Managing Sales Professionals

This book is designed for sales managers as they make decisions and solve problems on a day-to-day basis. Managing Sales Professionals provides readers with specific details and illustrates how to plan, organize, staff, operate, and evaluate a sales force and its activities. This book offers an approach that is practical and realistic--one that is needed by sales managers who want to oversee a successful sales staff.The author, Joseph Vaccaro, uses an “integrated model” approach. He integrates the marketing mix as it relates to selling, and then he delves into the daily situations and problems readers encounter as practicing sales managers. With cases at the end of each chapter that make the chapter material come to life, Managing Sales Professionals is a practical tool for those in the world of marketing and sales management. It is a realistic, pragmatic, practical, how-to approach that explains complex concepts in a clear and concise manner. Vaccaro avoids generalities, and he cuts right to the critical specifics for sales managers in the real world.Terms and concepts are clearly defined, and each chapter concludes with penetrating questions to further develop your sales management skills. Along with a highly pertinent chapter on legal and ethical aspects in selling, Managing Sales Professionals covers: how to recruit salespeople motivation procedures gender and racial diversity of the sales force how to plan and conduct a training program effective selling techniques how to develop brand awareness new sales technology how to determine pricing and discount policies compensation policies how to determine transportation policies control and evaluation procedures how to effectively interact with marketing Anyone looking to increase sales, such as business owners, consultants, marketing professionals, and practicing salespeople and sales managers, can use this book to examine their sales staffs and look for areas in which to improve. Managing Sales Professionals is also ideal for upper level undergraduate students as they learn the basics of how to sell, organize, and run a sales force.

This book presents a very novel and strategic approach to Sales Management, an area that has suffered from a lack of sophistication in practice. This content-rich and thought-provoking book has a very unique positioning: It considers the sales performance of an organization at a very high, strategic level and offers specific guidance in managing not just a few direct reports but an entire organization?s sales function. The book includes many useful tools and guidelines and is enhanced with numerous examples that help bring the concepts to life and make them very approachable for the trade market. A checklist-based scoring system that is utilized throughout the book allows readers to specifically evaluate their own company as well as to track its progress as concepts are applied over time. This work is an essential resource and thought-provoking read for ambitious Sales Managers, including CEO-level executives.

Boost sales results by zeroing in on the metrics that matter most “Sales may be an art, but sales management is a science. Cracking the Sales Management Code reveals that science and gives practical steps to identify the metrics you must measure to manage toward success.” —Arthur Dorfman, National Vice President, SAP “Cracking the Sales Management Code is a must-read for anyone who wants to bring his or her sales management team into the 21st century.” —Mike Nathe, Senior Vice President, Essilor Laboratories of America “The authors correctly assert that the proliferation of management reporting has created a false sense of control for sales executives. Real control is derived from clear direction to the field—and this book tells how do to that in an easy-to-understand, actionable manner.” —Michael R. Jenkins, Signature Client Vice President, AT&T Global Enterprise Solutions “There are things that can be managed in a sales force, and there are things that cannot. Too often sales management doesn’t see the difference. This book is invaluable because it reveals the manageable activities that actually drive sales results.” —John Davis, Vice President, St. Jude Medical “Cracking the Sales Management Code is one of the most important resources available on effective sales management. . . . It should be required reading for every sales leader.” —Bob Kelly, Chairman, The Sales Management Association “A must-read for managers who want to have a greater impact on sales force performance.” —James Lattin, Robert A. Magowan Professor of Marketing, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University “This book offers a solution to close the gap between sales processes and business results. It shows a new way to think critically about the strategies and tactics necessary to move a sales team from good to great!” —Anita Abjornson, Sales Management Effectiveness, Abbott Laboratories About the Book: There are literally thousands of books on selling, coaching, and leadership, but what about the particulars of managing a sales force? Where are the frameworks, metrics, and best practices to help you succeed? Based on extensive research into how world-class companies measure and manage their sales forces, Cracking the Sales Management Code is the first operating manual for sales management. In it you will discover: The five critical processes that drive sales performance How to choose the right processes for your own team The three levels of sales metrics you must collect Which metrics you can “manage” and which ones you can’t How to prioritize conflicting sales objectives How to align seller activities with business results How to use CRM to improve the impact of coaching As Neil Rackham writes in the foreword: “There’s an acute shortage of good books on the specifics of sales management. Cracking the Sales Management Code is about the practical specifics of sales management in the new era, and it fills a void.” Cracking the Sales Management Code fills that void by providing foundational knowledge about how the sales force works. It reveals the gears and levers that actually control sales results. It adds clarity to things that you intuitively know and provides insight into things that you don’t. It will change the way you manage your sellers from day to day, as well as the results you get from year to year.

