I have worked with many sales managers over the years and I have noticed that the successful ones have certain attributes, traits and patterns of behaviour.   When coaching or training sales managers I get them to do a self evaluation against these key attributes.  So if you are a sales manager lets see how well you measure up.

1. Lead by example -  Do you dress the way you would expect your team to dress? Do you know your products and services well?  A good sales manager will set a good example because as their leader they demonstrate through their actions what is the correct behaviour.  As they copying you? Look at your behaviour before you criticise your team.   Walk the Walk.
2. A good coach - Do you look at every encounter with your team members as opportunities to help them?  Do you get your team together for training and coaching?  Do you go on sales calls with your team members?  A good sales manager is there for their team to help them through the good and bad.  Each encounter is an opportunity to help them.
3. Understand the team - Does your teams performance reflect on your performance?  Do you know what is expected of your team members in their roles?  A good sales manager is only as good as their team.  If the team is failing then it is a direct reflection on the sales manager.   Know what is expected of each team member and help them achieve their go
4. Continually develop staff - Do you have training sessions?  Do you celebrate wins? Are losses analysed?  These are all aspects of developing your team to be successful.  Encourage your team to grow by providing ongoing training, coaching and mentoring.
5. Determined - What do you do when things don’t work out?  Do you give up or keep on going?  A good sales manager is determined and will not give up.  They understand that times can get tough but with perseverance and determination on doing what must be done, success will come.
6. Teamwork - Does your team work as a team?  Do you get them to do things together?  So many sales managers don’t understand teamwork because sales people normally work on their own.  However a good sales manager will get the team together to work on opportunities, share successes and analyse the losses.  You don’t have a team if they don’t work together.  You are part of the team?
7. Trust - Does your team trust you to do the right thing?  Who is more important, you or the team.  As a leader your team must trust you to support and do the right thing by them.  A good sales manager will go to bat for their team when times are tough and share the rewards when times are good.
8. Respect - Does your team respect you?  What do they do behind your back?  Without the respect of your team you will fail as a sales manager.  They will not listen, perform or do what is expected if they don’t respect you.  They will fail and this will reflect on you.  Earn their respect by helping, supporting and working with them.  Be part of the team.  Remember, you are not better than them because your are the sales manager, you are also a team member with a different role to play.

So how did you go? Most of these are common sense, easy to understand, but they can be difficult to perform.  Successful sales manager are no longer salespeople.  They need to be different to be successful in the role.  
Good Hunting.

Many years ago my wife was studying for an exam and she was drawing these colorful diagrams while reading her notes.  At first they didn’t make much sense to me so I dismissed them thinking she was crazy.  Curiousity got the better of me and later I had to find out more about these crazy looking diagrams so I asked her what she was doing.  She told me she was “Mind Mapping” and she quickly explained how it worked.  It intrigued me and I wanted to know more.

Now I am using Mind Maps all the time to help myself and my clients with projects, coaching, sales proposals and nearly anything that needs clearer thinking.  So what is mind mapping?  Well mind mapping is a tool that engages both your left and right sides of your brain and as a result you actually complete activities more effectively and with better quality.  You basically put your thoughts down in a very effective manner on paper or a computer as a diagram that represents the way you think.   They can be used in many different situations and for many different reasons.  Use them during business meetings, when you study, when you plan or to come up with the most innovating ideas.

Following on from my "Effective Articles" and "Effective Short Letter Proposal" this article I will address effective formal proposals (greater than 5 pages) that is especially used when you are engaging a new or potential customer or the opportunity can not be easily covered by the short letter proposal.

Formal Proposal (Greater than 5 pages)

A formal proposal is a full proposal that covers the core elements of Problem, Solution and Value (Effective Articles) in greater detail. The framework outlined below is a typical example of a formal proposal. Keep in mind that this is only a general framework and you will need to adapt it to the sales situation. Do not feel compelled to cover each of the categories, especially if the sale doesn't warrant that much detail.

Over the years of working with salespeople I have found that their most common weakness is asking questions. Most sales people are so keen to make the sale they forget to ask the customer what they really want or need. They simply don’t engage the customer and force feed them the products and services in their sales kit.

