What are the criteria for evaluating a sales manager. How to distinguish a "good" manager from a "bad" one. We evaluate the effectiveness of the sales manager. Mystery Shopper Method

The effectiveness of the sales manager depends on many factors:

1. Personal predisposition;

2. Ability to learn quickly;

3. Desires to actively develop;

4. Good example;

5. Successful mentor;

6. Effective learning;

7. Interesting motivation for the manager.

The task of a competent leader or HR manager is to determine the presence of the first three parameters from the above list even at the interview stage. If you hire anyone who sends a resume and doesn’t “disappear” after the interview as a team in the sales team, there are risks to spend a lot of time “pumping up” unsuitable managers. There are many different ways to select promising “sales people” at the stage of the first acquaintance (at an interview) with potential employees: assessment centers, personality tests, case studies, career counseling tests.

What are we risking if we make a mistake at the interview stage and take the wrong manager?

— The manager will not pay back the time, labor and financial investments spent on him during his work;

— A failed manager can add confusion to the ranks of “sales people,” covering up his incompetence. For example, he may blame his product, his manager, or company for his failures;

— can carry with it a lot of valuable customer information;

— A company can erode its reputation in the eyes of potential customers.

Suppose that the most promising “salespeople” passed the interview, the company provided them with everything necessary so that managers could show high work efficiency.

So how to distinguish a “good” sales manager from a “bad” one?

How to evaluate the effectiveness of the sales manager?

At first glance, everything seems obvious. “Well, of course, performance indicators will answer this question,” you will say. Those who sell more, those managers are the "good." But not so simple. Especially if your company operates in the B2B sector.

Of course, high sales results reflect to some extent the manager’s performance. However, focusing only on this indicator may turn out to be a short-sighted assessment of the work of the “salesman” as a whole.

Let's look at various scenarios.

The manager shows high sales figures, fulfills the set plans, but the customers after purchasing the “product” remain dissatisfied and prefer to continue to work with your competitors (for the B2B sector - provided excellent after-sales service is provided).

Cause: the result obtained differs from the expectations originally obtained during the sale.

Decision: Pay attention to a successful employee not only on sales (fulfillment of plans), but also on quality. Try to change the motivation system, make bonding bonuses to continue cooperation with the client.
The manager shows the highest sales results, fulfills the set plans, but the sales volume of this employee is lower than in previous periods.

Cause: a successful manager does not feel competition or does not receive additional motivation to constantly improve performance.

Decision:if you can’t find an equal to a successful manager, increase your plans (but here you must be very careful not to demotivate the most successful employee), or introduce additional motivation that will make the manager want to overfulfill the plans.
The manager shows high sales figures, fulfills set plans, but unorganized work and problems with maintaining documentation cause customer dissatisfaction.

Cause: carelessness and disorganization of the employee. The main thing for the manager is the implementation of plans for obtaining financial motivation. Lack of awareness of all stages of sales, including closing a deal.

Decision: monitoring the employee’s work in order to organize their full-fledged work, introducing a system of fines in the absence of an internal awareness of the need to comply with all business processes (again, be careful, the introduction of fines can be a dangerous decision).
The manager shows high sales figures, fulfills the set plans, but ignores the decisions of the head and company rules, introduces disorganization and disruptions in the work process into the ranks of other managers.

Cause:awareness of one’s exclusivity and indispensability.

Decision: search for employees who can make serious competition to the manager, increase plans or offer a new direction of work (for example, mentoring newcomers) to complicate the task of the “arrogant” manager.

As you have seen, sometimes you can not take a “good” manager as such. But it is always important to look at the work of employees in the long term and from various angles. Sometimes just short-term high performance is not enough. You have to imagine how events can develop and see the future of your department and all its components. Pay attention to various aspects of the work of employees.

I don’t think it’s necessary to summarize again and list the qualities, professional and personal, that a “good” sales manager should have. The main thing is to pay attention not only to direct, but also indirect criteria that determine the effectiveness of the manager.

I wish you excellent skills in selecting effective employees and sales managers who are “good” to you.

Constantly needs to increase the growth and development of its structure. The level of sales performance significantly affects the core business and success of the company. We will learn how to correctly evaluate all the important criteria in work and build a successful business strategy from this article.

The concept

The very concept of “sales performance” is a determining indicator of a company's profitability. From this it becomes clear how much the company attracts interest from the consumer.

When it comes to efficiency, it means a lot of questions related to customer acquisition, evaluation criteria, financial turnover and overall productivity. But in a concrete sense, we can designate this as an indicator of the company's competitive level in the market or of any specific strategy.

Rating

First of all, it is necessary to group expenses by sales channels, as well as collect all sales data. This will be needed to create an accounting system and analyze the relationship between the cost of the product and sales.

Distribution channels can be divided into several categories:

Direct - employee salaries, insurance premiums, purchase or production.
Additional - transport, telephone, Internet, travel, etc.
Specific - premiums for sales, input money for the sale of goods, if necessary, etc.

The effectiveness of sales channels helps to determine the following indicators:

Social and personal indicators

You can also compare key performance indicators, since not only economic standards affect efficiency in general. In addition to the financial side, subjective categories should be considered.

employee motivation;
psychological resources;
staff satisfaction level;
relationships in the team;
lack of staff turnover;
corporate component (team spirit);
competent distribution of efforts in activities.

