18/02/2015
Why Wait Long to Make the Right Decision?
Today we discuss the issue of why SALES MANAGERS AND BUSINESS OWNERS wait too long to make the right decision especially when it comes to your revenue and sales team!
Recently we did an informal survey with some client sales managers asking them to tell us about those things from last year for which they wished they could have a “do over.” Not surprisingly, the responses included a very broad variety of things they’d dearly love to do over. But 100% of the responses had a single characteristic in common—these sales managers told us they waited too long to make a tough decision. By the time they did, it seemed really obvious, not only to them but also to a lot of others in the organisation who had been scratching their heads over the non-action for quite a while.
Managers are Optimistic But are Often Without a Process of Evaluation
That got me thinking about what causes this procrastination and how to prevent it. Part of it is the built-in optimism and the warm interpersonal relationships that we know characterise the best sales managers. But most of the blame goes to not having a clear process of evaluation. A clear process means the manager has:
• Established the criteria by which success will be measured
• Determined the intervals at which those criteria will be noted and evaluated.
This sounds simple and it is, but as with many things that are simple, it’s not necessarily easy to get either the criteria or the intervals right. If you set the bar too high too soon, you’ll end up pulling the plug on initiatives or people with strong potential and promise, things that would have generated fine profits. If you err in the other direction, it’s almost as if you hadn’t bothered measuring or evaluating at all.
It can be particularly difficult to determine the right metrics and the right timing when you are trying something completely new, an initiative for which you have no experience to rely on. If you are launching a new product, you might decide that you need to see monthly revenue climb to a certain level by the sixth month and that you need to see some clients choosing to renew. If those are your criteria and that’s your measurement interval, put a note on your calendar right at the outset so you don’t forget. Or maybe it’s less about revenue and more about profits, and you know it’s going to take a year to get there. Expect the type of measurement, the expected level of achievement, and the timing to be different each time.
Tomorrow we continue, but in the meanwhile, if you want assistance with training your sales team or help in selling your products and services, call us on 08644-124-615 or send a message on whatsApp to 0775214852 or better yet, drop us an email at [email protected]
