Sales Manager
Quarterly Forecasting
Purpose: To map out an action plan to execute forecasting
Quarterly Marketing Planning
Purpose: Forecast a marketing plan designed to support quarterly Sales Targets.
Considerations for establishing monthly replacement revenue target
- Replacement contribution to overhead
- Replacement contribution to profit
- Operational capability
- Marketing capability
Marketing budget considerations
- Should not exceed 3.5% to 7% of sales
Lead Generation Considerations
- The minimum amount of leads needed
- Average closing % by marketing source
- Financing decline %
- Will it work based on historical data?
Marketing Avenue Considerations
- High, Medium and low Competitive traffic.
- Average closing %
- Financing decline average
- Return on investment
Marketing Campaign Considerations
- Who is your target audience?
- What type of prospect will the campaign attract?
- Demographics of the marketed area
Lead Generation Considerations
- Average Closing %
- Financing decline %
- Daily needs
Distribution Considerations
- When will your prospect receive the offer?
- How will they receive the offer?
- How much competitive traffic will there be?
Marketing investment considerations
- Projected $ per lead
- Projected $ per sale
- % of dollars to total projected sales
Quarterly Sales Targets
Purpose: Forecast the level of sales performance necessary from each member of the team on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to support sales objectives.
Sales Target Considerations
- Theoretical marketing result projections
- Average $ per sale
- Targeted gross margins compared to actual running gross margins
- Desired net profit
- Projected net profit
- Contributions to overhead
- Contributions to profit
- Marketing results capability
- Sales call completion capacity
- Operational capability
Monthly closing % Target Considerations
- Projected closing results by marketing Avenue
- Weighted Average Closing %
- Financing Declines
- The volume of Leads by marketing Avenue
- Where are most of the leads coming from?
Average selling price Target considerations
- Contributions to overhead
- Contributions to profit
- Gross Margin %
- Projected Marketing results
Gross Margin Target considerations
- Contributions to overhead
- Contributions to profit
- Gross dollar target
Lead Target considerations
- The projected cost per lead
- The projected cost per sale
- Minimum daily lead requirement
- Closing %
- Financing declines
- Jobs needed
- Sales needed
Sales Manager Weekly Planning
Purpose: To map out an action plan to execute chapter 11 “Sales Planning”
Weekly Planner
Projects
Itemize all action plans due each week from the Quarterly Project Goal Planner
Daily Impact area Targets-Actual
- Daily Sales Targets-Actual
Determine and document the daily sales target from your Sales & Marketing plan and compare to actual results on a daily basis - Month to date Sales Targets-Actual
Determine and document the month to date sales volume targets for each day and compare to actual results on a daily basis - Daily lead Targets-Actual
Determine and document the daily lead target from the Sales & Marketing plan and compare to actual results on a daily basis - Daily closing % Targets-Actual
Document the daily closing % target from the Sales & Marketing plan and compare to actual results on a daily basis - Daily gross margin Targets-Actual
Document the daily gross margin target from the Sales & Marketing plan and compare to actual results on a daily basis - Average sales Targets-Actual
Document the average dollar per sale from the Sales & Marketing plan and compare to actual results on a daily basis
Weekly Project Considerations
- Schedule weekly project progress meetings
- Celebrate successful completion of plans
- Give all positions involved with each project a schedule of progress meetings in advance
Impact Area Target-Actual Considerations
- Develop a daily tracking plan detailing all impact goals for the month
- Delegate the quantification of daily and month to date results to another person
- Establish a “Due By” for the completion of the daily sales & marketing reports
Example: The daily sales & Marketing results report is to be completed by 10:00 a.m. every day by (whom) and posted (where). - Review sales reports on a daily basis
- Identify all areas for improvement
- Correct any deviation from the plan
- 80% of a Sales Managers time should be spent on areas that have the most positive impact on the successful execution of the sales plan i.e.: Daily Sales Target, MTD Sales Target, Daily lead target, daily closing % target, Daily gross margin target and Average replacement sales target
- Sales Managers should have the ability to quantify results identify any deviations to the plan and resolve any issue preventing the successful execution of the plan.
Quantify-Identify-Resolve
- Keeping Score or quantifying and documenting daily results should be delegated to another person or function.
- Results should be reported to the sales manager on a daily basis.
Weekly Planner
High Impact Area’s
Review and execute the high impact areas for each day
Weekly “to do” Planner
Complete weekly schedule
High Impact Area Considerations
- Schedule time for every impact task a week in advance
- Once every Impact task has been scheduled, think through and schedule any activity that may need to be addressed to support the completion of the Impact task. The weekly High Impact areas for Sales Management takes into consideration several tasks that should be completed by a specific time with-in a given month.
For example:
- A Sales Manager should meet with Operations to review next month’s Replacement Capacity projections by the second Wednesday of every month. This will allow enough time for operations to address any operational issues that might be in conflict with the sales target as well as develop a healthy working relationship.
