Sales Management: cracking the code

We’ve had the opportunity to preview the first two chapters of a soon to be published book by Jason Jordan and Michelle Vazzana: Cracking the Sales Management Code: The secrets to measuring and managing sales performance*. If the first two chapters are anything to go by, this engaging book will be essential reading for all sales managers and their salespeople.

In his foreword Neil Rackham says that if he had to pick three components of sales success, he would choose the three M’s; Management, Metrics and Methodology. By Management, he’s referring to first line sales managers, who, this book reminds us, must serve as marketer, CFO, IT director, trainer, coach and goal setter. The authors argue that, though sales is more an art than a science, the opposite is true for sales management, for which reports and metrics are part and parcel of everyday life. This one factor alone makes it difficult for successful salespeople to become successful sales managers.

Today, CRM systems deliver many of the sales management reports, but they can’t tell you what to do with the information. When the Sales Director asks the sales organisation to do more, there is an expectation in many companies that “pedaling harder” will boost sales. But what should the sales managers focus on? One of the big ideas in this book is that sales managers should only manage activities they can directly affect. Revenue is not manageable, but sales calls are. Profitability is not manageable, but account planning is. Sales managers should focus on these activities, along with coaching, proposals, the number of visits to customers and prospects, training and sales enablement. Of course striking the right balance between managing and micromanaging can be difficult so we hope the other chapters in the book will offer further advice.

The authors argue that sales management activities correlate to sales objectives such as share of wallet, sales ramp-up time, and new customer win rate. And in turn these sales objectives affect the business goals of revenue growth, market share, profitability and customer satisfaction.  Jordan and Vazzana, take the view that once sales managers understand how activities, sales objectives and business goals are related, they can develop a clear set of operating instructions and will be on their way to cracking the sales management code.

In our view guidance on how to be a successful sales manager in today’s environment is long overdue. So often it is assumed that an outstanding salesperson will automatically become a great sales manager, but many promoted salespeople flounder and sink. If the remaining chapters continue in the vein of offering practical advice for effective sales management, this will be a must-have book for sales managers. I can even envisage a few salespeople giving it as an anonymous Christmas present to their manager!