Social indicators require control at the stages of planning and setting goals, during their achievement, as well as at the stage of the production process. All results together represent the personal level of compliance with the developed business plan.

Main characteristics

Key sales performance indicators:

Analysis

To analyze sales performance and growth in the sales economy, several key factors need to be assessed:

assessment of the performance of sales managers;
number of employees in the sales department;
focus on the target audience;
number of buyers;
the number of regular, potential and lost customers;
targeted use of company funds;
target distribution of all company resources;
general economic indicators;
highest income
reasons for the failure of potential customers;
level of communication between the manager and the buyer.

Other factors that have an impact on performance also play a special role:

Sales department work

The effectiveness of the sales channel definitely depends on the efficiency of the staff. In addition to the fact that the number of employees corresponds to the volume of work, it should be understood how well they cope with professional duties. To understand the performance, you need to consider the following criteria:

Costs and time for finding new employees.
The number and quality of implementations.
Contractual conditions, convenient sales system for both parties.
Data on the work of managers.
Sales department structure.
Additional motivation as a reward for a good level of work.
Retraining of specialists, the possibility of development and career growth.

Sales

Productivity is shown by conversion. This is an indicator of the level of effectiveness, called the sales funnel, and specifically, the marketing model that represents the stages of product sales before the transaction is concluded.

It consists of three important indicators: the number of visitors (retail outlet or Internet resource), direct requests from customers (live demand) and the number of sales. Sales efficiency is largely based on the interaction of the seller with the buyer. 3 basic levels of employee preparedness are determined:

Increase efficiency

To change the situation in order to increase sales efficiency, many aspects are considered. To analyze current issues, you should pay attention to such important categories of activity as:

sales strategy and planning;
pricing
product presentation;
meetings with clients;
telephone communication;
business correspondence, participation in events;
efficiency of service provision.

Sales effectiveness also depends on the established goals and development methods of the organization. In order to develop the necessary skills, form your own convenient sales system, as well as highlight the strengths and weaknesses that you need to work on to improve efficiency, you need to analyze the following aspects of work:

Defining goals and priorities.
Market requirements.
Consumer interests.
Service model, features of the provision of services and sales.
Marketing plan.
Analysis of information received from the customer.
Product presentation.
Product offer strategy for customers.
Specificity of offers.
The behavior of the manager and contact with the buyer.
Unique offer that distinguishes the company from competitors.
Negotiation.
Design advertising materials.
Work with objections.
Customer support.
The image and reputation of the company.
Effective advertising.
A wide range of distribution channels.
Staff training, education.
An individual approach to the buyer.
Preparation and style of business documentation.
Participation in contests and events.

A detailed study of all aspects will help to achieve effective communication with customers, help compile statistics on sales, evaluate sales performance, create a customer base, prepare an assortment and promotional materials, find out how motivated employees are, minimize errors, attract new customers, increase professionalism.

Promotion Methods

The tasks of the sales department are clear - it is necessary to interest the target audience as much as possible, provide competent customer service, increase consumer demand, provide information on the product in an affordable way, and establish strong contact with the buyer.

For sales efficiency, you can use different methods, given the problematic aspects of the company. To enhance the productive work of the activity necessary:

Distribution channels

Distribution methods are an important component of any business. The more distribution channels a company has, the more successful and profitable it becomes, and accordingly, the economic efficiency of sales increases.

COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT OF MANAGERS FOR SALES BY QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE INDICATORS.
Sukhanova I.M., Skriptunova E.A.
Sales Management June 2007

Effective sales management of any company is impossible without constant and comprehensive attention to the work of sales managers. The success of sellers is one of the main components of good sales. However, in modern companies, a situation where sales managers are left to their own devices is not uncommon. Nobody sets them any tasks (except, perhaps, the implementation of a certain sales plan), nobody controls how efficiently their work is organized, nobody gives them feedback on the quality of their work. Of course, this speaks, first of all, of a low level of sales department management, on the one hand, and poor support from the company's personnel service, on the other. The task of the head of the sales department is to clearly set the tasks for the sales managers and monitor their implementation. The task of the personnel service is to provide the head of the sales department with methodological support and tools for working with personnel. One of such sales management tools is a comprehensive assessment of sales managers by quantitative and qualitative indicators, which will be discussed in this article.

First, let's recall what the essence of the term “assessment” is.

Evaluation is the process of determining the effectiveness of employees to achieve goals, which allows obtaining information for making further management decisions.

The concept of assessment includes the study of an employee for a number of parameters:

performance results;
behavior features;
performance of official duties;
competency level;
personality traits.

Thus, a comprehensive assessment is an assessment of all of the above parameters. However, this is not all. The complexity of the assessment of sales managers also lies in the fact that all of the above parameters are evaluated from several positions: “from the inside” (by managers, managers) and “from the outside” (clients of the company and, if necessary, involved experts), using various methods.

