Sales Obstacles
Author - Team Simple Logic
Hello Sales Manager, Don’t let Obstacles obstruct your sales success. Managing sales is not a cakewalk, isn’t it? You have to go through so many things at a time. Sales profession requires continuous training and refining of skills. Sales personnel have to face various issues and hassles in their daily schedule, which, if not attended to, could escalate and cause serious worry for businesses in the form of financial loss, attrition, loss of goodwill and more. Most businesses share at least a few of these common issues, some of which are enumerated below. Knowing how to cope with them is an important part of being a good sales manager. And if you’re considering changing jobs from salesperson to sales manager, you should be familiar with these potential stumbling blocks. Let us have a close view look at major issues or obstacles faced by sales management.
Lack of training Training and development form a crucial part of enhancing employee’s performance. Many times, sales managers are not provided with efficient training programs. They, therefore, lack the ability to perform well. At times employees have to invest in various courses, to enhance their skill set. It is therefore suggested that managers must ask for training sessions. Responsibilities that are not part of your job Sales managers are always burdened with various tasks. Being a salesperson you have to perform various jobs at the same time. Multi-tasking as one may call it.
You have to act as a sales manager, marketing manager, administrative manager, and so on. These are not part of your job responsibilities. Instead, keep track of how much time you spend on various tasks and present that log to your boss. Explain to him, the need to refocus on sales management responsibilities. Suggest hiring an assistant and bringing in some specialized software which would help with sales coordination, which would also reduce time spent on unnecessary paperwork, coordinating campaigns with other departments, making presentations to executives and writing reports. Bringing in this software specialization would allow you time to focus on your actual responsibility, which is to manage your sales team and sales process, efficiently. No Freedom to Act Sales managers usually belongs to middle management criteria. They are responsible for managing their sales teams, but they have to report to higher-level managers themselves. An unfortunate side effect of middle management structure is that a sales manager is required to get permission from higher management before they can act or resolve problems. Drawing up some ‘action plans&rsquo, and getting them approved ahead of time can help to speed up the resolution in these circumstances. Lack of Information Sales managers is actively involved in lead generation. They need to keep a track of the closures, especially since many sales managers compensation plans are tied to how well their teams perform. However, what goes on in between lead acquisition and closing the sale, can be a mystery to the manager.
Without a clear understanding of the sales process, sales managers will have a difficult time figuring out what went wrong, if these aspects are not recorded properly. To overcome this problem, CRM programs can be integrated into company systems, to ensure update of and track record of each closure. Choosing your path as a sales manager was a great choice, but along with it comes a whole lot of problems and responsibilities. To overcome the hurdles faced by sales management, these best possible solutions will give your sales team a boost and they will get inspired to perform better ensuring success for you as a professional thus enabling organisational success. After all as well said by Mark Hunter, “It’s not about having the right opportunities. It’s about handling the opportunities right.”