In most cases the products and services a salesperson is selling are needed or wanted by the customer, but they don’t get the sale. Why? This is simply due to the fact that they haven’t spent the time to find out more about their customer and tie in their products and services to address their pain points.

Don’t ask a question. Don’t get an answer.

Ask the wrong question. Get the wrong answer.

Ask the right question. You:

How you react in your work environment influences the culture and morale at work in more ways than you realise. Can you identify with the following Management styles and how they impact on culture and morale?

Passive

• Only addressing major problems
• Won't confront poor performers
• Won't deal with difficult issues
• Retreats when challenged
• Narrow job descriptions to maintain control
• Procrastinates
• Blames higher Managers for unpopular directives

Aggressive

• Gives negative feedback
• Complains and criticises on impulse
• Does not identify the problem
• Treats employees as worthless
• "I'll talk, you listen"
• No discussion or listening
• Gets frustrated and yells

Assertive

• Is approachable and listens
• Encourages feedback
• Has clear and firm expectations
• Employee development is crucial
• Communicates often and has regular reviews
• Treats employees as individuals
• Offers praise and rewards
• Work is enjoyable
• Is fair and impartial, is consistent and predictable
• Gives time for feedback and improvements

Which manager are you? There are further articles about each type of manager and how you can influence employees in a more positive way. Please give us your feedback on this article.

Email is something we use all the time, and you want to make sure that your message gets read in the myriad of emails and responded to, so here are some tips to help you to improve your emails.

1. What is the purpose of your email?  If it is to give the person some information about something that is of interest to them and it contains a lot of detail, then you may need to send an email.  If you require some feedback immediately from that person, then you may be better off giving them a call.
2. Summarise the objective of the mail message at the beginning and if it is long, explain it step by step.
3. If you need something to be done, inform the recipient of any due dates.
4. If you are intending on copying anyone, ask yourself if that person really needs a copy.
5. Attach the sender's message or reply to their message so they know what it is in relation to.
6. Avoid long, drawn out email conversations, a face to face conversation or phone call may be better.
7. Use the invite attendees feature in the Calendar to schedule a meeting instead of writing and sending an email invitation.  It sends the attendee an email invitation which they only have to click yes or no to save them time.
8. If available to your system, request a read receipt for a message instead of calling the person to confirm that the message has arrived.  In the e-mail, click the button and select "Request a Read Receipt for this Message".
9. If you don't get a response from the email, follow up with a phone call.
10. Proof read your email before sending.  Did you write your email in an angry manner or was it polite and the reader will understood the email?
11. Will your email be understood by the other person?  If they are unable to respond to you face to face, they may not understand your motivation behind your email.  In this case, it may be better to call the person.
12. Delivery is not guaranteed.  For whatever reason, sometimes your email does not get to the intended recipient, sometimes they just get lost in email land.  Requesting a Read Receipt will alleviate this if you have the function available and the recipient chooses to send you a read receipt.
13. Be concise as extra waffle may not be read or understood; if possible write ideas or topics in bullet points.  Can you write your email in an effective way with the most important information first?  You may even want to write the email in bullet points to make the email easier to read.
14. Out of office replies need to be taken notice of as your recipient many not have read your email yet.  You could possibly follow up with a phone call at a later date when the recipient is available.
15. Be clear about what you want them to do.  Do you want them to call you, do some work for you or sign up for a product or service?
16. When sending emails within your organisation, use task requests to increase the commitment to a task if this feature is available on your system.
17. Let them know that you are available to answer their questions and the numbers that you can be contacted on.

If you would like some more tips on organising your emails and writing emails to people you know and don't know, subscribe to this website to get emails to work effectively for you.

A DISC Profiling System could benefit your business in the following ways:

• Clear identification of learning and working styles.
• To avoid the placement of 2 dominant people working together all the time as they would both want to be leaders.
• You can place people in roles which are more suitable to their behaviours.
• To get the right mixture of different people in a team when their roles and behaviours are varied and suitable for them.
• To know where your team members fit into the above categories and ensure their roles reflect their natural abilities.