Sales Management versus
Sales Process Management

Many sales managers have a process for sales management. Their process looks at recruitment, forecasting, coaching, counselling, monitoring and reporting.

Few sales managers seem to practise sales process management.  They have not developed with their teams the various stages of the sales process to examine what works and what does not.  They are not continuously striving to improve the process.

The sales process should cover all the following areas:

  • Territory research
  • Account qualification
  • Activity management
  • Mail shots
  • Telephone technique
  • Events
  • First meeting scripts
  • The acquisition of a hunting licence
  • Pipeline management
  • Establishing credibility as a supplier
  • Need creation
  • Qualification
  • Demonstrations, presentations, customer visits
  • Financial justification
  • Proposal standards
  • Negotiation
  • Account management
  • Account development

The sales management process often just measures efficiency through questions such as:

  • How many phone calls have you made?
  • How much face to face time have you put in?
  • How many demonstrations have you done?

Sales process management addresses effectiveness with questions such as:

  • How many meetings have you set up with decision-makers?
  • How many hunting licences and timetables have you organised?
  • What quality of budgets are you getting the prospect to commit to?

While the sales management process focuses on quantity, sales process management focuses on quality – what to do and how/when/why to do it.

Looking at the Whole Sale as a Process

There are three basic types of salespeople:

  • Those that can only see the next meeting, and essentially work blind
  • Those that concentrate on the evidence they can provide to prove they can meet a prospect’s needs
  • Those that plan who they are going to see, when and what actions they are going to get them to take; what commitments they are going to secure

All salespeople need to think beyond the next call, think in terms of commitments, not just evidence and always have a plan that looks at the whole sale as a process. This is quality selling.

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