Leading a Sales Region to Top Performance

Running a regional or district sales region is similar to managing your own business, and requires a variety of technical and interpersonal skills that are not often taught.   Your success as a manager depends on how well you can coach and support the needs of your account executives, while maintaining your region's positive image back at corporate HQ.   This course will explore the best ways to set up your region, divide quotas fairly, develop the skills of your direct reports, build an award winning team, and manage your client base. Case studies of actual regions will be reviewed.

Ideal candidates for this course:

• Newly promoted managers - they don't know what they don't know yet!
• Managers of "troubled" regions that need a fresh approach or direction.        
• Entire sales management and marketing teams that wish to significantly improve their revenues.
• Regional directors that have issues with client loyalty and/or employee retention.

Additional time will be spent on individual case studies that the managers bring to the class, so that real life examples can be explored. The class is open and interactive, and uses a positive approach to solving issues with an emphasis on plans that actually work.

This training class can be further customized with other CW modules on Individual Coaching for Executives and Senior Managers; Building a Cohesive Team; and Developing Direct Reports-Coaching Skills for Managers.

Launching the New Product:   Selling it to Sales

Launching a new product well, and on time, is every company's aspiration.  

A successful product launch is determined by the effectiveness of the communication between R&D, marketing and sales. Taking advantage of early adopter clients, and using them as references, is key to building the early sales portfolio.

Most companies create a product in a vacuum in R & D. Opening communication early in the development process supports the creation of features and benefits toward current market trends.
 
If the process of sharing ideas and cooperation between sales and marketing is not managed well, revenue cannot flow according to expectations and the entire company suffers.   Market timing that is missed can sabotage all efforts.

When the product is complete, marketing must then sell to the sales teams, utilizing a mutually agreed upon approach.   During this hand off, if the product benefits are not articulated well, solutions are not obvious to clients.

Turning sales professionals into allies is necessary to ensure that the reps feel valued.   Incentives to sell that motivate the reps can be as simple as the formation of a collaborative relationship, or may require other more financial strategies.

When the product is showing success, sharing the glory between corporate and the field builds a bridge for future enthusiasm.

Sessions Include:   Communication skills training from development through early client adoption, case examples of good and poorly structured product launches, how to put together a portfolio of collateral for the sales and field teams, and a review of incentives that motivate.   Relationship strategies that keep the marketing team aligned and utilized will be detailed.   

This training class is a mind share, and can be done on or off site in 6 hours.    A new product launch utilizing CW's expert facilitation and support ensures that the motivational and strategic initiatives, as well as the relationships, are managed efficiently.   Each contributor needs to be valued early on, while streamlined communication, keeps the product ball rolling on schedule.

Key Client Management for Senior Sales Executives

Effective key account management requires a distinctly different set of sales and management competencies.  

Since key accounts bring in 80% of the business, selling and managing to these top accounts have high stakes, and should be handled by senior sales executives.

Selecting, hiring and training individuals that possess these critical key client management skills, assures key client loyalty.

This course emphasizes key client management skills to:

• Define key accounts
• Organize logistics surrounding effective coverage
• Create a support matrix and account plan to ensure success
• Identify a client champion, or power chain, to build trusting relationships with these decision makers
• Understand how to introduce new products to these key clients
• Negotiate and close large business with the primary clients
• Develop a support plan for long term client satisfaction
• Establish long term thinking for enduring relationship management

Key account manager success is about reward and recognition, not just with the sales team, but with the client who drove the new business.   Keeping all of the players on both sides of the sale enthused inspires a high level of loyalty, resulting in unsurpassed levels of sales.   This mind set is not typical or traditional, but is highly effective.

This training class is best done in two days, or fourteen hours.   Senior sales executives that manage key accounts, or seasoned key account managers in search of new accounts, will derive the most benefit.   Support and service teams, assisting with key accounts, and other senior management executives who wish to adopt winning approaches to key account management, should also attend.

Reaching Sales Goals Together:   Managing the Internal Resource Network

Corporate support to accomplish sales objectives is often a political hot potato.   When internal resources and client needs, clash, a network of resources "just in time" must be available to walk the tight rope well.   Gaining executive sponsorship for this liaison to work is critical.

The sales force is reliant on the other teams, internal to the company, in what CW calls inter-connective dependencies between the external field reps and the internal network.   Often there is communication chasm and an (us/them) mentality, causing an inherent breakdown.   This traditional obstacle must be bridged.

Team members need to understand and own roles and responsibilities in a non-combative way.   Respect and trust are built when team members do what they say they will do, and outcomes are clear.
 
Project teams that cross the communication chasm, provide a very high return on investment, allowing sales goals to be met.

Sales teams utilizing internal resource networks can:

• Reduce conflict and establish accountabilities
• Proactively plan where internal resources will need to be deployed
• Establish a timely response to client needs
• Spell out a communication code
• Assure consistent, reliable results

Pre-determining rewards that motivate, and significant recognition, keep the team aligned.   Incentives must be designed to instill repeat support and the consistent duplication of efforts.

This training class is best done in one day, on or off-site in 6-8 hours. Sales professionals, who are a regular part of project teams, should attend.   

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