Sales Planning and Sales Consulting Articles
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With all the cell phones and internet connections out there, you'd think that keeping track of salespeople on the road would be a cinch. Well it is. And it isn't.
"Monitoring the activities of sales reps is the core of any sales management job," says Alan McAnally, president and founder of Commonwealth Sales Consulting in Andover, MA. "Sure, you want to keep track of what they're doing. That's critical. But even more important is the timely communication that lets a manager know when reps need coaching and support. Management is more about leadership than it is about policing. A sound communication system between managers and reps can be the key to a successful operation." Or reps can view it as an intrusion into what they see as their independence to do the job the way they see fit.
Some sales managers admit long-distance management is one of the toughest aspects of their jobs. Good managers know not only where reps are, but also how the reps' last call went, which of their prospects are close to buying, where reps are having problems and might need training, and what kind of additional support they need to close the sale at one of tomorrow's calls. And that's for an entire team of salespeople constantly on the move. How do they do it?
McAnally, who has seen many clients struggle with long-distance management, says it all comes down to knowing how and when to communicate. Reps who don't communicate often enough or provide the right information when they do make contact are an obvious source of frustration. However, in this era of cell phones, laptops and pagers, the opposite is often the problem. It's easy to err on the side of too much communication. Stand in the middle of an airport terminal, a soccer match or a city street and you'll see the same thing: people talking on cell phones just because they can. How many of those conversations are truly time sensitive and necessary? Not many. "Don't confuse activity with accomplishment," McAnally cautions. If your reps are calling in 10 times a day, that's too much. Substantive communication is what's important.
The bottom line is that good communication requires, well, good communication. Such problems as reps' inconsistent contact, too much contact or failure to provide adequate information often can be solved with a clearly defined plan. "Let people know what your expectations are," advises McAnally. "Once you've done that, salespeople should be giving good information at the right times. If sales managers are continually paging four times a day to get an update, there's a problem. But the question is, 'Are they over-managing or is there a lack of good information from the field?'"
Communication is Darcy Kempf's key to keeping track of her reps. As sales manager at Bunge Food in Seattle, WA, Kempf requires her three reps to sit down at the end of each month and lay out a schedule stating where they will be each day in the upcoming month. When she needs to contact one of them, she knows on any day at any time exactly where that rep is. Furthermore, every two months her salespeople provide a Top Ten list of projects, prospects, etc., so Kempf knows what each rep's priorities are and where support might be needed.
Day-to-day contact is done through email, company-provided cell phones and Audix, a sophisticated voice mail system enabling messages to be forwarded, commented upon and retrieved at any time. "We communicate at least three times a week, usually to pass and ask for information," Kempf says.
She uses these same tools to motivate the troops. "One of the things I like to do is give [salespeople] a motivational success story on Audix or email," she explains. "I like to motivate my folks and keep them abreast of things that are going on, things that our people have done - not necessarily a sale or placement, but it can be how to deal with new situations they haven't seen before. It's key that they get this information because so much is changing in our industry."
By laying out exactly what and when communication is required, and by ensuring communication happens both up and down the ladder, Kempf and her reps stay well informed.
Communication is a two-way street, and managers shouldn't heap the entire responsibility for communication onto the reps' shoulders advises Dan Rea, national account director for Sherwin-Williams Co. in Cleveland, OH. He understands that keeping good track of reps on the road is just as much the responsibility of the sales manager and he makes sure managers reach out regularly to their salespeople for some live conversation, even if all the call reports and emails are coming in on schedule and packed with information. "I've been out in the field and felt the isolation. I've had managers who haven't communicated. There were times I didn't have news flashes for two or three weeks," says Rea. He is determined his own salespeople won't get stuck in that same situation. "I make sure managers touch base with reps every two to three weeks. When I was on receiving end of a call like that, I felt great."
Rea's message: Nothing is better than a live voice on the other end of the line. Ultimately, that's what motivates and encourages reps and can best indicate to sales managers how things are going and where training or assistance might be needed. "Salespeople have laptops and they're wonderful and quick, but there's nothing that beats the live conversation," says Rea. "We conference call a lot with field managers so they can vent, ask questions and feel like they're on top of their business. I make sure that when our sales organization calls in here they get a live voice. When you keep getting a voice recording, it's demoralizing."
