Manager salesforce: What Is Sales Management? – Salesforce.com

What Is Sales Management? – Salesforce.com

Time to Read: 9 Minutes

Sales management is how sales managers organize, motivate, and lead their sales reps while tracking — and improving — team performance. This includes hiring top talent, training sales staff, coordinating operations across the sales department, and implementing a cohesive sales strategy that drives business revenues.

Think of it like a sports team. Have you ever heard of a top-ranked baseball team without a coach? Of course not. The coach provides the guidance, inspiration, strategy, and training that enable players to secure big wins. The best sales managers operate the same way, inspiring, educating, and guiding their teams to maximize revenue. The result? Consistent sales growth and a happy team — not to mention sizable commissions.

What we will cover in this article:

• What is the sales management process?
• What are the most important sales management skills?
• What are the best sales management techniques?
• What is a sales management system?
• What are the best sales management tools?

What is the sales management process?

An effective sales management process includes hiring and training a skilled sales team, setting team-wide goals, developing a sales strategy, managing leads, forecasting, and reporting.

As part of the sales management process, a sales manager does the following:

• Hires and trains top talent
• Sets goals for the sales team
• Formulates a sales management strategy to achieve those goals
• Executes that strategy while managing and motivating staff
• Evaluates and reports on sales performance

To ensure the sales management process is executed well, managers need specific sales management skills. These can be gained through on-the-job experience or through training modules like those available through Salesforce Trailhead.

Learn how sales management and sales operations can work together to grow revenue

What are the most important sales management skills?

To ensure effective sales management, sales managers should focus on mastering the following skills:

Planning

Setting targets, assigning areas of coverage, and designing lead generation tactics

Directing and Communicating

Leading day-to-day operations and offering feedback and guidance

Problem-Solving

Addressing concerns and issues as they arise and finding solutions quickly

Evaluating

Analyzing strategy success and team performance

Supporting

Keeping staff motivated and working hard with the right incentives and realistic but ambitious targets

When all these elements are in place, sales managers can help their team achieve their targets and have a positive impact on the bottom line.

Effective sales management contributes to:

• Increased sales revenue and profitability
• Improved sales forecast reliability, allowing for consistent revenue
• Higher satisfaction and loyalty, both from customers and staff
• Reduced staff turnover, resulting in reduced recruitment, training, and retention costs
• Increased productivity

“Make everything about the success of the sales team so they can focus on the success of customers.”

What are the best sales management techniques?

A manager should leverage the following techniques to ensure their sales team is productive:

1.

Recruit top-tier candidates and lead ongoing training.

The first step to ensuring successful sales is finding, hiring, and retaining the best sales staff. Recruitment is an expensive process, but managers will save money on recruitment and training if they spend the time upfront to secure the best people for the job. The best candidates are both a good cultural addition to a business and are aligned with team goals.

Once the right people are on board, managers should invest in their growth. Successful sales organizations have regular training and professional development, both to stay on top of industry trends and to help motivate staff. Sales reps need to be updated with new product knowledge, information about the competitive landscape, and new avenues for leads. They should also receive regular training on industry best practices and regulations.

Give your team the sales training they need for career-long success

Discover skill-up courses on the Salesforce learning platform, Trailhead, designed for everyone in the sales community — from business development representatives (BDRs) to aspiring chief revenue officers (CROs). These learning paths (aka “trailmixes”) cover critical sales skills, like prospecting and cold calling; soft skills; sales tool tips; and leadership best practices. Plus, it’s all free!

2. Provide ongoing feedback.

There’s no denying it: The sales profession breeds independent, highly competitive workers and they’re not always the easiest to manage. The good news is, effective sales managers can take that competition and use it to motivate everyone on a sales team.

For example, a sales manager might encourage friendly competition by highlighting a top performer on internal communication channels, like Slack. This spurs the rest of the sales staff to increase their own sales and secure shoutouts.

