Sales managers have a lot on their collective plate. From keeping reps motivated, to balancing new ad products with traditional ones, it’s not an easy role to fill within a business of any size. With these challenges often come a single question from sales managers: “How do I best set my reps up for success?”
There are shelves of books, conferences full of attendees, and armies of coaches that attempt to answer this question from every angle—and it’s an issue too big to attack in a single blog post like this one. However, one fact goes a long way, and it’s short and sweet! Ready?
You must clearly define your sales expectations to your reps or they will not succeed the way you want them to succeed. Sales success relies upon keeping motivation high and maintaining direct communication between managers and reps.
Public Goals vs. Private Goals
Setting the bar high and incentivizing along the way is one of the best ways to motivate sales reps to step outside of their comfort zones. But the bar you set for a rep may be different from the results you need to keep your business moving forward.
Here at Ad Sales Genius, we like to think of goals in two ways: public and private.
- Public goals are the goals your rep sees within their CRM, day in and day out. These goals are the goals that you, as a sales manager, want them to aim for. As such, they are often set as visible to the entire sales team or organization.
- Private goals can be used to ensure baseline performance of each rep. These goals are often a threshold for success or related to what is needed as a bottom line based on the business’ overall sales goals. As such, private goals are only accessible by managers and business stakeholders.
Tie Goals to Commission Structure or Sales Method
In many cases, sales goals are simply monetary amounts set to correlate with months, quarters, or years. But depending on your commission structure and product types, you can also set goals that:
- Help launch new products. Veteran sales reps know how to bring home the bacon, and it’s often by selling what they know best. Emphasize digital packages, live events, and other types of ad sales by setting highly visible goals tied to new ad product types.
- Emphasize certain types of prospecting. Need more outbound sales prospecting? Set a goal related to only outbound sales.
- Help ensure travel ROI. Travel is expensive, and if your sales reps are traveling to events to lock down sales, set a goal that motivates them to seek out more opportunities on the road.
No Software Can Replace Motivated Sales Reps
Your sales reps are your most important key to growth, and no software can replace a motivated, knowledgeable sales team. However, a quality CRM can help you communicate the goals to keep your team motivated. It can also reduce repetitive tasks during the sales process, so they can keep doing what they do best—selling.
This is where Ad Sales Genius comes in. We know advertising and the industries supported by ad and media sales, and we build software that’s informed by real world experience across magazines, digital, outdoor, broadcast, and events/expos. Want to learn more? Schedule a free, personalized demo today.