Proudly Pinoy - Planters Development Bank

MARKETING
Photo: Team success
- Dreamstime
for the company in forecasting its growth
in the medium and long term. This also
enables the company to better estimate
its distribution service costs and explore
how a more cost effective and efficient
supply chain program can be in place.
Set Reasonable Targets
for your Channels and Products
This will enable the sales person to
appreciate and convincingly commit to
the sales quota the firm sets because
the numbers can be achieved or even
exceeded.
Mapping outlets enables management
to set the sales goals based on the
fertility of the areas where the brand is
visible or not. The marketing department
shall play a key role in setting those targets
with the applicable marketing strategies
that would build product demand.
Cut Down on the Reports
Your sales force should be devoting
more time to selling than to filing performance
reports. One solution is to
acquire or design a portable IT system
so your sales force can provide real time
feedback from the field.
The company should also invest
in a credible backroom support system
that can collate, tabulate and translate
field data into the business numbers.
Allowing members of the sales force to
track their business achievements will
help motivate them to exceed targets or
to correct shortfalls.
TRAIN AND RE-TRAIN THEM
There is no perfect sales professional in
the world. Even if the sales person started
his career with your company, and you
may have had a hand in molding him to
your corporate standards, the need to revisit
and sharpen his skill levels and those
of his supervisors is constant.
Drawing from personal experience,
I strongly recommend managers to
evaluate the performance of their
individual sales professionals on a
quarterly rather than on an annual
basis. In addition, companies should
have a set of training modules that can
be implemented periodically for sales
personnel who need skills upgrade. If
you do not have one in the HR library,
engage the services of professional
consultants to do the training and
develop the training fact books. Another
major issue that needs close and
constant monitoring is the quality of the
customer service side effort exerted by
the salesman in building, keeping and
growing relationships with the customer.
The immediate supervisor can work
with his salesman through an executive
coaching approach.
Put an Attractive Sales Incentive
Package in Place
Many companies, sad to say, are
wantonly lacking in this aspect. They
drive their sales team to achieve high
sales numbers yet fail in the process to
tangibly motivate them.
You cannot tell your sales team
that the company is not making money
despite the team’s ability to achieve its
targets and where the company owner,
for example, is able to buy a new SUV.
The employee turn over rate is high in
companies that burn out its sales team
too quickly, particularly when the team
sees that it is not receiving a fair share
of the profits.
Keep the Team Spirit Alive
(Always)
Hold periodic sales meetings or rallies
where team members can have fun at
the same time bond with supervisors,
peers and key contacts in other departments
like the marketing, warehousing
and accounting groups.
You have to remember that when
things go wrong, the salesman can always
blame others for his shortcomings. He
can always claim that he is not receiving
the right support from the company’s
key operating departments.
Sales rallies are the events where the
salesman is roasted or toasted. It is also
the venue when management and the
salesman can talk to each other to thresh
out problems or renew commitments.
Developing, running and motivating
a sales team should be seen as a
continuous management concern if
the company wants to truly succeed in
the marketplace after the right brand
marketing strategies are in place. The
marketing function never sleeps.
MABUHAY ANG NEGOSYANTE!
Herbert M. Sancianco has over 20
years of experience in advertising,
marketing and sales operations.
He owns and manages Market
Bridges, Phils. Inc., a full
marketing services company,
with offices at 11-0 Burgundy
Corporate Plaza, 252 Sen. Gil
Puyat Avenue, Makati City.
The author can be reached at
mbpidmbc@i-manila.com.ph or
at Tel: (63-2) 886-4122 to 23.
9VOL. NO. 03 / ISSUE NO. 04