The Sales Management Toolbox: The Professional Sales Manager Coach

By William G. Fitzpatrick

Management training helps sales managers realize they are the key to their own success. Because many managers rarely receive any formal training subsequent to assuming their position, this book explores techniques that will assist them in effectively directing the activities of their sales team. Specifics covered include goal setting, basic and

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tablet Publications
• Release date: Sep 9, 2016
• ISBN: 9781892399878

William G. Fitzpatrick

William G. Fitzpatrick retired from the United States Army after 24 years in 1984. His sales experience includes over 17 years as an Army recruiter, supervisor and trainer. During his tenure, Fitzpatrick personally recruited thousands of men and women for the Army during some of the most difficult periods in history; the introduction of the volunteer force and the Vietnam war era. He served as a sales manager at all levels within the organization leading various teams numbering from 2 to over 1500 recruiters and supporting staff. He led the Portland, Oregon district (28 offices) from 37th place (of 50) to 1st place, and the Los Angeles District (56 offices) from 40th place to number 5 in the Nation. He also served as the chief recruiter (Command Sergeant Major) for the region encompassing the 17 Southwestern states with over 300 offices producing 35,000 new members for the Army annually. That region remained in first place (out of 6) during his tenure. He holds both an Associate and Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia College in Business Administration and Sales Management. Since retirement, Fitzpatrick worked as an account representative selling electronic financial services to banks, and as a corporate recruiter selecting individuals for positions in life insurance sales. He has traveled extensively as a public relations executive, supervising a force of field public relations directors promoting a veterans service organization and assisting an affiliated life insurance organization with territory development. He has also worked as a the Director of Recruiting and Training for a major financial services company where he developed the basic agent training program and a full one week in-residence course for sales managers. He later moved on to the position of Regional Vice President supervising the sales efforts of almost 150 agents in 22 states and Europe. After leaving corporate America, Fitzpatrick founded Sales Motivation Solutions, a company devoted to helping business owners and sales teams improve their overall sales performance. He is the co-author of "Does Your Resume Wear Combat Boots?" and "Does Your Resume Wear Blue Jeans?" Both books give solid tips on building a marketing plan for a career change using basic sales techniques to sell your skills to industry. Material for this book not only has been drawn from Fitzpatrick's personal experiences, but has also been developed over many years from studying the successes and failures of a variety of sales organizations in a range of industries.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

NOW YOU’RE IN CHARGE!

Congratulations! You have just come from a meeting with the boss and you found out that you have been promoted. You’ve earned it. Over the years you have worked hard, put in the long hours, and dealt with rejection from customers. You have been a significant success in your industry. To attain the success you have reached today, you have also put up with a progression of sales managers who didn’t understand you or the problems you faced every day (at least that was your opinion). Many times you thought that you could do a much better job than whoever was holding the position if they would just give you the chance. Well, now you have it! Can you do it?

Many new managers in the sales business rely on their own tried and trusted methods. After all, they were successful in sales, that’s why they were given the chance to move up. It’s simple really. All you have to do is get everyone prospecting, making sales presentations, closing lots of sales, and you will be a hero. If everyone does it the way you tell them, your operation will break all sales records. Sound easy? Well it is for some people. Some newly appointed sales managers jump right in and apply the basic techniques that brought them success in the past and they immediately energize their sales team. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work for everyone. Most new managers who fail to make the adjustment from a sales approach to a management approach find themselves in deep trouble very early into their tenure in the new position. The problem is they can’t understand why everyone can’t sell as well and as easily as they did.

The first step in becoming a sales manager is to realize that you are going to have to approach your daily duties in a very different way. You have to adopt a whole new philosophy to govern your day-to-day efforts if you hope to be successful in your new position. You are no longer going to be judged by your personal selling skills, but rather on the success of the team you have been charged to lead.

To begin this change in your thinking, take a look at why you were selected for the position. You were probably a top personal producer. You undoubtedly made a lot of money, collected a lot of awards, and as a whole became very visible to management. When they began to look around for someone to fill the position of sales manager, there you were.

Many companies use that criteria for selection exclusively. The thought is: If you have been a great salesperson, you can easily be a great sales manager. The rest of the sales force will look up to you because you have already done it. You know what it takes to be successful because you have been successful. With that great record of success, you can jump right in and take over.

Unfortunately, many sales organizations fail to produce at acceptable levels with new managers. There are lots of reasons for failure, but the most common reason is the failure of the new sales manager to lead the team to success. Some people feel the real reason is the selection process. The new sales manager was really selected for the wrong reasons, and is relying on the wrong personal traits and experiences to govern management of the team.

The real reason you were selected, (whether your boss realizes it or not), was not the application of the skills that made you successful, but rather the skills themselves. It may seem like you were selected because you were a top producer, but it had more to do with the skills that made you a top producer.

For example, you are obviously a great time manager. You are an excellent communicator. You are an analytical planner. You are an empathetic counselor, and you have never been comfortable in accepting mediocrity. You have been very effective at applying these traits to your individual sales situations. These are the very traits that will make you a highly successful sales manager. So what you must do now is learn how to apply your skills in a manner that will impact the performance of your entire team, not just your personal production. From now on your vocabulary and your thinking has to change from me to we. You now govern the destiny of the entire organization because nothing moves in the company until someone sells a customer your product or service.

The key is to remember that you are now in charge. Your boss is going to expect results, and you are not going to be given a lot of time to produce them. Every lost sale is lost revenue to the company, so your production is crucial to the overall success. Your boss is not going to want to hear a lot of excuses. The reason you were placed in charge is so your boss did not have to worry about directing the sales team. You may be able to call the boss for technical questions concerning operations or reports, but you are expected to deal with problems, not bounce them upstairs. He may be there to help you strategize, but you still own the problems.

The sales team is yours. You have to lead it to success. Your primary goal in life is to ensure the continued success of your organization, and not just for now, but for long after you have left. You are going to have to manage for long term results, as well as for today.

CHAPTER 2

OKAY - NOW WHAT?

There is an old saying in sales that goes like this: He who only plans is a dreamer, he who only works is a drudge, but he who plans his work and then works his plan is a conqueror. That makes sense. You can plan all week long, but if you never get around to executing the plan, you won’t get very far.

Many individuals in sales seem to think that sales managers just sit in their offices drinking coffee, reading production reports, and chastising the sales force for low production. In some cases, this may be true. And occasionally, as funny as it may seem, some of these sales managers are successful. Usually though, the success is fleeting and can be traced to a market boom or the talent of the sales team. It’s not because the sales manager caused success to happen. Generally, sales organizations run by managers like these fail rather quickly when a key sales person leaves or the market turns sour. It’s also true that this type of manager can’t tell you why he is successful, or why he failed. Most don’t have a clue.

The effective manager, on the other hand, stays involved. That’s not to say that the manager looks over everyone’s shoulder all the time, or attempts to do their job for them, but he is there when he’s needed. He understands the problems, and he runs interference for the field sales people when they need help. He is also the chief trainer, the head motivator, and the father confessor. In short, he essentially has the same mission as