Your sales staff is underperforming, but you can’t figure out why. You’re pretty sure that you’ve hired the best possible talents, but some days it seems like your sales management is lagging behind.

According to a recent study cited by HBR, 69% of salespeople who exceeded their annual quota rated their sales manager as excellent or above average. Hence, do your sales managers really know how to guide and motivate your sales folks?

Where did you go wrong?

Poor sales performance can be the result of a number of factors:

• Lack of necessary skills & knowledge
• Inefficient pipeline & process design
• Poor use of CRM & other tools
• Inadequate compensation & incentives

Your sales team is only as good as the manager who shows the path. Without proper guidance and direction, achieving your revenue goal can be really difficult.

Here are 3 Very Common Mistakes to Avoid

 

Mistake 1: Promoting Top Performers to Sales Managers

Managers often fail to evaluate their sales professionals for their leadership & team building abilities. It seems an easy decision to promote the best, but your best performing sales guy may not always turn out to be the best leader. Result: loss of valuable sales.

Solution:

Wakeupsales CRM can accurately analyze the overall contribution of your team members. Use them to gain useful insights to take better decisions for your company.

Mistake 2: Providing Unclear Objectives

Have you ever been irritated with any sales team whose only goal seems to be “Just sell”…? It’s not pretty. This happens when either management is looking at the wrong reports or those in charge have simply lost their interest. If it’s the latter, this can spell trouble for the company. It’s vital to make your objectives clear on what your team is doing and what they are supposed to do.

Solution:

Managers need to take more interest in reports and KPIs. A smart CRM gives you detailed reports with analytics so that you know the parameters to focus on.

Mistake 3: Failing to Solve Performance Issues

Winning requires a team effort. Every time a player fails to do his job, the whole team suffers. The only way you can ensure your salespeople “do their job” is by constantly monitoring their performance metrics. You can’t afford to lose track.

Solution:

How many calls are your reps making? How many meetings have they scheduled? How many deals are they closing? What’s the average value of their deals? Use a CRM & monitor these vital parameters easier than before.

Wrapping Words:

The best sales teams have strong leaders who hold salespeople accountable through a clear set of rules. They use their experience to set a clear strategic direction.

if you are in a situation where you are lagging behind with sales, hire a company-wide sales manager. It adds overhead, but the increased sales productivity and efficiencies will make it well worth the expense.

Besides all of the above, access to great tools is the cornerstone to even greater productivity. Why not try Wakeupsales today? You’ll love it.

Sign Up Now & grab the 1-month FREE trial!