- Whether we're a field representative,
the sales manager or the CEO,
so much of our attention, energy, and success
or disappointment revolves around the numbers.
Whatever business you're in, job you have,
or product or service you're offering,
it all seems we use the phrase,
how do the numbers look?
The numbers tie to the three factors that highlight
the health of a company and that's revenue,
expenses, and profits.
If you really want to simplify business,
all of the meetings, the training,
emails and presentations comes down to those three factors.
As a field sales manager,
there's more pressure on the financial aspects
and measuring success than you might initially think.
As a sales representative,
you knew you had a budget number to hit,
expenses to manage, and maybe one or two other items
that you were judged on.
However, as a manager,
you're responsible for your entire team.
Yes, you have to hit the overall department numbers,
but you're also responsible for setting
the number for each individual.
If you do it incorrectly,
someone could be impacted negatively.
Compensation is tied to sales results
and if you do a poor job,
then you might have a salesperson under rewarded
and feeling defeated.
Candidly, I find this to be the most
challenging aspect of the job
because you want to be fair to everyone.
The financials also tie to sales forecasting.
Our teams are making sales calls and at the same time,
they're projecting revenue from these opportunities.
The success of our organization
also comes from how well we are able to predict
the revenue each month and for the quarter.
As managers, we're measured and evaluated
by how well we can forecast.
As managers, we must use all of the valuable
information we can get from our CRM to our advantage.
When I first started as a manager,
we had trouble getting accurate and timely data
from our order processing systems,
mainframes and other account management databases.
Now people should know where they stand in real time
and salespeople can track
their progress throughout the year.
The sales projections and forecast can be weighted
based on expected revenue
and potential close rates provided.
Financial does include expenses too.
We want salespeople bringing in revenue,
but they also need to take ownership of the costs involve.
This includes everything from travel
and entertainment budgets to the input
they may have on negotiating
the final pricing to a customer.
Revenue with maximized profitability
should be everyone's goal.
Everyone in the organization has a role to play
in hitting the numbers for the company.
As a field sales manager,
you have the challenge of setting financial targets
for each salesperson on your team.
At times it's a bit like a jigsaw puzzle
to take a lot of territorial factors into account
to ensure everything rolls up as required.
The financials and measuring success
is a skill that you won't learn overnight
but your ability to do it separates the best managers
from the rest of the pack.