- The Sales & Marketing plan should be refined, completed and reviewed with the GM, Operations, and Accounting by the second Friday of every month. This will allow time to modify the plan if necessary based upon input from other areas of the company.
The “High Impact Area’s” section itemizes actions that should occur by a certain time within a given month to allow for effective planning, increased communications, and effective plan execution.
Sales Management Reports
Purpose: To map out an action plan to execute chapter 12 “Sales Tracking”
Replacement Request Form
Objective: Track every replacement opportunity to the final resolve.
Weekly Replacement Sales Report
Purpose:
- Ensure that the sales results support the Sales plan.
- Give the Sales Manager “real-time” performance information to facilitate actions needed to keep the plan on track.
Lead Source Report
Purpose:
- To ensure that all marketing avenues are generating minimum acceptable results
- Give the Sales Manager “real-time” performance information to facilitate actions needed to keep the plan on track.
Sales Training
Purpose: To map out an action plan to execute chapter 10 “Sales Training”
Sales Training
Purpose: This section outlines a training schedule designed to develop the capability of a Comfort Advisor to close sales.
Materials and preparation needed prior to training:
- A completed set of replacement pricing pages
- Setting up your Sales Process
- Complete Sales Plan
- Projected Sales tracking worksheets
Forward:
Training Agenda
Final career decision made.
If the Candidate passes the test:
Sales Coaching
Purpose: To map out an action plan to execute Sales Coaching
Comfort Advisor Field Evaluation Process
Objective: To determine the strengths and weaknesses of the Comfort Advisors performance, recognize the strengths, identify the weaknesses and offer opportunities for improvement
Sales Management Problem Resolution
Purpose: To map out an action plan to resolve employee issues
Sales Management Rolling Out
A new Sales Process
Purpose: To map out a “Big Picture” action plan to implement a new Sales Process
Implementing a new sales process.
1. Plan the big-picture implementation process
2. Develop a separate plan of implementation for each big-picture objective.
For Example: Revise Replacement Pricing
Objective: To produce a replacement pricing structure that will deliver a desirable net profit while remaining competitive in the Marketplace.
Consideration / Concept
This process encourages all team players to become “engaged” in the process of change. As you can see, they are not being subjected to change; they are being involved in making changes.
This process “short circuits” “unspoken problems” such as Fear of change, Implied rejection of efforts, Fear of failure, and loss of control that people may conjure up because they have the feeling of being involved with the process of change.
You will have the ability to accomplish ten times more with less effort because you will not be doing all of the tactical work, your team will. Quite frankly, you may find that by delegating the tactical work in this fashion, the quality of the work will be better because certain members of your team may be more skilled at the task assigned to them than you are.
The concept of taking a “Survey” or getting “Feedback” on the front end of a project is an incredibly powerful strategy. The message you send the team when this strategy is implemented is that you value their opinion, experience, point of view and professionalism.
If the results from your survey are way off base, you have opened the door for education.
For example, let’s say that you “survey” your salespeople on the price range structure and they give you some ridiculously LOW numbers.
- Ask for evidence supporting their opinion. Find out what they based those opinions on.
- Demonstrate your willingness to listen to their feedback and take them seriously. That’s not to say you should follow their suggestion. Use this information to get a “feel” for where they are.
- Do some market research by collecting competitive bids and acquire hard evidence to support your decision NOT to lower prices that much.
- Focus your explanation on the value-added items included in your pricing structures that no one else in your market offers.
- Be prepared to SELL your SALESPEOPLE.
- As always, while managing change, stay away from statements or references to “poor performance or Low profits” to justify your decision.
Delegation
Put it in writing
You should never delegate verbally. Verbal delegation provides no historical record of what was said or of what tasks were assigned. If human memory were perfect, there would be no need to write anything down. Even where memory does not fail, written delegation avoids “convenient forgetfulness.”
Evaluating Results
Any manager using a verbal style of delegation could not possibly evaluate the results without a great deal of tension-filled interaction with his or her subordinate (Micro-Management), in which both attempt to reconstruct the past. The verbal style of delegation could result in a “war of words” in an attempt to recall who said what and when what was to be accomplished how.
Don’t take it back
Whenever someone has trouble completing a task, resist the urge to “take back” the task by doing the work your-self. By taking the task back, you’re wasting your time, de-motivating the team and failing to deal with the real problem. Learning can only be achieved by doing.
Anticipate Mistakes
Expect a veritable avalanche of mistakes at first. Expect mistakes you never dreamed anyone would ever make. Since all people are different, all people will make different types of mistakes.
Mistakes will happen.
That should cause you to make a critical judgment – whether those mistakes are just “part of the game,” if they suggest problems with the process being implemented or behavioral problems with the employee.
