Element 1: Establish Your Foundation

Posted by David Wallace on December 21, 2020
There are 8 Essential Elements of Sales Management
Element 1: Establish Your Foundation
Over the course of my career building and managing sales organizations, I identified 8 keys to effective sales management. I’ve recently published them in my new book, The Sales Executive Handbook: 8 Essential Elements of Sales Management, available on Amazon. Over the next few weeks, I will present each of the elements.

Element 1: Establish Your Foundation

Every successful organization is built on a firm foundation. Sales are no different. The basic building blocks of an effective sales organization are well-defined goals, a clear strategy to achieve those goals and metrics to measure your progress. Goals define where you are going. Strategy tells you how to get there. Metrics show your progress toward success.

Goals 

Goals should be clearly defined and communicated to your organization. Clearly defined goals are specific, measurable, assigned to a group or individual, reasonable and time bound. Goals meeting these criteria are known as SMART goals as first introduced by George Doran in 1981.

Strategy

A strategy is a high-level plan to achieve your goals. A complete strategy answers six key questions. What is your offering? Where will you sell it? Who makes the purchasing decision? How will you reach them? When will the buyer purchase? and Why should the buyers buy our offering from us?

Metrics

Metrics are measurements to determine if you are on the path to success. Metrics measure position, speed and distance. Position – where are we now? Speed – how quickly have are we moving toward or away from our goal; are the actions we’re taking leading us to timely success? Distance – how much further do we need to go and in what direction?

Wallace Management Group helps companies drive sales success. We can help you put a strong foundation in place to drive your success.