Page 9 - DMGT507_SALES AND PROMOTIONS MANAGEMENT

Unit 1: Introduction to Sales Management

controlling organizational resources. Revenue, sales, and sources of funds fuel organizations Notes
and the management of that process is the most important function.
Sales Management, however, is concerned with the process of encouraging customers to exchange
their funds for your services or goods. An essential sales leadership role is to establish a sense of
purpose or vision and clear direction to get there. A key element of a business’ strategic
12-month plan is to answer the question: “Where will all the sales come from?” The sales plan
isn’t a guesstimate. It takes its direction from the marketing strategy and is based on thorough
research and a considered positioning of the company within the market place.
Sales planning involves predicting demand for the product and demand on the sales assets
(machines, people, or a combination of both). Failure to plan always means lost sales. Planning
insures that when a consumer wishes to purchase the product, the product is available, but it also
means opportunities for additional sales are presented and the sales assets are available to
exploit these opportunities. Planning should allow for meeting increasing customer demand
for more products, services and/or customization as the business is growing, but also react
quickly when demand decreases. Sales planning improves efficiency and decreases unfocused
and uncoordinated activity within the sales process.
Sales goals are an essential tool. The goals can be very simple (sell so many orders of product A)
or more involved, depending upon how involved the sales process is. Ideally, the sales goals
should involve encouraging the sales process to be performed and not focus simply on the end
result.

Example: If the sales process involves a walk-in customer, the sale is important, but the
up-sell may be as important. Consequently, the sales goal would involve both metrics.
Sales tracking is an integral part of ongoing planning and development in sales management.
Ideally, sales information should be gathered on the sales process and not on the end result. The
fact that you sold ten widgets is valuable for accounting purposes, but the fact that so many were
walk-ins, so many were out-bound phone sales, and so many were up-sells, and which sales
person or asset did what, would be better information.
The most difficult part of tracking selling activities is ascertaining whether or not the activities
can be tracked effectively and economically. In the end, management must have measurable
methods of knowing if sales representatives are correctly engaging in the activities that produce
revenue. This leads to three key metrics: the right activities, the right way, the right amount. An
individual sale is a stepwise process and key activities, or “Transitional Milestones”, must be
achieved along the way. Sales Management must collect data on how the sales function as a
whole, as well as individual sales personnel, are progressing through these “Transitional
Milestones” to determine the likelihood of future revenue.
Software used for sales tracking should allow sales team leaders to control sales tasks completion
by using reminders and notifications, highlighting overdue tasks, analyzing task history, as
well as keep detailed information on customers and, as important, the people who didn’t buy.
If your sales task management system is really great and duly implemented, the sales manager
is informed about all details of your company’s sales process in real time and know who does
what, when, and how.
The sales reporting includes the key performance indicators of the sales force.

The Key Performance Indicators indicate whether or not the sales process is being operated
effectively and achieves the results as set forth in sales planning. It should enable the sales
managers to take timely corrective action deviate from projected values. It also allows senior
management to evaluate the sales manager

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