In addition, to ensure a comprehensive assessment, it should be carried out both in quantitative and qualitative indicators. Consider what quantitative and qualitative indicators are suitable for evaluating sales managers:

the sales volume of the manager is consolidated (total sales for a certain period, the evaluation period should correspond to the planning period);
sales volume segmented for various reasons (by groups of goods (services), by groups of customers, by territory of sales, by payment terms);
sales dynamics for a certain period (month, quarter, year);
growth (or decrease) in the number of customers - a common indicator and indicators for individual groups of customers;
customer order expansion - sales dynamics for regular customers;
average price (size) of the transaction;
accounts receivable, including overdue receivables;
indicators of participation in company shares; the number of products sold, for which the tasks were set for its sale (for example, within the framework of the “product of the month” campaign or the sale of “hung” goods ”) and others.

Please note that the evaluation indicators directly follow from the company's goals for the current period, as well as from the official duties of the employee. Therefore, in order to select adequate (and at the same time not unnecessary, as this complicates the assessment and makes it a poorly working tool) quantitative indicators, it is necessary to conduct a thorough analysis of the goals of the company and the objectives of the department resulting from them. And also take into account the indicators recorded in the regulatory documents relating to the activities of the sales manager (job descriptions, standards, work regulations).

Obviously, the assessment of sales managers by quantitative indicators is an assessment “from the inside out”. It can be carried out by the head of the sales department, it can be fully automated within the framework of the implemented CRM - system (Customer Relationship Management - customer relationship management). The evaluation method will be analysis of all of the above indicators.

Regarding quantitative indicators, it is important to remember the following: total sales, as well as some other indicators, depend not only on sales managers, but also on the work of the whole company. A simple example that is typical for many companies: The client sends a fax with any request to the sales department, the secretary receives it and ... forgets to send it ... or ... it is received by the one who was closest to the fax and ... leaves it on the table, and the incoming secretary decides that it is someone who forgot the document ... so it (the document) is of no value and ... throws it away. Therefore, this alone (sales volume) or another quantitative indicator is clearly not enough for a comprehensive assessment of managers. On the other hand, the number of indicators greater than 5 sharply reduces the value of the evaluation procedure itself, since it takes too much time to calculate and analyze it, and feedback on the results of the evaluation only benefits when it is provided promptly.

If the performance of quantitative indicators has a greater effect on the economic performance of the company, then the performance of quality indicators also affects the image of the company, its reputation. For example, a sales manager shows good results in quantitative terms, but is constantly late for meetings and forgets to complete documents on time. Clients tolerate this (for the time being), this is not reflected in the volume of their purchases, but satisfaction with the work with this manager is gradually falling. Accordingly, the attitude to the manager is transferred to the attitude to the whole company.

Evaluation by quality indicators also makes it possible to assess the potential of the manager, the possible ways of his professional and career development. In addition, there are also relationships in the team, with colleagues in the department and employees of other departments. It also makes sense to evaluate it, since the effectiveness of communications, loyalty to the company, the desire to solve problems, rather than seek excuses, also directly affect the activities of the entire company as a whole.

Consider the quality indicators for which it makes sense to evaluate sales managers:

Competencies (business, professional qualities). Assessment of competencies allows you to identify the strengths and weaknesses of employees, select the necessary training programs for them, and determine the prospects for further development.
Customer satisfaction with a sales manager. Evaluation of customer satisfaction is necessary for timely actions to correct the situation, to adjust the behavior of the manager, as well as to develop comprehensive programs to increase customer loyalty.
Awareness of customers about the latest and latest company changes. Informing the customer directly affects the volume of his purchases. It often happens that a client would happily purchase certain goods (and purchase them elsewhere), but simply does not suspect such an opportunity.
The level of performance discipline. By executive discipline we mean the absence of delays in work and meetings, the absence of leaving work ahead of time, and the execution of orders on time. The discipline of the manager directly affects the image of the company. In one company, a leading manager allowed himself to come to work when he was comfortable. As a result, in order to contact him, clients had to call the company 2-3 times, spend time and nerves. Failure to fulfill orders on time may lead to a decrease in the company's reputation and direct losses. Often we have to observe approximately the following situation. The company receives a request from the client. The head of the department promises the client that the manager will contact him, find out all the details, and prepare a commercial proposal within three days. Then the head gives the manager the appropriate order. The manager does not call the client, but after a week sends a commercial proposal. Naturally, by this time, the client, without waiting for the call, decides that the company is not interested and goes to another place where his request is fulfilled more accurately. As a result, the client is lost.
Compliance with the rules, norms and procedures of the company (recorded in corporate documents, as well as reporting standards and interaction of services). Regulatory documents are developed in order to increase the efficiency and interaction of company departments. Due to the inconsistency of actions in companies quite often there is a duplication of functions or vice versa, some important types of work are not done at all. To increase the productivity of work, which directly affects the cost of production or services, various regulations and standards are being developed. If the manager does not consider it necessary to follow them, then he thereby harms the company, since his actions reduce the productivity of the entire company, and also have a decaying effect on the atmosphere in the team. When someone does not comply with the rules (quite often demonstratively), this provokes other workers to act in the same way.
Loyalty of the sales manager to the company. Loyalty almost always affects the work of an employee. A loyal employee tries to do his job as best as possible, strives to achieve a result, and not just to “sit out” the work time, cares about problems, tries to be creative in solving them, and generally he is sick of the job. All this, naturally, affects the results of his work. The employee’s loyalty is influenced by many factors: satisfaction with their work, its content, a sense of fairness in remuneration, team relationships, trust in management, recognition of the employee’s merits, and much more. Most of these factors can be corrected; therefore, it is important to monitor them in order to notice symptoms of distress in time and take measures.
Features of employee motivation. It is important for the department head to know what is stimulating factors for his subordinates and what does not affect the results of work in any way. Moreover, for different employees it can be completely different factors. For someone, the main thing is money; all other incentives are simply not perceived. For someone, money is important, but only if the team has a good atmosphere and its merits are evaluated. And for someone it is very important to gain experience and make a career. And it’s very important for the leader to understand how each of his employees “breathes”, because only then will he be able to somehow influence them. Therefore, the assessment of the characteristics of motivation is important as a tool for personnel management in the case of building a motivation system, and for career development, and in general to improve the efficiency of the department.
Cooperation, establishing productive relationships with other departments. The head of the department needs to understand how much his employees are able and want to establish good relationships with other departments. There are frequent cases when sales managers perceive themselves as a kind of elite unit, before which everyone should “walk on their hind legs”. Other departments have to put up with this. But if such a situation arises, sooner or later the moment will come when the sales department (or some of its employees) will need help and assistance. And then other departments will repay in full for past grievances.