Sales managers should also give positive feedback to the team as a whole. This emphasizes the value of teamwork and provides an incentive for leveling up.

Providing this kind of regular feedback is easier than ever with modern sales management systems (see section below), which enable real-time sales tracking and instantaneous feedback. Employees can get updates from sales managers wherever they are, respond in the moment, and compare their performance with key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure their own progress.

3.

Forecast future sales and track key metrics.

The third key technique used in successful sales management is a combination of forecasting and tracking. Sales managers need to forecast revenue for deals that are “in the bag” as well as likely sales from future leads. This determines what sales goals should be set for future quarters. Also, forecasting should pinpoint holdups in the sale pipeline so the sales team knows whether to focus on lead sourcing, relationship building, or closing deals in the months ahead.

To ensure there is no confusion, the sales manager should track the same metrics each quarter and make their forecasting transparent. Everyone should know how the team is performing, preferably in real time. This allows both sales reps and sales managers to understand the team’s progress compared to quarterly goals while also allowing them to pivot when priorities change.

“In a remote environment, it’s harder to hype people up. That’s why you need to keep each individual rep’s goals, their ultimate ‘why,’ front and center.”

What is a sales management system?

A sales management system (also referred to as sales management software or sales CRM) is a program that’s designed to make the sales management process simpler and sales data more accessible. Salespeople can use the system to manage contacts, track deals, generate reports, forecast future leads and revenue, and easily complete administrative tasks so they can focus on sales calls.

Today’s sales management systems are sophisticated, often incorporating a wide range of customer and prospect information, including social profiles, online activity, connections within online networks, and other details. Artificial intelligence (AI) is an increasingly common feature, too, allowing staff to generate sales predictions and lead recommendations within seconds.

The benefits of a sales management system include:

More granular prioritization

An effective sales management system helps managers prioritize tasks and assign them to the right rep for the job. For example, the system could help a sales manager identify a new lead and send contact details to a rep with a request to set up a product demo. Sales management systems can also filter leads to help focus on those that are most likely to generate revenue for each product.

A detailed overview of customer history

With sales management software, all communication with or about a customer can be stored in the same place, allowing team members to see their complete history. This type of overview ensures there’s no time wasted covering old ground. More importantly, sales staff can use this information to engage each customer with a personal touch.

Automated workflows and reduced administrative tasks

A sales management system keeps reps focused on sales, not distracted by mounting admin tasks. Most systems can identify important follow-up information in calls and flag it for sales rep action. Many will also create calendar events or reminders for more accurate task tracking. Not only does this ensure active leads and loyal customers receive timely communication, but it also allows sales reps to connect with stale leads and customers who haven’t reached out in several months.

Improved forecasting, analytics, and reports

For decades, report generation and forecasting was a cumbersome, manual task. Fortunately, modern sales management systems can assess sales pipelines, revenue, cycles, and more – often with just a few clicks. By analyzing lead-to-conversion ratios, for example, sales management software can assess sales rep performance and identify areas that need improvement. It can also compile data to automate sales forecasting and improve future pipeline management by identifying where effective lead sources are coming from and where sales opportunities are lost.

What are the best sales management tools?

Steve Jobs once said that “if you give [people] tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them.” He was talking broadly about technology, of course, but the same idea holds true in the world of sales. The best sales management software allows sales reps to connect to their team, customers, and leads remotely and in real time, typically via virtual sales tools like cloud-based software and mobile applications. This includes sales management systems, videoconferencing hardware/software, social media management platforms, intelligent automation tools, and presentation tools.

You may be wondering: What about in-person sales (also known as field sales or outside sales)? While there are some analog tools still used in field sales, many field reps are swapping clipboards and business cards for laptops and smartphones. A 2021 Sales Snapshot study conducted by Salesforce highlights this reality: Almost half of all reps interviewed said they would be selling virtually after the pandemic. No surprise, then, that cloud and mobile apps make up most of their toolkit.

