How To Match Sales Team Needs With Management Input

In commercial terms we should seek to develop our teams in two specific areas i.e. Competence and Commitment. Competence consists of the combination of knowledge and skills whilst Commitment is a combination of confidence and motivation.

The degree to which a person has achieved certain combinations of these factors can be defined as Development Levels. They represent the person’s development in the job.

The four development levels are:

Level 4: High Commitment & High Competence
Level 3: High Competence & Variable Commitment
Level 2: Some Competence & Low Commitment
Level 1: Low Competence & High Commitment

I realise that one or two additional levels could be added  i.e. Some Competence & Variable Commitment etc. but as I have already stated, simplicity is essential

This grading is then translated into the style of management required to obtain the best results from each individual and forms the basis of the <b>Controlled Management</b> model that we devised in 1995 i.e.

Level 4: Delegating i.e. Low Supportive & Low Directive
Level 3: Directing i.e. Low Supportive & High Directive
Level 2: Supporting i.e. High Supportive & High Directive
Level 1: Coaching i.e. High Supportive & Low Directive

Whilst conducting this exercise you should consider taking the opportunity to not only classify the level at which you believe each member of the team is at right now but also where you feel they could get to in terms of their future potential and what needs to be done to get them there.

The areas that you should consider assessing regularly are: 

Internal Sales Competence Areas  

• Personal Organisation
• Communication
• Business Development
• Qualification
• Interpersonal Skills
• Integration Skills
• Resilience
• Pro-Activity
• Team Working
• Motivation

External Sales Competence Areas

• Planning
• Communication
• Presentation Skills
• Business Development
• Account Management
• Opportunity Assessment
• Negotiation Skills
• Attitude
• Team Membership
• Process & Methodology
• Pro-Activity
• Organisational Skills

Consultative Sales Competence Areas

• Organisational Skills
• Communication
• Presentation Skills
• Business Development
• Opportunity Assessment
• Interpersonal Skills
• Creative Thinking
• Critical Thinking
• People Awareness
• Integration Skills
• Resilience
• Strategic Approach
• Pro-Activity
• Negotiation Skills
• Key Account Management
• Team Membership
• Process & Methodology

I would also suggest that the following areas are critical to your own development and as a consequence, you might want to frequently stand back and benchmark your performance.

• Personal Organisation
• Internal & External Communication
• Creative Thinking
• Critical Thinking
• Resilience
• Pro-Activity
• People Awareness
• Organisational Skills
• Project Leadership
• Public Speaking & Presentation Skills
• Leadership
• Vision
• Motivational Management
• Delegation

In Summary:

The secret of designing a performance assessment programme, is to construct something that is as simple as possible to understand and implement, whilst retaining the means to benchmark performance as objectively as possible.
 
My own teams have become used to a quarterly QBR (Quarterly Business Review) where their performance against all of their targets – not just the financial ones is reviewed.  The results from the four QBR meetings provide the foundation for the annual appraisal.

“What Should An Effective Quarterly Business Review Achieve?” follows.

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