To assess quality indicators, internal reserves may be involved, as a rule, the assessment may be carried out by the head of the sales department, heads and managers of "related" departments. However, an external assessment is no less interesting. External evaluation can be carried out by customers of the company, as well as experts involved. It makes sense to involve external experts in evaluating such parameters as the satisfaction of the sales manager in the company; level of development of competencies; features of motivation; structure of relationships with colleagues; general loyalty.

Consider the basic methods for assessing quality indicators.

Personal questionnaires make it possible to evaluate a large number of employees and obtain quantitative and descriptive results of the assessment of both personality traits and competencies, which is especially important for large companies. Quantitative results allow you to compare employees among themselves for certain qualities. This assessment method is most appropriate for annual certification, where it is necessary to assess the level of competence of employees and outline a professional development plan for them. It is appropriate to use questionnaires to form a reserve for managerial positions, as well as when conducting internal competitions for a certain position
Ability tests allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of a person in a certain type of activity (analysis of numerical, verbal, technical information, reaction speed, attention to details). The advantages of this method are the speed of implementation (from 10 minutes), the ability to evaluate a large number of employees and obtain quantitative results. The reliability of the forecast in this case depends on the accuracy of determining the key abilities required for a particular position and the choice of tests for their assessment.
Professional tests are developed for a specific position and test the key knowledge and skills for it. They can be created by a direct supervisor to evaluate the employees of their unit, as well as external experts of consulting companies, specialized specialists of other organizations.
Competency interview is a structured conversation aimed at obtaining a detailed description of real work situations that a person has encountered in his professional activity. The advantage of this method is that interview questions are easily “adjusted” to the set of competencies required for assessment. An example of questions and possible answers is given in the Appendix (box).
The 360-degree evaluation is the receipt of data on a person’s actions in real work situations and on the qualities that he shows from people who interact with him (from bosses, colleagues, subcontractors, subordinates, customers). Getting information from different sources makes this method reliable enough.
Profile business cases are an example of a typical work situation in which the key qualities for a given position and competency should be manifested and evaluated. A business case is a task with many unknowns: it contains information that the evaluator must study and make a specific decision; there are actors also involved in this situation (the subject must interact with them). The role of additional heroes in the business case can be played by work colleagues or employees of the HR department. The accuracy of choosing a typical work situation and a professionally created business case determine the reliability of the forecast when using this method.
An assessment center is a combination of the various methods listed above for assessing not individual competencies, but their set, as key for this group of positions or for the company as a whole. This method is considered one of the most prognostic, since several experts evaluate a person in many situations. Its accuracy is primarily determined by how correctly identified key competencies, as well as the quality of cases developed for their assessment and the professionalism of assessment experts.
Assessment by KPI (key performance indicators) is the most formalized method for assessing employee performance. This method makes sense to use in large and highly developed companies (those companies where goal management is implemented, company goals are developed, plans are drawn up and reports are prepared both at the company level as a whole and for each department and specialist). It requires a precisely developed methodology for identifying KPIs and preferably automated assessment. For this type of assessment to really work not only to control the results, but also to increase the efficiency of employees, it must, on the one hand, take into account the strategic goals of the company, and on the other, be clear and understandable for each employee.
Customer surveys. A survey of customer satisfaction with a partnership with a company shows, inter alia, how competently the manager builds relationships with clients, whether he knows his needs, whether he informs about the latest on time, and whether he is trying to expand cooperation. It is better to entrust customer surveys to an adjacent division of the company (for example, the marketing department) or to experts involved. Also, the head of the sales department may from time to time selectively ring the customers of his subordinates and informally find out their opinion on cooperation with the company and a specific manager.
Mystery shopper. Method for assessing the quality of services and external communications of the company. This method allows you to evaluate the quality of the sales staff and is a process in which the controller, under the guise of a buyer, purchases the goods. The agent, based on a pre-compiled report template, forms a contact card in hot pursuit, subjectively evaluates the most significant characteristics and expresses his private opinion. The SQI (Service Quality Index) technique used for this allows you to compare the quality of customer service in any organizations operating in the consumer goods and services market using a single set of key factors. Quality of service is evaluated by the following criteria:

appearance (store, salon)
convenience of obtaining information
appearance of the employees of the trading floor
making contact (customer meeting)
identification of needs
product presentation
answers to questions and objections
contact completion
time consuming
customer attitude
subjective assessment of a salesperson