Key sales management tools include:

All-in-One Sales Management Systems (Desktop and Mobile)

The best sales management systems combine functionality once spread across different tools or apps. Look for platforms that include the following:

• Pipeline tracking/management
• Built-in phone dialer
• Email integration
• Calendar
• Reminders
• Quote builder
• Invoicing functionality

With all of this centralized, sales staff can complete tasks like customer follow-up, team check-ins, workflow updates, and contract approvals both in and out of the office – as long as they have internet access.

Perhaps the best way to improve workflows for your team is by leveraging intelligent automation. Ideally, this technology will be folded into your sales management system so you don’t have to fuss with call logging, voicemail drops, and follow-up email sends. Just set up a “macro” – or trigger – for the system to take a desired action and you easily eliminate manual tasks.

Oh, and any sales management system worth its salt should have an intuitive mobile app, too. Key mobile features include geolocation that supports navigation in the field, push notifications for in-the-moment updates on accounts, and, of course, AI-driven bots that can complete basic tasks with simple vocal or written commands.

How to Be a Good Manager, According to one Salesforce Leader

It’s hard to keep up with the latest phrase du jour describing the state of workforce discontent and uncertainty. 

First it was the ‘Great Resignation’ – employees quitting en masse because they felt unheard and unappreciated. That morphed into the ‘Great Disconnect’ and the ‘Great Realignment’ – companies and leadership trying to triage the factors that led to the ‘Great Resignation’ in the first place. Now, talk is focused on ‘Quiet Quitting’ – where demotivated remote employees do what’s asked of them, but not much else. 

At the core of all those trends is one intangible that, until recently, wasn’t front-and-center at most companies: employee success.

And while many factors play into an employee’s success at a company, ask anyone who’s had a bad boss how that affected their work. You’ll quickly find that a manager is either the golden ticket to feeling fulfilled and appreciated, or a main factor that drives someone to leave.  

Salesforce’s latest research confirms the role of the manager is as relevant and critical now as it has ever been, with nearly 9 in 10 employees responding that managers who not only offer flexibility – but those who actually listen and make them feel heard – bring out the best in them. 

Salesforce Data Shows Top 3 Drivers of Exceptional Employee Experience

New Salesforce research uncovers what 1,105 U.S.-based, full-time employees said they need to feel motivated and happy at work: flexibility, collaboration, and purpose.

Read the research report

In a recent employee survey, Salesforce employees reported — for the first time ever — their managers were their most trusted source of information. This led Chief People Officer Brent Hyder to declare that the manager is the new CEO, and that focusing on the collaborative nature of managers and employees holds the key to great experiences at work.

Employee experience is the “Quiet Quitting” antidote. By leading with flexibility, we’re helping employees find more balance, reduce burnout and deepen engagement. Learn more here: https://t.co/kk9zqbtYzX

— Brent Hyder (@hyder_brent) August 24, 2022

Two years of chaos forever changed how “good manager” is defined

Following a series of societal upheavals ranging from the pandemic to global uprisings over inequity, the role of the manager has never been more important, and it’s also never been as complex. Beyond managing business units, teams, and projects, managers now also need far more sociological skills — ones that might be more associated with a therapist or a life coach than a corporate boss. 

Salesforce’s Head of Global Talent Experience, Elizabeth Gaito agrees. “I’ve been in this field for the last 20 years and it’s changed more in the last two years than it did in the first 18. The role of the manager has fundamentally changed since the pandemic. Being a human to others, caring for one another, and delivering amazing results don’t have to be mutually exclusive.”

I’ve been in this field for the last 20 years and it’s changed more in the last two years than it did in the first 18… Being a human to others, caring for one another, and delivering amazing results don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

Elizabeth Gaito, Head of Global talent Experience, Salesforce

With a manager’s role now so different than it was before, Salesforce, for its part, decided to change the way it trains and give its managers the skills to shine. In the past, for example, development programs and training for manager skills were largely nomination-based. Today, Salesforce has the Great Leader Pathways program, which supports any and all managers or aspiring managers who want to enroll in the program in their career development.

