How you learn the skill of keeping people informed,
while at the same time, handling all
of the other objectives on your job description,
is a challenge you'll need to solve.
Within your home office, there are a number
of groups that will be requiring your attention.
Marketing, product and business development teams,
finance, operations, and your manager
will all want to have some type
of regular check-in with the head
of the field sales organization.
All of these departments call meetings
generally seeking the same thing:
Information about the marketplace,
and the sales representatives in the field.
Well, the good news is the communication,
or concern about the lack thereof,
has largely been remedied by the
effective use of your company's
customer relationship management software.
CRMs can disseminate this information for you
because they're already capturing
market feedback and valuable sales knowledge.
Meetings that used to be scheduled
to hear about these details can now be freed up
because the information is often readily available.
So, take a look at your calendar
and eliminate, or cut down on your time spent
in meetings with this information is captured elsewhere.
Take the steps to ensure that everyone's time
is used most productively.
For you and your direct reports,
how you schedule meetings
and check-ins with them is also important
and to develop a plan quickly.
In many companies, the days of the Friday call-in are over,
since the CRM is replacing that need for that session.
As a new manager, you may be tempted
to have that weekly or biweekly call with your team
to review a variety of agenda items.
Ask yourself how valuable did you find
these meetings where you were in the field.
I know most salespeople find those
telephone conference calls torture.
And heaven forbid if it's a group video call.
Don't trapped by that's how
it's always been done mentality.
Create something new and better.
Each salesperson is different
so ask them what works for them and also for you.
Some like a quick weekly check-in
no matter how short,
while others would be happy
if it was just once a month.
If they're updating the CRMs properly,
your time together can be focused
on other productive items such as
coaching, other training, or just words
of encouragement if results are off a bit.
I've always been a supporter of the
once or twice a year group sales meeting.
The days of week-long sessions are long gone
for most companies,
but I think there's real value
in getting everyone together for a few days.
It's important for obvious things
like product reviews or new service offerings,
but also for training, sharing ideas
between salespeople, motivation and teamwork.
The communication across the organizations
at sales meetings can be very powerful,
and reinforces your leadership style.
The strategy and purpose of scheduling meetings,
telephone calls, and weekly check-ins
for you and other departments,
and your sales team,
is a process that's evolved through the years.
At the end of the day,
you must have salespeople working with customers,
helping them solve their problems,
and closing sales.
How managers handle communication and time management
is what can separate the weak leader
from the one who has a sales team motivated,
successful, and wanting to follow you.