What can be evaluated by the Mystery Shopper method for sales managers:

Subject of evaluation	What is evaluated
Telephone communication	Measures the level of corporate culture, the availability of communication standards, and employee knowledge of telephone communication technology
Internet communication	As a rule, the information content and the speed of responses to visitors' requests left on a web page or sent by e-mail are measured
Checking sellers for honesty	Suppose the company management suspects that some of the employees are dishonest, but do not know how to catch him at the “crime scene”.
Sales promotions	For example, a “mysterious buyer” is interested in the seller with a certain type of product, without indicating a specific brand, and fixes what the seller will offer him. If he recommends a brand promoted within the framework of the action, the “mysterious buyer” reveals himself and gives the seller a prize (cash, gift).
Competitor analysis	Assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of your company in relation to competitor companies. One application form is used. The evaluation parameters may include: the level of service, prices, assortment and availability of goods in stock, the system of work with wholesale buyers, the convenience of making a purchase, the quality of sales staff, etc. Data on competitors is compared with data on the company, and based on this information, a conclusion is drawn on the development reserves of sales managers

All this complex of works is focused on:

Assessment of company personnel in terms of compliance with regulations, their implementation and viability.
Assessment of the level of competence and awareness of staff.
An assessment of how well the sales managers provide the desired image of the company (including if agents visit not only “their” but also competing companies, forming a comparative profile of the main players in the local market).
Assessment of employee integrity.

So, why do we need a comprehensive assessment of sales managers? In addition to the most common assessment goals (such as current sales motivation, career advancement, training direction), the results of a comprehensive assessment of sales managers allow:

Assess the level of professionalism of employees, outline comprehensive measures to improve it. For example, the Sales Manager Professionalism Development Program may include: conducting general department training, personal coaching with some employees and supervision with others, appointing mentors, introducing the necessary regulation, improving forms of control, conducting round-table discussions on exchanging opinions.
Redistribute the human resources of the sales department depending on the complexity of the tasks and, accordingly, the required level of qualification.
Make adjustments to the system of motivation for sales managers, based on an understanding of the situation in the team, employee motives and company goals.
Make adjustments to training programs, bring them closer to the specifics of the department and the specifics of specific managers.
Develop special programs to increase staff loyalty.
Outline measures to improve executive discipline.
Identify flaws in the organizational structure of the company and horizontal communications.
Identify management problems that impede the development of the company.

It is very important to understand that the complex of quantitative and qualitative indicators in each case will be different. There is no standard set of indicators that can be used in any company. Each company has its own characteristics, its goals and objectives, its problems, and the assessment of sales managers in each company accordingly pursues its own goals. The set of indicators depends on the goals of the assessment and therefore each company should develop it for itself. Naturally, some blanks can be used for this. Consider some of the most common goals of assessment and which, based on them, indicators and methods of their assessment are more appropriate.

The goal is career advancement. Two options are possible here:

Option one.

We make the “best” seller “scary” or “leading” in order to fix his status, increase the size of a fixed part of his salary, which should be evidence of recognition of his achievements. In this case, quantitative indicators of activity are more important. Particular attention should be paid to the stability of sales dynamics, the absence of overdue receivables. From qualitative indicators, it makes sense to evaluate the loyalty of the sales manager to the organization, the structure of his motivation, since the step being taken is motivational. However, even if all the indicators suit you, take your time and talk with the manager about the conditions under which you are ready to increase his position, especially to increase his “fixing”. Perhaps this will be an increase in sales (either total, or for a particular category of goods, or for the selected customer sector), perhaps it will be work with illiquid assets on conditions interesting for the manager and for the company - that is, some additional functions that will “pay off” new appointment. It is possible to stipulate some intermediate results, in which the position first changes, and then, after reaching certain indicators, the salary.

The second option as part of a career development goal.

We want to determine which of the sales managers can become the head of the sales department. In this case, more interesting for us will be quality indicators - competencies, and priority will be managerial competencies, the level of their development. These competencies need to be assessed both internally (for example, within the framework of a 360 degree assessment), and with the involvement of external resources: independent experts, less often, clients. In this case, quantitative indicators can be at a stable average level, which will indicate that the employee understands the goals, objectives, and priorities of the company’s sales. Having assessed your managerial potential, do not forget that you need to grow a good leader. It is necessary to set before him, and better together with him, a system of goals for the entire sales department, teach him the delegation of individual tasks. Otherwise, the company may suffer from the "loss" of a stable seller, without having received a worthy leader. Unfortunately, companies often practice appointing a leader from the best sellers. Why "Unfortunately? You can’t think that the most successful sales manager can become a good leader. It is important to look and evaluate precisely managerial competencies, and not professional ones. As a result, even if a specialist has good motivation for professional growth, for a very long time he remains only a “leader - the best seller”, often (because of the desire to prove that he is worthy of the title of leader), pulling out a department only at the expense of his own sales. This is hardly the result that the company wants to get as a result of the career advancement of an employee.

The goal is to plan training for sales staff.

