Redefining Sales Management's Role is Inevitable
By Paul McCord

Are you a sales manager or sales executive? Are you aware that there is a
radical change coming to what you do and how you do it? If your company
already uses an Sales Performance Management or Sales Force Automation
program you may already be feeling the beginnings of the change. If your
company has a CRM program, over the coming months and years, you'll see
the change also. And if your company hasn't adopted any of these
technologies, don't worry, it will come to you also.

For most sales managers the coming changes will redefine their job at a
fundamental level. Not many are talking about this change–yet. Many
disagree that any change is coming at all. I've been challenged by
salespeople, sales managers, corporate executives, sales trainers,
consultants, and even--to my surprise--by some product developers as to
whether what I'm seeing taking place is in fact a real change or just isolated
incidents.

Yet, to me it is more than obvious that sales management and the way the
sales function is managed MUST change due to the introduction of CRM, and
in particular Sales Performance Management (SPM) and Sales Force
Automation (SFA) programs.

Until the introduction of computer technology, sales managers had little in
terms of real metrics from which to manage their assets–both human and
non-human. Of course they had call, pipeline and commission reports. They
had the final sales numbers for their team and their individual salespeople–
they made quota or they didn't.

But a great deal of what a manager bases decisions on is illusion. Call
reports and pipeline reports are inflated with false data. Even with fully
accurate reports, the amount of information from which to make decisions is
limited. This set of data even when combined doesn't give much of an
overall perspective of what is happening within the sales team and gives
even less perspective on what is happening with an individual salesperson.

Metrics technology is beginning to change that. I do emphasize beginning.

Sales force metrics technology in many respects is in its infancy. Although
there are dozens upon dozens of product choices on the market, those
products go off in many different directions. Some products, such CRM are
salesperson data entry based. The salesperson must enter a great deal of
data to follow a lead, and the product typically doesn't follow the lead frominitial contact throughout its life including details of sales, products,
commissions, and the other sales related information a manager needs to be
able to identify the needs and issues of a salesperson or the specific training
and coaching issues an of a salesperson.

Other products are more automation based and do capture sales and
product related data but there isn't uniformity within these products. Some
are designed to control compensation management, which can be
complicated in some instances, not to uncover individual salesperson or
sales team activities and behaviors. Still other programs concentrate on
building an overall customer or sales team profile for sales and marketing
purposes. And, naturally, there are programs that focus on the metrics of
individual salespeople.

To complicate the product mix, some products are standalone, such as CRM
products; others must be integrated with a CRM program.

The array of products available creates a difficult decision for companies
contemplating the purchase of a system:
· What needs to be monitored?
· Why?
· What will the information be used for?
· Is it possible to accomplish the company's objectives completely or do
they have to sacrifice? If they do, what?
· Are their managers prepared to utilize the information gathered? If
not, how, when and by whom will they be trained?

As the industry matures, the functions and spread of data will increase. As
they become more uniform in their objective (not necessarily in exactly what
data they capture, but in objective), managers will be faced with more and
more data they must use to help them manage their teams and the
department's other assets.

In addition to having the issues above, systems are not immune to false
data, of course. Salespeople must work within their CRM system. They can
enter real data, false data, or no data. The program's usefulness and the
reports it generates are only as valid as the data entered by the sales team.
The more automated systems also rely on the data the salesperson enters
into the CRM program. Consequently, the reports generated have the same
potential deficiencies as the current reports a manager is getting in the form
of call, pipeline and commission reports.

Nevertheless, since these programs are gathering a great deal more
information, patterns, problems and new opportunities will emerge from thedata. As the programs become better at picking up real data and
eliminating the opportunities to skew reports with false data, the information
gathered and the reports generated will become increasingly accurate.

One of the first roles of a sales manager is going to be monitoring the data
entered. Working with their sales team members to insure the data is as
accurate as possible will be on the front-line manager's back. He or she is
going to be key to the performance of the program. Needless to say, data
will never be 100% accurate–humans involved in the process, you know.

