'Very nearly' what real sales management looks like

The great thing about the internet is that a well-written discourse from an industry expert can stick around and be read by many. This is the case with a 2013 BRW article by Peter Finkelstein, head of sales strategy at Barrett Consulting, on 'sales management training' and how it is a learned skills set.

Ultimately, the message is that sales managers don't just manage systems and protocols. More importantly, they manage people. This is so on the money.

His highlighted point is that most corporations employing them don't grasp the importance of actual 'sales management training', hence often start to flag and the rest is history.

Mr Finkelstein reinforces the roles is as much about instilling a disciplined approach to selling as it is about managing a team.

Imagine then if if the corporate managers themselves - the very people that appoint the sales managers in the first place - also instilled a disciplined approach and helped out by treating the entire sales setup as a company asset given specific resources from above?

The sales managers' positions would be far more tenable and sales may not flag at all!

You might be asking 'how'?

It is at this umbrella level where the point tends to be missed. While so much emphasis is placed on training sales managers to drive teams to sell more, why don't the CEOs and MDs of Australia shift their thinking too and actually help the likes of Mr Finkelstein by learning how new technology can be applied as that resource?

So rather than push-selling all the time, how about learning how top companies around the world are now pull-selling so that eventually all customers are coming to your business rather than your sales managers running teams chasing new business?

Executive management of today really needs to train up for this. It's as inevitable as the next sunrise. It needs to understand that above the sales manager there should be a powerful, technology-driven marketing system that makes the potential clients come to you.

Selling is, and always will be super important, hence Mr Finkelstein's drive to train sales managers. But can you think of how much more effective your sales team will be when customers feel privileged to come to you?

It is not hard to set this up, it costs way less than you think, and you don't even have to put much into it yourself.

Have a read of Mr Finkelstein's excellent article right here and think of how much better his clients' sales teams would fare i, at the umbrella level, all their hard work is backed by a data-enriched and trackable system educating the potential market and bringing them in of their own volition.