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Treat Sales People as Entrepreneurs
Posted by Colin Wilson
In Jul 09
My last post mentioned the poll I put up on LinkedIn - What is the most important thing for sales reps to succeed in doing… and I had some very interesting results and a good number of comments. I believe the comment from Peter Styles is most apt for this post… “Sales budgets drive the business therefore achieving sales targets are most critical”. Let’s break this sentence down into the two points:
“Sales budgets drive the business…” uh-huh… makes me think that sales are important part of running the business…
“…therefore achieving sales targets are most critical”… uh-huh again… me thinks achieving target is also important.
Fact is, apart from share capital, loans, overdrafts and the like, the only way the company is going to get the money to do what it wants is through sales… sales are the life blood of the company… uh-oh… so if this statement is true, which it is, then why o why do most companies do their best to restrict selling… I know this happens because CRM systems are implemented; and these systems stifle the sales effort by sucking in irrelevant data for the benefit of management. These tools and the data within them are often so political that the sales professional has no choice but to play the political game in order to keep their job. We want people selling rather than having to worry about politics and keeping their jobs!
If you want to turbo charge your sales effort then you need to take heed of our second manifesto item (there are ten in all).
Manifesto #2… Winning companies treat sales people as entrepreneurs running mini businesses within companies.
This means not only treating them differently, but also providing them with the right tools. Away with the tools that look to manage their activity to giving them the tools to do the job – tools to help them sell… not tools to help manage them. Put a proper tool in place that helps the sales professional to plan how they are going to make their number, provide the tools for developing the opportunity and provide the sales management support that adds value to the entrepreneurial spirit and you will find that more people will hit target… after all, is this not why sales people are employed… to hit target?
7 Comments
[...] here: Treat Sales People as Entrepreneurs 02 Jul 09 | [...]
Absolutely spot on!
Sales people need to be like business people and entrepreneurs rather than just “sales people” to thrive in today’s modern selling environment.
They need to prospect, sell, manage, monitor performance, be innovative, consistently raise the bar - you name it!
There is a definate shift in recruitment trends to look for commercial alrounders who can sell, develop business and come out with ideas.
It’s that approach that propels the sales person into trusted advisor status!
Sean
Sean McPheat
The Sales Jedi
Treating salespeople as entrepreneurs motivates them by providing a higher sense of responsibility, pride and ownership in the sales process. These things tend to lead to professional and personal success!
[...] Click here to read more… [...]
Well said!
Sales people are the entrepreneur themselves. They know how to make business for them and the amount of business they are looking forward for. Sales representative are always goal oriented people as what entrepreneur are.. Sales people need help of CRM always..they cant taste that amount of success if they don’t implement CRM in their business, and if sales representative get this services free then it would be a gold mine for them.. PMAM CRM invites all the sales representative over to http://www.pmamcrm.com and improve their accuracy and incentives..FREE registration required on http://www.pmamcrm.com and start your business for good results.
Absolutely! Trying to ‘micro manage’ sales people is asking for trouble.
Far better to hire entrepreneurial ones, tell them the story and USPs behind the product / service you want them to sell, then set the target and let them get on with it. If the commission is a win win for everyone, then that’s the icing on the cake.