"Overworked and under-supported front line sales managers are desperately looking for resources to improve their performance. This book was written for sales managers who understand the need to develop themselves. They have figured out that they must take charge of their own success."--P. [4] of Cover.

The performance difference between the top salespeople in the world and the rest is smaller than you may think. Learn where you can elevate your game today and reach unprecedented new heights. Did you know that the 80/20 rule applies to the world of sales too? Eighty percent of all sales are made by only twenty percent of salespeople. How are they raking in so much money though, and how can others join them? Sales trainer extraordinaire Brian Tracy has spent years studying the world’s best salespeople and their methods to discover that the difference between the top 20 and the bottom 80 boils down to only a handful of critical areas in which the top professionals perform better than their peers. In this compact and convenient guide, Tracy shares 21 tried-and-true techniques that can help any salesperson gain that winning edge. In Sales Success, you will learn how to: Set and achieve clear goals Develop a sense of urgency and make every minute count Know your products inside and out Analyze your competition Find and quickly qualify prospects Understand the three keys to persuasion Overcome the six major objections, and much more! Packed with proven strategies and priceless insights, Sales Success will get you planted firmly on the path to success, making more money than you thought possible and greater career satisfaction than you ever believed you would find.

PROFESSIONAL SALES MANAGEMENT, 3RD captures today's sales manager in action on the job. The book integrates the best of sales and marketing management while illustrating how the entire marketing organization -- both in the field and at headquarters -- must function as a team. Students learn how to create win-win relationships with individual consumers and organizational customers to solve problems of mutual interest. Discussions and examples of diverse sales concepts, issues, and activities provide an appropriate balance among theoretical, analytical and pragmatic approaches. The text blends the most progressive applications from the sales practitioner's world with the latest research findings from academia. Step-by-step illustrations go beyond general descriptions to show how to carry out processes or calculations. Students analyze key behavioral, technological, and managerial forces and trends in the selling environment.PROFESSIONAL SALES MANAGEMENT, 3RD helps the sales managers and salespeople of today and tomorrow prepare for the challenging and exciting years ahead.

THE MCGRAW-HILL EXECUTIVE MBA SERIES "Executive education is suddenly every CEO's favorite strategic weapon." --BusinessWeek Now repackaged in easily transportable paperback editions, these informative titles--written by frontline executive education professors and modeled after the programs of the nation's top business schools--will find new popularity with today's on-the-go, every-second-counts executive.

As the president of a major sales company and experienced sales management trainer, author William Miller provides sales managers a proven method for successfully managing both sales processes and salespeople. Packed with specific, field-tested techniques, ProActive Sales Management teaches readers how to: motivate a sales team; get their sales team to prospect and qualify; create a proactive sales culture; effectively coach and counsel up and down the sales organization; reduce reports to one sheet of paper and 10 minutes a week; forecast with up to 90 percent accuracy; and take A players to A+ levels. Today’s sales managers have to be quicker than ever, being more proactive about hiring the best performers and retaining them while multitasking with managing complex sales processes in order to close more and more deals. Packed with all new metrics and tactics for making the numbers in today’s sales environment, ProActive Sales Management is an invaluable resource for this brand of highly in-demand leaders.