Retail Furniture Sales Management DefinedWhat is sales management in our business?
Sales management is managing sales - on the floor, in the game, while their happening. Sales management is not sales administration management - that's a different discipline and is for administrators. Sales managers make things happen and don't manage what happens. On the front page I list 9 things salespeople must be good at to be truly successful in our business. Sales management should be focused on ensuring that every salesperson is good at performing each of those nine factors.
Here are the things sales managers have to be good at to be truly effective and successful:
1. Collecting and Analyzing Sales Metrics. The fundamental sales equation in our business is: Sales = Ups x close ratio x average sale. If you're going to be successful in maximizing indiviual sales performance, you have to know what to work on. To truly understand your business, you have to know the metrics.
2. Developing selling strategies that address each of the key sales metrics to improve them.
3. Training individual salespeople to the strategic model - the standard - and ensuring that every customer receives an equal and specified level of service.
4.Goal setting with individuals to connect to what they need, want, and are willing to do to achieve them.
5. COACHING IN THE GAME. This means right out there on the floor with salespeople and customers. The coaching cycle is: Goals - Training (to the strategy) - Observation - Feedback - Goals ......
6. Keeping salespeople on their personal goal track. Usually, personal goals are higher than store or company goals. Maintaining focus on the goal is a crucial sales management function.
7. Taking corrective action soon enough with poor performers.
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