Sales management
Sales gets managed in a handful of decisions, and most teams never write them down.
Who is hired, what they are paid for, where they work, what they are asked to hit and how they are checked. Each topic here is one decision, with the worksheet or policy it ends in.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
Sales management is the work of building a sales team, directing what it does and checking what it achieves. This section sets out the decisions an owner or sales head makes, from the job description to the quota, with the document each decision should leave behind.
Read the topics in order if you are about to build a team. If a team already exists, find the topic where your own answer is a shrug, and start there.
Topic 1
The sales manager's job.
What the manager or owner is actually responsible for, and how to check it.
- Seven duties of a sales manager: the auditFind out which sales management duties nobody in your firm is doing.
- Sales manager time logKeep a two-week log to see where your sales hours really go.
- Promoting a rep to sales managerPick your sales manager on the job's skills, not on last year's sales.
- Sales manager skills 360Ask the people who work with your manager how well they lead.
- Sales maturity and beliefs checkScore how much of your selling depends on personality, and what the team believes.
Topic 2
Sales planning and goals.
Turning the business plan into goals each person can act on.
- Sales plan needs a strategic planWrite a one-page company plan before you write a sales plan.
- Sales goal cascadeSplit the company target down to each rep and each week until it adds up.
- Target market advantage and segment shiftChoose the segment where you can prove an advantage, then change the plan to fit it.
- Strategy buy in and change planGet a yes from the team and from accounts before a new sales strategy launches.
Topic 3
Sales force design.
Who does what in selling, how the team is organised and how big it should be.
- Sales process specialisation mapMap who does each sales stage today and specialise the stage that leaks first.
- Inside outside or hybrid coverageDecide which customers get a visit and which get a call, one segment at a time.
- Buying centre roles and message gridEvery account has six people who matter and your pitch reaches one of them.
- Vertical specialist overlayA specialist for one customer type only works if the credit rule is written first.
- Sales org and reporting mapDraw the sales team you have, including the people who are not on the chart.
- Everyone sells service staff upsellYour service technicians are in customers' homes every day and the sales team never hears a word.
Topic 4
Recruitment and selection.
Hiring salespeople through a repeatable process.
- Sales job analysis and job descriptionWrite the job description after you have watched someone do the job.
- Sales job qualifications statementDecide what the role needs before the first CV arrives, and how you will check it.
- Sales recruiting source mixFind out which of your last hires came from where before you pay for the next advertisement.
- Hiring funnel and new hire retention trackerTrack every candidate from application to day ninety and find out which step picked the leavers.
- Structured sales interview kitAsk every candidate the same questions and score them before anyone speaks.
- Employment tests and reference checksTest the skill the job needs, then ring the person who managed the candidate.
- Weighted candidate scorecardScore every finalist on the same weighted sheet before anyone says a name.
- Careers page and candidate journeyShow candidates the job honestly, then run the hiring steps in the same order every time.
Topic 5
Sales training and development.
Planning, running and judging training for the sales team, from the manager's side.
- Sales training needs assessmentFind what each rep cannot yet do before you book a single training day.
- SMART training objectives and programme planWrite what the training must change in numbers, and plan the programme around that line.
- Onboarding and continuing training curriculumTeach a new rep the same six things in the same order, then keep teaching the veterans.
- Role play and joint call practicePractise the hard call in a room before the customer makes it hard for you.
- Training evaluation and vendor choiceJudge training by what reps do afterwards, and choose a trainer who will stay for the follow-up.
Topic 6
Motivation and coaching.
Finding what moves each rep and coaching to it.
- Rep motivation profile and reward mixFind out what each rep actually wants from the job, then pay in that currency.
- Expectancy and fairness checkAsk whether your reps believe effort turns into results and results into pay.
- Recognition and incentive calendarPlan the year's contests and recognition before the first slow month arrives.
- High expectations coaching routineTell each rep in writing what good looks like, then meet every week to check.
- Field ride coaching formScore the rep on the call itself, not on the monthly number.
- Under-performer coaching planFind out why a rep is behind before deciding whether they should stay.
Topic 7
Compensation.
Designing and checking the sales pay plan.
- Comp plan health checkTest the pay plan against what you want from it and what your reps want.
- Comp plan objectivesPay for three to five things a rep controls and your books can prove.
- Sales pay benchmarkingKnow what the market pays for your sales role before you make the next offer.
- Pay mix and payout curveDecide how much is fixed, how much is incentive, and what pay looks like at 60, 100 and 150 per cent.
- Comp plan pretest and rolloutRun the new plan on last year's figures, then launch it with the reps in the room.
- Benefits and indirect pay inventoryList everything you give a rep besides salary, price it, and ask what they value.
Topic 8
Sales expenses.
Policies and controls for the cost of selling.
- Written sales expense policyWrite down what a rep may claim before the first disputed bill arrives.
- Reimbursement or allowance decisionPick actuals or a fixed allowance for each role by looking at last year's bills.
- City tier expense rate cardA hotel limit that works in Nashik fails in Mumbai, so set limits by city tier.
- Vehicle policy and per km rateDecide whether to buy, lease or pay per kilometre, then fix a rate you can defend.
- Field tracking transparency charterTell reps exactly what you track, when, and who sees it, before the app goes live.