Quite often, sales managers explain insufficient sales by the lack of proper qualifications for managers. To solve the problem, they order sales training and say: "We need to teach them how to sell competently, as a result of training sales should increase by at least 20%." This phrase, in printed form, looks more than naive. However, such statements have to be heard all the time. Even if really low sales are a consequence of the unprofessionalism of sellers, nevertheless, one training cannot solve all the sales problems in the company. Managers return to their usual environment and if they are not controlled and stimulated, they quickly (if not immediately) return to their usual course of action. That is, after the training, they already know how and what to do, and if they are asked about it, they will answer more or less correctly. But to know this does not mean to do it. Changing your habits is very difficult, you need to make a lot of effort for this. But more often than not, the reason for low sales is not only, and sometimes not so much, the professionalism of managers. There are many factors, without changing which, you should not hope for a significant increase in sales. This includes the company's positioning on the market, and the choice of the target customer, and competently built distribution channels, and the demand for the product, and taking into account the needs of customers and interesting working conditions for them, and sufficient advertising support, etc. etc. Thus, there is no direct correlation between unit training and sales growth. At a minimum, you need to run a whole series of seminars that will examine the company's marketing policy, target customer groups, sales organization technology, the interaction of all departments within the sales business process, and at the very end of this cycle there will be a series of training seminars on work technologies with customers, including effective sales skills. So, during the assessment, we must find out: "What to teach." As part of the answer to this question, it is important for us to assess the competencies of the sales manager, his understanding of the sales technology, sales standards that are accepted in the company.

The term "competency" in this article is used quite often. For example, it makes sense to cite some of the competencies of a sales manager.

Focus on results, achievements. The ability to bear responsibility for the implementation of decisions, the ability to set new ambitious goals to achieve the previous ones. Task-oriented and relationship-oriented behavior.

Flexibility. The ability to quickly and adequately respond to emergency situations, see and identify a problem, find ways to solve it, assemble a team for implementation, evaluate results.

Ability to learn, self-study. Learning, susceptibility to new methods and technologies, the ability to apply new in practice. Ability to introspection. Willingness to analyze their achievements and shortcomings, look at familiar things with different eyes, and make rational use of other people's experience.

Influence, persuasion. The ability to defend one’s own opinion. Logic in conducting constructive conversations. Mastery of influence techniques. The ability to identify and use the motives of people. The ability to ask the right questions and determine the degree of awareness and emotional state of a partner.

Ability to hear others, accept feedback. The ability to create channels of two-way communication - to abstract oneself from one’s opinions and thoughts, to concentrate on the words of the interlocutor. Good auditory and visual memory. Possession of different feedback methods. The ability to effectively encourage and criticize other people.

Presentation, negotiation skills. The ability to determine the goals and objectives of the presentation, the interests of the audience. Building an effective introduction, connecting phrases, the main part and completion of the presentation. Possession of persuasion strategies and public speaking skills. Knowledge of the stages of an effective negotiation process. Ability to determine the interests of participants, choose the best alternative. Ability to discuss, propose, conduct positional bargaining. Mastery of manipulation techniques and ability to resist them.

Customer focus. Knowledge of customer service policies and standards. Orientation to current and future customer needs. The ability to behave correctly with different types of "difficult" customers. The ability to build partnerships with customers, the ability to recognize additional opportunities and risks in dealing with customers.

The competencies of a sales manager can also include: analytical abilities, creativity, organizational abilities, teamwork skills, etc. Accordingly, depending on what competencies need to be developed, a training program will also be built. The evaluation methods here can be 360 \u200b\u200bdegrees, “Mystery shopper”, KPI assessment, competency interviews, professional tests.

The goal is to make adjustments to the motivation system sales managers, relying on an understanding of employee motives and company goals. To achieve this goal, both quantitative and qualitative indicators should be used as indicators, based on their current tasks facing the department.

For example, the department was tasked with increasing sales of products of its own brands, reducing the volume and terms of receivables, and increasing the share of regular customers in the sales structure.

Accordingly, it makes sense to evaluate the following indicators:
increase in total sales monthly;
the share of sales for own brands is not lower than a certain level;
monthly positive dynamics in the share of own brands in the sales structure;
the amount of receivables is not higher than a certain amount;
the average period of receivables is not more than a certain number of days;
positive quarterly dynamics in the share of regular customers in the sales structure;
overall customer satisfaction (annual growth);
manager motivation structure.

To assess the motivation of employees in the sales department, you can use methods such as: personality questionnaires, questionnaires, interviews.

The goal is to assess the level of professionalism of employees, compare it with competitors. In this case, we need to develop a portrait of the “ideal” sales manager with a certain level of competencies and compare it with real portraits of employees' competencies. To understand the competitiveness of personnel, it is necessary to include in the evaluation procedure the customers of the company and its partners. Methods in this case can be 360 \u200b\u200bdegrees, professional tests, "Mystery Shopper", customer surveys.

The goal - to identify weaknesses in the organizational structure of the company , management problems hindering the development of the company. We have already repeated several times that the entire organization affects the volume of sales. Therefore, the analysis of sales, decrease or instability of indicators will be some "indicator" that the organization has problems. This may be a violation of the interaction of sales managers within the unit: pulling or “pushing” customers. Communications between the sales department and other departments (accounting, warehouse, manufacturing, marketing, etc.) may be interrupted. Among management problems, the following can be identified: speed of decision-making (for example, according to a discount system for a particular group of clients); lack of marketing policy; lack of customer service standards and others. Evaluation methods that will help identify such problems are as follows: analysis of the business process of sales (regulations, standards, orders, etc.); analysis of organizational structure, regulations on units, job descriptions. The Mystery Shopper method will be effective, some additional information can be obtained through training programs (for example, Training on Sales Technology).

