Building A Winning Sales Force

Sales force effectiveness drives every company's success, but keeping a sales organization at the top of its game is a constant challenge. As experts in the field, Andy Zoltners and Prabha Sinha have helped sales leaders around the world perfect their sales strategy, operations, and execution. Combining strategic insight with pragmatic advice, Building a Winning Sales Force provides current and aspiring sales leaders with innovative yet practical solutions to many of the most common issues faced by today’s sales organi­za­tions. The book shows readers how to: assess how good their sales force really is • identify sales force improvement opportunities • implement tools and processes that have immediate impact on sales effec­tive­ness • attract and retain the best salespeople • design incen­tive compensation plans • set goals • manage sales perform­ance • motivate the sales force With practical advice and case studies of companies that have conquered even the most challenging obstacles, Building a Winning Sales Force will enable every company to drive sales and stay competitive.

First-line sales managers (FLMs) play a key role in helping a sales organization drive profitable revenue growth in an ever-changing business environment. But although directly responsible for managing and driving sales force performance, FLMs often don't get enough time, attention, and resources from sales leaders. "Building a Winning Sales Management Team" shows just how important FLMs are to sales organizations--and what happens when companies underinvest in these key players. Authors of four previous books on sales management, Zoltners, Sinha and Lorimer show in "Building a Winning Sales Management Team" just how companies can nurture successful FLMs and improve sales force productivity. The book has dozens of real-life examples of how investing in first-line management paid off in a big way. In developing the book, the authors collaborated with leaders from some of the world's top companies. The authors also draw on their cumulative experience as sales and marketing consultants, faculty members at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, and business speakers and writers to produce fresh, completely original insights on sales force effectiveness. "Building a Winning Sales Management Team" shows in detail exactly how companies can improve FLM performance. The authors reveal eight key drivers for defining, creating and enabling a successful first-line sales management team, and show how FLMs are critical facilitators of change. The book also includes a self-assessment tool to help organizations determine the right priorities to start improving sales management team performance.

This book focuses upon the role of the sales force in today's changing world and how to design a sales force for strategic advantage. It includes sections on how to assess the current sales force design and how to implement change and covers customer segmentation, market strategy, structuring and sizing, alignment, metrics and managing change.

A well-designed and implemented incentive program is an essential tool for building a motivated, highly effective sales force that delivers the results you need. Incentive programs are seductively powerful but complicated instruments. Without careful planning and implementation, they can be too stingy to motivate, too complex to understand, too quick to reward mediocre results, and too difficult to implement. The Complete Guide to Sales Force Incentive Compensation is a practical, accessible, detailed roadmap to building a compensation system that gets it right by creating motivating incentives that produce positive outcomes. Packed with hundreds of real-life examples of what works and what doesn't, this important guide helps you: Understand the value of building an incentive plan that is aligned with your company's goals and culture. Avoid the common trap of overusing incentives to solve too many sales management problems. Measure the effectiveness of your current incentive program, employing easy-to-use tools and metrics for pinpointing its weak spots. Design a compensation plan that attracts and retains successful salespeople, including guidelines for determining the correct pay level, the best salary incentive mix, the proper performance measures, and the right performance payout relationship. Select an incentive compensation plan that works for your organization -- then test the plan before it is launched. Set territory-level goals that are fair and realistic, and avoid overpaying the sales force or demoralizing salespeople by having difficult goals or not fairly assigned. Create and manage sales contests, SPIFFs (Special Performance Incentive for Field Force), and recognition programs that consistently deliver the intended results. Manage a successful transition to a new compensation plan and build efficient administration systems to support your plan. Filled with ready-to-use formulas and assessment tools and a wealth of insights from frontline sales managers and executives, The Complete Guide to Sales Force Incentive Compensation is your hands-on, easy-to-read playbook for crucially important decisions.

In today's markets, success no longer depends on communicating the value of products or services. It rests on the crucial ability to create value for customers. Sales forces need to retool current strategies by recognizing the customer's dominant power in today's economy and what that means for those who sell. Capitalizing on research into the practices of cutting edge companies, the authors show how the successful sales force breaks away from traditional thinking and transforms themselves into complex business processes with multiple sales approaches and selling mdoels that meet the demands of today's sophisticated customers.

Whether you are an accomplished sales executive leading a large organization or a sales manager leading a team, your ability to remove obstacles and speed the sales process will determine your success. High-Performance Selling is geared for the sales leader who has to persuade others to work as a sales force of one. Written in a straightforward fashion by veteran sales management consultant Anthony Chaine, this book shows you how to: - lead sales organizations- build solid sales operation- improve cross-functional team cooperation- build better hiring and recruiting systems- develop a sales culture that drives performance- empowers your sales managers to create winning teams"I have worked with Anthony, and I can say firsthand, his leadership style has had a profound impact on every level of our organization. His approach is profoundly visionary and hugely influential. I highly recommend Anthony, his approach, and his book."-Antonio Casanova, CEO of NOVAPAY"World-class selling is about aiding customers to make better choices. Anthony's inspiring stories and honest advice provides insight that sales leaders at every level can use to their benefit. High-Performance Selling is a thought-provoking, good read on an important subject."-Tom Howard, Managing Director TM Cards Networks"Your success as a leader is as good the success of your sales teams. Anthony shows you how to make the right decisions to lead your sales organization towards peak performances while eliminating bottlenecks to keep your sales organization moving toward significance."-Brian Luc, Vice President of Business OperationsAnthony Chaine is an expert in sales management and leadership. He has won multiple awards as a quota carrying sales leader, trainer, and instructor. He is the founder and the CEO of Elite Sales Leadership Consulting LLC. He specialized in management and sales training. Visit asalesleader.com for tools and resources as well as information on your seminars and coaching programs.

How can organizations provide the right sales training to the right sales people at the right time? This book is filled with a diverse collection of case studies from top companies and provides a practical road map and the proven tools for organizations that want to implement a winning sales training program. The book offers helpful techniques and tips on how to successfully execute sales training with limited resources and cut budgets. It provides how-to guidelines for successful sales training in a down economy. It is written by 13 experts who have experience selling and have managed sales people. The contributors have combined experience of improving sales performance of over 120 years. The book contributors are Bob Rickert, Jim Graham, Teresa Hiatt, Michael Rockelmann, Maris Edelson, Susan Onaitis, Susanne Conrad, Rick Wills, Ken Phillips, Trish Uhl, Gary Summy, Lanie Jordan, and Renie McClay.

"Every firm’s sales force combines the distinctive personalities of its members with the complex issues of size, pay structure, incentives, performance evaluation, and effective uses of new technology. And while underrepresented in most marketing texts, the success of the sales force is a major component in the overall success of most companies. The Complete Guide to Accelerating Sales Force Performance develops an effective, innovative framework for evaluating and improving the performance of any sales force. This book identifies and describes the key factors for creating a fast-track, go-to-market strategy. It’s loaded with proven ideas for improving such ""success drivers"" as: culture * sales force structure * hiring * sales manager selection * training * compensation * technology * sales territory design * goal setting * performance management. Packed with valuable insights and real-life examples, this guide is an excellent source of practical ideas for sales and marketing managers in all industries."