- Hospitality and travel perks rulesSay how much a lunch costs at each deal stage, and who owns the air miles.
- Expense claim workflow and auditA claim form, one approval route and a random monthly audit keep expenses honest.
- Expense fraud red flag reviewPadded claims leave patterns, and three months of bills is enough to find them.
- Sales cost to revenue benchmarkWork out what selling costs you per rupee of revenue before you set a cap.
Topic 9
Quotas and targets.
Setting targets reps accept and the business can afford.
- Quota purpose and type mixReps can all beat their quotas while the company misses its target.
- Territory potential quota builderSet each territory's quota from what the market can buy, then correct it for history.
- Seasonal target by growth meanSet the season's target from last season's sales and how fast the last four seasons grew.
- Quota negotiation sessionAsk each rep to propose a quota in writing before you tell them yours.
- Quota attainment dashboardPut sales, margin, expense and activity against quota on one sheet each month.
Topic 10
Forecasting and budgeting.
Estimating sales and spend for the next period and checking against actuals.
- Market and sales potential estimateSize the market for each segment, then test your figure against a small pilot.
- Forecast method selectorForecast next quarter two different ways and look hard at the gap between them.
- Best and worst case forecastGive the bank and your team three numbers, and say what has to be true for each.
- Forecast health checkTest your old forecast against what really sold before you plan the next one.
- Quarterly bottom up sales planLet each rep forecast their own quarter from the deals they can name.
- Sales budget builderBuild the sales budget three different ways and trust the figure where they meet.
- Budget vs actual variance reviewCompare the month's actuals with the budget line by line, then decide what to do.
- Cutting sales spend by ten percentCut the lines that bring the least revenue, and leave the ones that feed the pipeline.
Topic 11
Territory management.
Splitting the market among reps fairly.
- Territory design by equal potentialSplit the market so each rep's territory holds a similar amount of buying power.
- Territory design by equal workloadCount the hours your accounts demand, then group them so no rep drowns.
- Territory balance and coverage auditTest each territory against its potential and workload, then fix the lopsided ones.
- Rep time and activity studyAsk every rep to log two weeks, then see how many hours actually go to selling.
- Territory change and rep assignmentMove accounts between reps with transition pay agreed before any customer is told.
- Call frequency and buying cycle plannerGive every account a visit rhythm that fits how it buys, then check the days hold it.
Topic 12
Performance evaluation.
Judging reps and the business fairly and regularly.
- Evaluation ground rules and appraisal methodAgree who judges, how often and on what, before the first review is held.
- Rep performance scorecardScore every rep on what they achieve and what they do, against a standard set in advance.
- Performance review conversationHold the review so that the rep leaves with three goals and no surprises.
- Sales visibility ritualsMake every rep's week visible without standing over anyone's shoulder.
- Sales volume and pareto analysisFind out which few customers and products carry the whole business.
- Profitability by rep, territory and customerCount what each rep, territory and customer costs before you celebrate what they sell.
- Customer loyalty pulseAsk your key accounts two questions and call them yourself.
- Sales performance software evaluationScore the software against your own needs before you watch a single demo.
Topic 13
Legal and ethical issues.
Rules the team sells within.
- Sales code of conduct and gifts policyWrite down what your sellers may offer, accept and say before a customer asks.
- Ethics dilemma workshop and trainingRun a workshop on the dilemmas your team actually meets, then keep testing it.
- Legal risk checklist for sellersCheck your pricing, claims, gifts, data and calls against the rules first.
- Discount and quote discipline policyMake similar customers pay similar prices, and put a floor under every quote.
- Claims substantiation registerEvery claim a rep makes should have a document behind it.
- Incentive and target ethics checkCheck what your targets reward before a rep does it for you.
- Customer data and telemarketing complianceKnow where every phone number came from before you call it.
Topic 14
The sales operations audit.
Auditing the whole sales function.
Before you start
Three things worth knowing about these topics.
The pay plan is a management decision, not an HR form.
A team does what it is paid to do. A plan that rewards volume at any discount gets volume at any discount, and the owner finds out in the margin a quarter later.
Most sales problems are design problems.
Territories that overlap, targets copied from last year's number and a job description nobody wrote all arrive later as the complaint that the team is weak.
You will not need every topic.
A team of four needs a written pay plan, a target, a territory split and a regular review. The rest is here for the day the team grows past what the owner can watch.
Your brief
Tell us what you need, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps about your business, what you want and who decides. Most questions are a tap, and you can skip any you would rather answer on the call.
Who is this section for?
Owners who manage sales themselves, new sales heads, and anyone about to hire a second or third salesperson. The pages assume a small or mid-sized Indian business, not a large corporate sales force.
How is this different from the sales process pages?
The sales process pages follow one deal from the first enquiry to the second order. These pages are about the team that works the deals: who is hired, how they are paid, where they work and how they are checked.
Do we have to do all of this?
No. Most teams need a written version of a few topics: the job description, the pay plan, a target, a territory split and a review. We say which, in writing, before any work is scoped.
Is this a course?
No. It is how the work is organised here, published so you can judge whether a supplier understands it and so you can do the parts you want to do yourself.
Related sections
Separate sections, each with its own topics.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.