Smart Thinking: It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are?

Do you remember that public service announcement reminding parents about their responsibility to keep tabs on their children? It first appeared in the late ‘60s, yet, the message is just as important today. Even if your children are mature, responsible, levelheaded and, perhaps, straight-A students, it’s still your responsibility as a parent to know where they are and what they’re doing. Left to their own devices, even mature, responsible, levelheaded, straight-A students sometimes get into trouble. Or, like many children, perhaps they are not doing anything at all — especially when there are things they should be doing. (Whose turn is it to take out the trash?)

What’s the point?

Salespeople—even the best of them—can be like children. They can wander off and get into trouble. Or they can be doing nothing when there are things to be done. A public service announcement for sales managers might be, “It’s 10 a.m., do you know where your salespeople are?”

In an ideal world, you would assign your salespeople their quotas, and they would do what needs to be done, how it needs to be done, and when it needs to be done in order to meet those quotas. You might check on their progress weekly, just to stay in the loop. But for the most part, you would rely on their commitment, discipline, judgment, organizational skills and selling skills to get the job done.

OK, now back to the real world.

Your sales team wasn’t made with a cookie cutter. Members of your team will have different degrees of commitment, discipline, good judgment, selling skill and organizational skill. Their desire and ability to “get the job done” will vary. Left to their own devices, a few will flourish, a few will flounder, and the balance of the team will experience varying, and likely, inconsistent levels of success.

But, your sales people aren’t left to their own devices. They aren’t allowed to do as they please (unless, of course, they are already working effectively and bringing in the desired results). Most of your sales team members will require your supervision, guidance and coaching to ensure they are focusing on the correct things at the correct times and taking the correct actions.

Require your people to develop weekly plans that describe the activities in which they will be engaged (e.g., prospecting or networking), on whom they will be calling, and the purpose and intended outcome for each activity and call. The weekly planner not only serves to provide focus for your salespeople, but it also provides you with benchmarks by which to measure their performance and judge their ability to execute.

For the “flourishers,” a weekly review of their plan may be all that’s necessary. For the “flounderers,” a daily plan, perhaps with an hour-by-hour schedule, may be more appropriate. Make sure they are doing productive work during prime selling hours and “paper work” during off hours.

Use the weekly and daily plans to not only assess their performance, but also identify topics for coaching sessions. Review the plans with each team member at the end of the week to determine:

• Did they do what they said they would do? If not, what happened?
• Did they accomplish what they set out to accomplish? If not, what should they do or not do differently?
• Was their week filled with productive activities? Too many? Too few?
• What could they have done differently to achieve a better result?

You can guide them in making appropriate changes and then implementing those changes as they prepare or adjust their plan for the coming week.

Succeeding without a plan is getting lucky. Succeeding with a plan is working smart. Don’t allow your salespeople to rely on luck. Instead, help them work smart.

Catherine Atkins can be reached at 573-445-7694, or email her at [email protected].