All of the above, as well as other assessment goals necessary for the company, can be the basis for the regular (annual) certification of sales managers. An assessment within the framework of any of the listed goals is not an isolated action to figure out who is to blame and what to do. A systematic comprehensive assessment of sales managers will allow the organization to respond flexibly to changes in the conditions of the external and internal environment, thereby increasing their competitiveness.

Summing up, we want to emphasize once again that the assessment of sales managers only gives the expected results when it is carried out precisely on a set of indicators. For example, if we are talking about quantitative indicators, then analyzing only the number of contracts concluded is not enough to conclude that the seller is successful. The same manager may have a large receivable, contracts may fall on “unpromising” customers or on products that are not priority, which does not contribute to the achievement of the goals and objectives of the organization. Speaking of quality indicators, we may also encounter the fact that the seller has good indicators of professional competence, satisfaction and awareness of his customers. Moreover, his loyalty to the company is low and, if we do not take certain steps, then soon, this specialist can leave the organization and at the same time either “take away” customers or “annoy” the unloved company in some other way.

How often do sales managers evaluate? By quantitative indicators - monthly, quarterly, annually. For quality - not more than once every six months. Many managers believe that the very possibility of conducting an assessment disciplines sales managers and stabilizes sales themselves. In some ways this is true, however, the assessment should be carried out only with clear goals and appropriate methods accordingly. It is in this case that the main objectives of the evaluation will be solved, and the overall tone of the department will remain at a high level, and the costs of the evaluation will pay off.

Application (sidebar)

Competencies	Verification Question	Desired Answer
General competencies
People oriented	What do you like about the profession?	The employee should mention that he likes talking to people.
The desire to understand another person	The client avoids eye contact with you. What are the reasons for this behavior?	This may depend on the nature of the person. Maybe he was tired, he was tired, not interested, he was hiding something, he was embarrassed, etc.
Responsibility, Success Orientation	Why do some sellers have good sales, regular customers, etc., while others do things worse?	It is important that the manager begins by explaining the reasons for success. He must indicate such qualities that contribute to success as: determination, persuasion, sociability, etc. It is bad when a seller starts talking about luck, good territory or a good customer base ...
Result oriented	How is the success of the seller determined?	The answer must necessarily include quantitative indicators: sales volume, number of customers, etc.
Ability to make decisions independently and take reasonable risk	You are on a business trip. The client insists on changing the standard terms of the contract (while the company is still profitable). You are trying to contact the leader, but this is not possible. Your actions.	I will accept the offer of the client, as it is beneficial for the company.
Special competencies
Sales skills	What are the methods of justifying the price.	There should be several of them. For instance: Reception of a “sandwich”. .... And all this you will receive for ... Acceptance of qualitative justification. Match the price with the benefits of the product. Reception division. The price of the base model and the addition of options. Determination of price and operating time. Admission Multiplication. Demonstrates customer savings in a temporary mode. Other.
Analytic skills	In what situations is sales volume important, not marginal profit?	At the stage of promoting a new product, capturing market share from competitors, and also, if necessary, quickly selling a "dying" product.
Presentation Skills	How do you determine what you need to talk about at a presentation	It all depends on the audience. If we are talking about one client, we need to identify his needs by asking him questions, and build a presentation of the goods based on the client’s answers. If we are talking about a public presentation, we focus on anticipating needs (that is, we analyze the basic, typical needs of this target group).

TOcriteria for evaluating managers allow an organization to determine the degree to which managers meet the position, the degree to which strategic and tactical goals and the specific tasks that employees face are achieved.

INall criteria for evaluating managers can be divided into three groups:

1. Performance evaluation criteria

2. Criteria for assessing personal qualities

3. Criteria for assessing professional qualities.

The first group of criteria - Performance Evaluation Criteria

TOcriteria for assessing performance are indicators, indicators that help assess the quality of work of sales managers, the productivity and effectiveness of a manager’s work, correlate actual results with planned ones and determine how quickly the organization approaches its goal using these labor resources.

TOcriteria for assessing performance, in turn, I propose to divide into three categories:

Criteria for evaluating the result of the manager's work;
Criteria for assessing the quality of customer service;
Criteria for assessing the quality of work with receivables.

Rlet's take a closer look at each category.

1. Criteria for evaluating the result of the manager's work:

Sales volume (income / revenue).
The share of actual sales from planned sales.
Gross profit (income minus expense).
The share of actual gross profit from planned gross profit.

2. Criteria for assessing the quality of customer service.

TOcriteria for assessing the quality of work with clients are needed in order to determine how well the manager works with clients, and if the quality is poor, to identify the manager’s mistakes, to determine at what stages of work the main difficulties arise.

Active customer base.
Number of new customers.
The number of repeated applications.
Number of customers lost.
The number of calls per day.
The number of cross-selling.
The duration of one sales cycle (from the first call to the conclusion of the transaction).
Average transaction amount.

