Sales Management

Here is what experts have to say about what exactly sales management is:

A sales manager can have a narrow or a broad spectrum of responsibilities including the following: estimate demand and prepare sales forecasts; establish sales force objectives and quotas; prepare sales plans and budgets; establish the size and organization of the sales force; recruit, select, and train the sales force; compensate the sales force; control and evaluate sales performances.

- Robert D. Hisrich and Ralph W. Jackson, Selling and Sales Management

Good sales management properly applied is the least expensive, most effective, way to increase dollars of revenue and margins, market share, cash flow, return on investment, and net present value, as well as to beat the competition and make yourself a hero. . . . It costs no more to properly hire, train, compensate, motivate, and evaluate salespeople. Effective time and territory management, forecasting, planning, budgeting, and good communication and control are no more expensive than performing these same functions poorly.

- Robert J. Calvin, Sales Management

Sales management: The attainment of sales force goals in an effective and efficient manner through planning, staffing, training, directing, and evaluating organizational resources.

- Charles M. Futrell, Fundamentals of Selling

Usually, organizations have to find potential consumers by employing sales personnel in order to build revenue and profits. Hence from the opinions of the experts and the function and objective of sales related personnel, we can safely say that-

'Sales management is a practice of obtaining maximum/optimum benefits for both the consumer and the organization through the actions of its sales workforce.'

Functions of sales management are described in the image displayed below:

 For Mc'Donalds, sales management would not include functions different from the conventional ones as these would be similar pretty much over the entire paradigm of sales management. These include:

1. Sales planning
2. Recruiting/ Staffing
3. Training
4. Controlling/ Directing
5. Evaluating
6. Effectiveness/ Efficiency
7. Compensation

Effective sales management requires ongoing involvement with the sales force. But effective sales management has numerous positive impacts. It can make the following happen:

Increase sales revenue and profitability

Decrease variability of revenue due to inaccurate forecasting

Increase sales productivity (revenue per salesperson)

Increase customer satisfaction and loyalty

Increase salesperson motivation

This notion of having all your sales functions planned and executed clinically makes the tasks that lie ahead sound extremely doable as you have taken care of things like recruiting the best sales staff, their loyalty, motivation and all the factors required to keep your sales staff your own. Not a very easy task at any given point of time and any given organization as sales is a function which can easily take the life and energy out of an individual. Therefore, it becomes a job of prime import that a business gets its sales management and planning right. Like always, I had wanted to add an anecdote or a light note at the end of this post too, but the gravity of sales is such that wit fails (falls..after all we are talking gravity here!) me and I give in to the importance of Sales management.