Each pathway is a personalized learning experience that focuses on the skills, mindsets, and competencies needed to succeed at each of the stages of leadership, and that meet the needs of today’s unique challenges. For example, the company rolled out new training subjects like resiliency and mental toughness, which weren’t offered until the pandemic started, and the feedback has been positive. 

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Since launching these pathways, the company has seen a 200% jump in sign-ups, with more than 24,000 managers participating. 

How one Salesforce leader adapted to being a good manager in a new world

Christina Romas-Cowell is Salesforce’s Director of Business Development for Nonprofit and Education. She also leads a team of 38, and like many leaders, her role took on a whole new meaning during the pandemic – one where “human skills” were the new business skills. 

Learn Skills and Earn Badges with Trailhead

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“I always thought of myself as an empathetic leader, but these past two-plus years really challenged me,” Romas-Cowell says of her experience. She is the leader of a sales team, and found herself having to balance both the bottom line numbers and the overall happiness of her team. 

Romas-Cowell saw the challenge as an opportunity, tapping into her sales-honed ability to read people to change the way she managed. In this model, the goal wasn’t to simply drive the business, but to use her skills to help employees navigate the many challenges they were facing in their personal lives.

External factors like the war in the Ukraine, mass shootings, and other polarizing domestic events played a major role in how her team members experienced work each day. 

“The number of different topics that I’ve talked about with employees is surprising,” Romas-Cowell notes, adding that while these types of conversations can be tough, they ultimately lead to a deeper connection. “From their perspective, it becomes: ‘This is someone that can support me through this unique time in our world.’ I don’t think they look at our relationship just as manager-employee. But rather, ‘This is someone that I can talk to when I’m struggling.’”

I don’t think they looked at our relationship just as manager-employee. But rather, ‘This is someone that I can talk to when I’m struggling.’

Christina Romas-Cowell, Director of Business Development, Salesforce

Having managers who actually listen and do something with those conversations is exactly what employees are after. Romas-Cowell says she’s gotten positive feedback from team members who received either an outlet to speak to or “time to step away to process something.” 

Open Image ModalRomas-Cowell gathers members of her team – many who flew in just for the in-person connection they’d been missing – at her home in November 2021.
Romas-Cowell gathers members of her team – many who flew in just for the in-person connection they’d been missing – at her home in November 2021.

Good managers put empathy at the forefront

Patrick Triplett Jr. was one such employee. Just months into his time as a Business Development Rep on Romas-Cowell’s team, his grandmother passed away, leaving Triplett struggling with work. 

Eventually, he explored the idea of taking a leave of absence, which he says Romas-Cowell, “fully supported and guided me through.” In fact, he didn’t even know that leave was an option until Romas-Cowell suggested it. 

Triplett took the leave of absence from June through October of 2021, and the time away was critical. As he worked through his grief, he also received an important diagnosis.

“During my leave of absence, I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder,” Triplett says, adding that he “was fortunate to have time away to prioritize the beginning of what would be a new way of life for me.”

Taking the time away is one thing, but returning can often be challenging without the right manager in place. When he was ready to return, Triplett felt at ease thanks to Romas-Cowell’s ability to get him back into the flow of work at a speed and volume he felt comfortable with. In fact, he was more than comfortable – he was set up to succeed and thrive.

“With her guidance on balance, prioritizing mental health, and SMART goals, I was able to return from my leave and get promoted a few months later,” Triplett says. 

With her guidance on balance, prioritizing mental health, and SMART goals, I was able to return from my leave and get promoted a few months later.”

Patrick Triplett Jr., Renewals Manager, Salesforce

Open Image ModalLinkedIn post from Romas-Cowell congratulating Triplett on his promotion | Feb 2022.LinkedIn post from Romas-Cowell congratulating Triplett on his promotion | Feb 2022.

