ProActive Sales Management, 2nd Edition

Book description

Today’s sales managers have to be quicker than ever, being more proactive about hiring the best performers and retaining them, multi-tasking, and managing complex sales processes in order to close more and more deals. This book provides readers with a proven method for managing the sales process as well as the salespeople. Packed with specific, field-tested techniques, ProActive Sales Management shows sales managers how to: • motivate a sales team • get their sales team to prospect and qualify • create a proactive sales culture • effectively coach and counsel up and down the sales organization • reduce reports to one sheet of paper and 10 minutes a week • forecast with up to 90% accuracy • take A players to A+ levels Packed with all new metrics and tactics for making the numbers in today’s sales environment, this is an important resource no sales manager should be without.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Contents
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Preface
  7. Chapter 1 - ProActive Sales Manager—Defining the New Breed of Sales Manager
    1. What is the Actual Role of the Sales Manager?
      1. What Makes a Successful Salesperson?
      2. What Makes a Successful Sales Manager?
      3. What are the Similarities between the Two Skills?
      4. What Tasks does the Sales Manager Perform on a Day-To-Day Basis?
      5. What Expectations are Placed on the Sales Manager?
    2. Manage the Process, Not just the People
      1. The First Tool—Think Three to Six Months into the Future
      2. The Second Tool—Be ProActive
      3. The Third Tool—Develop Objectives—M2O/t
      4. The Fourth Tool—Call for Help
      5. The Fifth Tool—Have your People Effectively Manage Themselves
    3. How do I Know Whether I am an Effective Leader?
      1. Grenade Walls
      2. Two Rules of Leadership
    4. Creating a Sales Culture is Job #1
  8. Chapter 2 - Sales Cultures and the Ability to Communicate Them
    1. The Pygmalion Effect
    2. Thinking ProActively—Thinking in the Future
      1. Current Sales Culture
      2. Current Company Culture
      3. Sales Team Culture Nine to Twelve Months Out
    3. Creating the Culture ProActively and Implementing It
      1. Rule #1: Be the Future
      2. Rule #2: Think Culture before Tactics
      3. Rule #3: Go Backward
      4. Rule #4: Create and Communicate your M2O/t's
      5. Rule #5: The Value Pyramids—Advanced FutureVision Workshop
    4. You can't Ride the Bus
  9. Chapter 3 - Manage the Right Things—Time and People
    1. Managing Time
      1. Maximize and Invest
      2. The Sales Manager 80/20 Rule
      3. Managing the a Players
      4. Show Me the Money—An Insurance Policy
    2. Planning—Focus on Tomorrow; Today is Over
      1. PowerHour
    3. Measure It—Setting Measurable Objectives that Work
      1. Revenue Numbers are Reactive
      2. Revenue Numbers Measure the Wrong Thing
      3. Subjective and Objective Measurements
    4. The Skip Miller Sales Management Success Formula
      1. Frequency
      2. Competencies
    5. Miller 17
  10. Chapter 4 - Finding and Recruiting the Best Sales Team
    1. How to Interview and Hire the Right Salesperson the First Time
      1. The Law and the Interview
      2. Questions you cannot Ask
    2. The Hiring Process
      1. The Three Perspectives
    3. Initial Homework
      1. View your Current Organization and Culture
      2. Objective Sales Team Culture Assessment
    4. Where to Find the Good Ones
      1. Distribution Channels for Candidates
      2. Recruiting
      3. Advertising
    5. Prepare for the Interview
      1. Objective and Subjective Measurements
    6. The Interview Process
      1. The A-B-C Interview Process
      2. The Twenty-Minute Interview Process
      3. A Simple but Effective Interview Process: Connect-Draw-Give-Close
      4. Interview—Sales Call
      5. Tools for the Sales Interview
      6. Who Closes Whom
      7. Characteristics of a Great Salesperson
      8. ProActive Reference Checks
      9. The Offer that Works
      10. The Subjective Interview: The Final Assessment
      11. Celebrate Success: Closing the Deal
  11. Chapter 5 - Corrective Action
    1. Starting a Corrective Action Process
    2. The Corrective Action Process
    3. Counseling
    4. Written Warning
      1. Use of Metrics
    5. Final Written Warning
    6. Termination
      1. Termination Guidelines
    7. It's not your Responsibility
    8. Coaching and Counseling through the Process
    9. Final Thoughts
  12. Chapter 6 - ProActive Management Skills
    1. Coaching and Counseling: How to be a Master Communicator in any Organization
    2. Coaching and Counseling
    3. The Coaching/Counseling Wheel
    4. The Coaching Sales Call
      1. The Coaching Call
      2. The Joint Sales Call
      3. The Unexpected Sales Call
      4. Focus on the a Players
    5. Coaching and Counseling your Boss Effectively
    6. Motivation—Know why People do what they do and be One Step Ahead
      1. Praise
      2. Reward and Recognition
      3. Learn-And-Grow Challenges
    7. Motivational Direction
    8. Using Technology to Communicate
  13. Chapter 7 - If you can't Measure it, why do It?
    1. Track the Maybes
    2. Keep the Insurance
    3. Manage to One Sheet of Paper: The 30-60-90 Report
      1. 30-60-90 Rules
      2. The 30-60-90 Report
      3. Effective Reports in Ten Minutes a Week
    4. Getting Reports in on Time
    5. What Kind of a Manager are You?
    6. Expense Management
  14. Chapter 8 - Territory Planning, Compensation, and Rewards
    1. Strategically Deploying the Sales Team
    2. The ProActive Sales Matrix
      1. Dead Zone
      2. Maintain Zone
      3. Red Zone
    3. Compensation
      1. Strategic vs. Tactical Compensation
      2. ProActive Compensation Guidelines
      3. Compensation and Territory Timing
      4. The Law of Compensation Plan Timing
    4. The Revenue Curve
      1. Stack Rankings
    5. Sales Training
      1. The Five Sales Competencies
    6. Create Leverage—Rewards and Praise
      1. Stay Focused or Pay Free Money
  15. Chapter 9 - Sales Meetings
    1. When and how to have Successful Sales Meetings
      1. Agenda Planning
      2. Time Planning
      3. Content Planning
    2. Optional Meetings
  16. Chapter 10 - Create the ProActive Action Plan
    1. The Coaching Wall of Principles
    2. Setting Goals and Making them Work
      1. Short-Term vs. Long-Term Goals
      2. Measurable Goals
      3. Communication
    3. Go and Make a Difference
      1. The A-B-C Bell Curve Applies to Managers as Well
      2. The Support Structure Back at the Office
  17. Chapter 11 - The Technology of Sales
    1. Decreasing Order Time
    2. Increasing the Salesperson's Ability to Sell
    3. Increasing Breadth and Depth
    4. The New Process
    5. The New Dashboard
    6. Getting Things Done in a Team Sell
    7. Getting Things Done with your Customers
    8. Discipline and the will to Change
  18. Index

Product information

  • Title: ProActive Sales Management, 2nd Edition
  • Author(s): William Skip Miller
  • Release date: July 2009
  • Publisher(s): AMACOM
  • ISBN: 9780814414576