Yet, even with minimal monitoring today's programs are capable of
generating a great deal of information that is more than accurate enough to
make radical changes in a sales team and how the team is managed.

The current programs that generate metrics for individual salespeople
payback the salesperson, the manager and company many fold if used
correctly for coaching, mentoring and training. If analyzed correctly, the
data generated can help identify not just general areas of activity and skill
that need improvement but can identify very specific activities, behaviors
and skills that if addressed properly can have immediate and dramatic
impact on an individual's sales. Likewise, these programs can identify
hidden markets, uncover new prospect profiles, competitor tendencies, and
gaps and voids in the sales team's penetration and the company's
marketing.

As this data becomes available, managers will increasingly become coaches
and trainers. Their role will change from herder of the group to front-line
training department. Yes, I know, that is supposed to be within the job
description for most managers now. For the vast majority, that role is either
ignored or only given token attention, not because they don't want to
address it, but because they don't know how to address it. Metrics
technology will change that, leaving them with the issue not what are the
problems that need to be fixed but of how to fix the issues uncovered. That
'how' is going to be a tremendous challenge for most managers.

Likewise, as the technology mines more information about the local market,
prospects vs. customers, and competitors, the traditional role of manager as
front-line market analyzer will also come to forefront. Market and
competitor analysis is another area many managers have been charged with
in their job description that they have ignored, given only token attention to,
or in many cases have not had sufficient information to perform. The vast
amount of new, detailed information they are about to face will force them
to take this aspect of their job seriously, and analyzing the data and making
well-reasoned recommendations will become another major issue for them.Again, like coaching and training, it will be a significant challenge for the
majority.

Finally, the financial management of the assets under their control will also
become a major area of concern. Just as with coaching their team and
analyzing their markets, controlling assets has likely been one of their
responsibilities--but one whose ultimate outcome has often been left to
chance. No longer. New technology will make asset allocation and return on
investment far more transparent. Managers will have more responsibility
and liability than ever before in this area. Managing dollars and assets by
gut feeling or covering up misspent dollars and misallocated assets will
become increasingly more difficult.

Metrics technology may not change the job description of sales managers,
but it will change the role and function of managers. Their activities and
decisions will become far more transparent to themselves, their sales team,
and their managers. No longer will the final bottom-line of whether numbers
were met or not be the only concern of managers. They will increasingly
have to become full-fledged managers, managing rather than simply
herding.

A corollary outcome will be a change in the way sales managers are
compensated. As they move from being herders of the flock to being full
managers, their compensation will become more broad based. Bonuses and
commissions will no longer be based on the final sales numbers but will be
tied to other aspects of their responsibilities.

And as these changes take place, companies will have to rethink who
managers are and who they promote into management. The traditional
practice of promoting top salespeople into management roles as a reward for
sales performance will go the way of the dinosaur in successful companies.
Management potential, analytical and problem solving abilities, the ability to
coach and train will become overriding factors in the selection of sales
managers, not whether their personal production numbers were high.

These changes won't be overnight and will vary from company to company,
but change–radical change–is coming. Frankly, many managers won't
make it. Many companies will struggle as they work through the process of
change through trial and error (probably more error than success). It isn't
likely to comfortable for the sales team, the management staff, or in the
boardroom. But it is coming.Paul McCord is a leading authority on prospecting, referral selling, and personal
marketing. He is president of McCord and Associates, a Houston, Texas based sales
training, coaching, and consulting company. His first book, Creating a Million Dollar
a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals (John Wiley and Sons,
2007), is an Amazon and Barnes and Noble best-seller and is quickly becoming
recognized as the authoritative work on referral selling. His second book,
SuperStar Selling: 12 Keys to Becoming a Sales SuperStar has just been released.
He may be reached at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com or visit his sales
training website at www.powerreferralselling.com or his highly popular Sales and
Sales Management Blog at http://salesandmanagementblog.com


Copyright 2008, Paul McCord. May be reproduced without change, with proper
attribution and brief bio. Notice of when and where article is to appear to
pmccord@mccordandassociates.com