Triplett’s experiences on Romas-Cowell’s team, he says, showed “genuine passion for each member of her team’s development and unwavering support,” even on Slack or Google Meet. That compassion, he says, “is what sets Christina apart — her ability to see and value you as a person and an employee.”

Salesforce’s employee survey reveals that Triplett’s experience wasn’t a one off, either. Leadership support spans across the company, with 90% of employees agreeing that their managers support them to be successful in their role. 

Triplett is grateful for this level of support in a corporate setting. He’s “100% certain Romas-Cowell guided others in a non-traditional way and has had a great impact in their lives as well.” 

“That’s just who she is. I’m thankful for her.”

Read More:

• Read about how Salesforce’s Chief People Officer aims to build employee experience at the company.
• Check out how Salesforce’s new Employee Experience team tackles ‘Quiet Quitting’.
• Dive into the Salesforce report that shows how employee experience can impact revenue growth.

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everything about the profession from skills to salary — Work.ua

Sales manager: everything about the profession from skills to salary — Work. ua

What to be

Sales manager is a very demanded profession nowadays. Every company that provides services, manufactures or sells has sales managers on its staff.

What a sales manager does

Actually, everything to sell a service or product: advises buyers, helps them understand the varieties of goods or services in order to choose exactly what they need. Such a specialist needs to be well versed in what he offers to clients. As a rule, sales managers are given some kind of minimal briefing or even full-fledged introductory courses with an exam before they start their duties.

How much a sales manager receives

Most often, the salary is formed from the rate and percentage of the cost of goods or services sold, additional bonuses and accruals for fulfilling or overfulfilling the plan and the like can also be provided.

All Ukraine

Kyiv

Dnieper

Zaporozhye

Lviv

Odessa

Remotely

Kharkiv

—

Vinnitsa

Zhitomir

Ivano-Frankivsk

Krivoy Rog

Kropyvnytskyi

Lutsk

Nikolaev

Poltava

Smooth

Sumy

Ternopil

Uzhgorod

Khmelnitsky

Cherkasy

Chernihiv

Chernivtsi

On average, a “Sales Manager” in Ukraine earns UAH 20,000. This is the median salary of 9313 jobs posted on Work.ua with the title “Sales Manager” and similar queries “Sales Executive”, “Sales manager”, “Sales manager” and others over the last 3 months. The range that contains the median is highlighted on the graph.

What skills does a sales manager need

• The ability to communicate with people and have the gift of persuasion.
• Perfect knowledge of the goods or services to be sold. As well as knowledge of competitors.
• Non-conflict.
• The ability to win over and find a common language with different people.
• Literate written and oral speech.

Advantages and disadvantages in the work of a sales manager

How sales managers themselves evaluate their profession

According to a survey by Work.ua among registered applicants with experience as a sales manager.

Career growth

4.0

Salary

3.0

Profession

4. 0

Security

3.5

Balance between work and life

4.0 9000 ua “Sales manager” is one of the most popular queries, including among employers. That is, it is a very demanded profession.

3530

vacancies on the site

Where to study to become a sales manager

To become a sales manager, you do not need to receive a higher education. But you can improve your skills in special sales courses. In addition, many companies offer training directly during the internship.

More information about courses and educational institutions.

Sunday, July 30

Other professions

The profession of a cook is very creative and interesting for those who like to treat others with delicious dishes and come up with new mixes and tastes.

An installer is someone who installs, fixes and connects various systems, structures, household and industrial appliances.

90,000 how to find, grow and keep. Instructions based on personal experience – Career on vc.ru

Each HR has its own tricks when hiring employees in different departments. But sales managers are a special caste. The reputation, revenue and profit of the company depend on them. In order for managers to achieve results and not deviate from the course, you need to control processes and constantly come up with new ways to motivate.

3350
views

My name is Tatyana. I am the Development Director for Pipedrive at Mailigen.ru. We are engaged in the implementation of digital products for medium and small businesses. In the article I will talk about our experience in finding employees. How to make sure that your managers become part of the team not only in words, but also in deeds.