Getting good, timely information from the field is often a matter of putting technology to work. Cell phones, pagers, laptops, voice mail, email, fax - there's no shortage of ways to stay in touch. The key is balance. Know the pluses and minuses of each type of communication device and make sure reps are maximizing the effectiveness of each piece of technology. A two-minute cell phone call can communicate urgent information immediately; email can provide further information a little later and include attachments; and a call report later in the week might provide details about more routine events that don't require immediate attention - a rep's progress in building a relationship with a targeted prospect, for example.
Using a cell phone for longer calls before and after the workday is also effective, McAnally says. "A lot of managers use the early and late commuting hours to talk with their reps. The low cost of cell phones allows you to use the drive time to converse. It keeps you in touch and frees up more time during the prime selling hours." Get a hands-off speaker setup for safety, however, he advises.
Three-fourths of sales forces can't be wrong. That's the number using laptops and other high-tech devices to communicate today, according to Dr. Tony Carter, professor of sales and marketing at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business and Wagner College. "In my research, I have found that 75 percent of sales forces and relationship managers use technology of some type-cell phones, pagers, laptops," says Carter. Laptops, he says, are especially popular because they not only help organize and track information, but also can process that information in a much more sophisticated way than hand-written notes.
Still, handing reps a box full of gadgets doesn't mean they'll suddenly be giving you everything you need. The challenge is still getting them to communicate the information you need when you need it. That comes right back to communicating your expectations for providing information. How often are reps expected to check in? What method should they use to check in? What information will they be expected to provide? What type of information should be communicated immediately and what should just be included in a written report?
"Management needs to say, 'Here's what we expect from you in terms of communication.' The burden is on management to let the rep know what they want and how often. Then the burden is on the rep to do it," says McAnally.
Reps are most likely to handle that burden well if they are motivated and conscientious in the first place. Sherwin-Williams' Rea knows this and tries to hire with that in mind. He manages about 90 people, all of whom spend the bulk of their time on the road. And although he keeps track of his people in several structural ways, Rea considers the type of person he hires to be an important front-end tool in tracking reps effectively.
"It all comes down to the type of individual we have and the type we look for," he explains. "I try to look for people with sound work ethics. Lots of words begin with self: self-motivation, self-discipline and self-direction. No one's going to hold their hands. We can't be sending out trumpets over voice mail every morning to get people moving."
So what does he look for in potential reps? "Past work history. I look for people who aren't job hoppers. I look for at least a little bit of tenure and maybe they're looking for a career change or something."
It helps that Rea has been in the sales business for 31 years. "You can tell a lot about people if you're in an interview with them for an hour and a half or so. You can tell which people are giving you a song and dance and which are good candidates for the job."
With all the ways of staying in touch today, managing reps on the road has become a little like walking a tightrope, with too much supervision on one side and too little on the other. Between the two is a thin, wobbly line that requires managers to remain attentive and trustful if they're going to stay balanced on it. "You can put all the safety nets in place - voice mail, call reports, etc. - but [the reps] are out there and you have to trust them," says Rea.
Over-management can be a motivation killer since it communicates lack of trust. William Anthony, a Desantis Professor of Business Administration at Florida State University, cautions managers to be wary of this common pitfall. "You have to be real careful about this. There's the sense that people don't think they're trusted. You walk a fine line between knowing where your reps are and what they're doing and micromanaging them," he says. "If you say, 'Check in every hour or two,' well, if they're on a sales call they can't. And then they think, 'Why don't you trust me?' You've got to be careful of how much monitoring you do of each individual."
Identifying the line between "policing the troops" and leading and motivating them effectively - then being able to stay on that line - can be the biggest challenge in managing reps on the road, says McAnally. It generally just comes with experience, although being aware of potential problems can go a long way to helping keep managers on top of the tightrope. "Knowing when to step in to help or advise or physically go with [a rep] is something you have to be sensitive to," he says.
Once again, communication is king. Let your reps know what you expect, then expect them to do it. You can fine tune along the way, but that's the bottom line. Managers must provide the tools, the training and the expectations, but then trust the reps to deliver, says McAnally. "Assuming that the employer gives reps sufficient training, the attitude now is, 'We have armed you with everything you need to sell, so go out and do the job.'"
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