3. Criteria for assessing the quality of work with receivables.

Dthese criteria help to evaluate how well the manager works with accounts receivable (does he know how to prevent it, does he work to pay debts, etc.):

The number of bills.
The number of accounts with a delay in payment.
The proportion of invoices with a delay of the total number of invoices issued.
Average debt.
The share of debt in total revenue.
The number of customers with late payment.

Din order to increase the effectiveness of sales personnel management, it is necessary to collect information on each criterion, analyze, identify patterns, draw conclusions on the basis of which management decisions are made, draw up an action plan and implement the plan.

Sales managers are an integral part of almost every organization, they have direct contact with the company's customers and are its face. The main task of the sales manager- is to bring the client to the acquisition of the proposed product or service, get economic benefits from the transaction, as well as increase the overall level of consumer loyalty to the company.

The main feature of each sales manager is his bright charisma and sociability. The ability to win people over and build trust is one of the guarantors of successful performance of official duties and increase of the effectiveness of their work. To date, the vacancy "Sales Manager" is the most popular for some reason among recruitment companies.

Indeed, it’s quite difficult to find a person who can quickly recover the company's costs for marketing tools and the manager’s salary. However, what if the sales manager is already on staff and you need to assess the degree of his professional suitability?

There are many ways today. performance evaluation of sales managers, eg:

Assessment by results of work (in monetary / quantitative terms);
Features of behavior in society, the team and with the client;
Quality of work performed;
Level of professional suitability and qualifications;
Personal qualities;
The degree and nature of the employee’s influence on the image of the company, etc.

It is advisable to evaluate an employee precisely within the enterprise or with the involvement of third-party disinterested persons. Direct communication with existing clients of the company can bear fruit, however, you should not practice this method: the internal affairs of the organization should not concern the client, otherwise, if there are any problems, the information will quickly reach him and can negatively affect the impression, level of loyalty and trust.

Attracting third parties, for example, HR industry figures, to analyze the work of the sales manager will be a decisive step towards solving the problem: a person who has professional skills in evaluating personnel will be able to carry out his work in a structured and qualitative manner, analyze the person’s professional and personal qualities and, if necessary, to develop several options for stimulating the increase in staff efficiency.

The main criteria for evaluating personnel, including sales managers, are divided into qualitative and quantitative. Quantitative indicators include:

Total sales for a specific time period
The degree of implementation of the sales plan and its regularity
Sales of goods and services that are priority for the company for a given period of time
The number of new customers and re-calls of existing customers
Dynamics of the average order / purchase amount for the employee’s work period
Employee sales figures adjusted for seasonality / crisis situations / competition
The presence / absence of a positive growth in sales dynamics.

The main objectives of the analysis and assessment of quantitative indicators of the employee’s work is to identify the actual results of activities, to fix changes in the dynamics of his indicators and to determine the degree of work efficiency in financial terms in relation to the company.

All data can be obtained by studying data on transactions, sales, etc. depending on the specialization of the employing company.

Quality indicators are characterized by a high level of subjectivity, but they are an integral and really important part of the evaluation of the sales manager. These include:

The degree of professional training (this allows you to identify the need for further employee training)
The degree of customer satisfaction with which the sales manager directly interacted
Compliance with company standards and workplace discipline
Lack / presence of employee motivation to increase the number of sales and improve the quality of service
The degree of customer satisfaction with the quality of service of the manager (identified by, for example, anonymous questioning or by studying reviews in Internet resources), etc.

When analyzing quality indicators, one should not forget about the significance of a person’s personal qualities. As practice shows, there are “born” sales managers whose character traits and behavioral features allow them to make sales as efficiently as possible even in the absence of the necessary knowledge and experience.

The second group includes those sales managers who achieve success in their field of activity exclusively, as the people say, “sweat and blood.” Their personal qualities do not meet the standards of an “ideal employee in the sales department,” however, professional skills, abilities, knowledge and experience become decisive on the way to the goal.

The key qualities for a professional sales manager are the following qualities:

Self confidence
Independence in decision making
Sociability
Stress resistance
Erudition
Energy
Determination
Self control
Motivation
Flexibility
Resourcefulness

You should not evaluate the productivity of a sales manager immediately by a large number of parameters - experts recommend choosing no more than 5, otherwise a large amount of information can cause an unbiased assessment of the employee’s work and lead to incorrect decisions in the planning process for further events in the organization’s internal environment .

Identification and study of quality indicators can be carried out in many ways, depending on the desire and capabilities of the analyzing link. This is mainly done through third-party monitoring of the HR manager, questionnaires, testing (effective to determine the degree of professional suitability and awareness of the subject of activity), personal conversation with the employee, role play, the “mystery shopper” method, establishing direct contact with the manager’s clients, studying materials (reviews, conversations) in online resources.

Whatever the purpose of evaluating the work of the sales manager, it is always necessary to take into account the specialization of the employing company and its way of selling the product. To achieve maximum effect, it is recommended to contact professionals in their field, for example, the Triumph recruitment agency. Its specialists have extensive experience in conducting personnel evaluations, as well as in developing motivational and training programs. This will allow, as soon as possible and most efficiently, to analyze personnel without compromising the company's budget and to develop a set of measures to improve the staff.

HR Center "TRIUMF"

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