The article contains application instructions, examples and recommendations from our sales manager, Nadezhda Panova.

Stage 1. Interview and personal qualities

I recently came to the conclusion that when interviewing a future sales manager, it is better to pay attention to soft skills.

Nadezhda Panova, Head of Sales Department Mailigen.ru

We focus on:

Self-organization skills. Here we study the probability of delays, failure of deadlines and broken promises. A good manager should be able to control his time and tasks.

Ability to work with information. How quickly a person is able to absorb new information, independently search for it and analyze it. It is especially important for managers who work in complex areas, such as medical, IT or legal.

Stress resistant. One of the popular words in the resume, but is it true? And it’s not just about how to respond to an angry customer. A large flow of tasks is also stressful. The ability to take responsibility. An intelligent sales manager is responsible for the results to the client. Putting the blame on colleagues or on the full moon is a great temptation. But the manager must understand that he is a key link in the chain.

1.1 Checking soft skills

Starting from the necessary soft skills, prepare a couple of “tricky” questions for the applicant. Experienced HR with the help of such leading questions can find out how independent, organized, straightforward a person is.

For example, you want to check if the manager will run without control.

We ask a question: “There are no screen recordings and other total control systems, but people work well. Why do you think?

What we pay attention to: If the answers are related to control, punishment, fear (one way or another, the boss will check), then such a person can only work “under the hood”. An exception is possible if you hire a security officer: for him, control is a direct responsibility.

The rest of the answers (“I’m interested”, “I earn money”, “I respect the manager”, “the work is well done”, “the processes are well-established”) indicate that a person can work independently when no one is looking at him.

1.2 Understanding hard skills

Choose 3-6 important hard skills that you will ask about. Check them with each candidate, so it will be easier to compare. If your turnover is not too high, and there are not many candidates, the following criteria will be enough for you:

Education. Higher education is preferable, but if not, you can clarify why the person decided to give up the diploma.

Sales experience. Does the applicant have at least some sales experience or will he have to be trained from scratch? This is not always advisable, so we hire people who have at least minimal experience.

Digital skills. A successful applicant must use modern technology. It is necessary that for work or personal purposes he comes across Google docs, CRM, Trello, order a taxi and food through applications. Since we work in a digital company, the skills of working with CMS, website builders and other tools, such as Figma or its analogues, are also important for us.

Basic knowledge of marketing and sales. Without the slightest idea about marketing, a beginner will have a hard time, he will need to learn everything from scratch, face a lot of incomprehensible terms and nuances.

Results at the previous job. Many process people want to become sales managers, not result people. This is a fundamental difference. Is the candidate ready to discuss his achievements?

1.3. When is the best time to say “no” right away?

Each company has its own criteria for choosing a sales manager, so we share our rules only as an example.

No initiative or offers to find new clients

The manager is a generator of ideas. The person must be proactive and motivated. Otherwise, the work of a manager turns into a dull routine that begins to suck everyone around into a quagmire.

Ready to work only with incoming requests

It’s always worth discussing “ashore”. If a manager in your company has to make outgoing calls, including cold ones, ask how ready the candidate is for this.

External circumstances are always to blame

Sometimes the job seeker cannot explain the reasons for failure in previous jobs. We refuse such candidates. In the work of a manager, the ability to comprehensively assess the factors of success and failure is important. Ask the candidate about one of the failures at the previous job, then ask them to analyze the situation by answering 3 simple questions: “What was good?”, “What was bad?”, “What can be improved?”

The candidate is interested in other tasks

For example, if a person is hired only to improve English. We do not accept such applicants, as we need a salesperson, not a translator. Such a candidate will either “burn out” in six months, or run away.

1. 4 Terms and money

Discuss the formalities. If something is not indicated in the vacancy, there are flexible and individual nuances – discuss at the interview.