- Shopping Bag ( 0 items )
-
M_Hayes
Posted December 6, 2010
Highly Recommend
This book is not just a survival guide for CEOs managing their salespeople, but also a "must have" for new sales managers developing successful sales teams. I should know; as a sales manager growing my team, I recently hired a new account manager. I followed Suzanne Paling's detailed recommendations for "onboarding" my sales person... resulting in this person becoming quickly productive. Her guidance in this book has proven to be invaluable, providing concrete suggestions for every stage in the development of a winning sales team.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged. -
Estelle_McKee
Posted October 26, 2010
Great practical advice for managing salespeople
This book is targeted at leaders of small businesses who end up managing one or more salespeople but who lack any experience in sales themselves. The preface starts out with the following paragraph: "Perhaps someone recommended this book so you bought it. Maybe a colleague lent you his copy. Was the book placed on your desk anonymously? Regardless, you now have the book and you really don't want to read it." This paragraph completely disarmed me, and it set the tone for the rest of the book: far from being a slog through technical sales jargon, it was a brisk read that provided the most practical education I've ever had about how to bring out the best when managing a sales force (or even a single salesperson). The book is laid out as follows:
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
First, it starts each chapter with a short story or case history that highlights a common problem in managing salespeople. I recognized many situations I've seen at different workplaces (even those that did not involve salespeople).
Second, the book focuses in on the problem itself, the causes of the problem, what managers usually do in their attempts to fix it, and finally, what really works. The book's advice is very practical and very specific, but still broad enough to cover any type of business. The book also describes the author's own experiences as a sales management consultant, sales manager, and salesperson herself, which illustrate and lend further credence to the book's advice.
Third, the book provides templates and samples for everything from a new hire's orientation program, to sales contest goals, performance reviews, and sales forecasts. I appreciated actual documents that I would be able to work from and the discussions explaining them.
The ideas in this book were both thought provoking and informative. For example, the idea of starting orientation during a potential employee's interview process - I never would have thought of an interview in that way, but it made perfect sense. And, the concrete suggestions provided actually make it possible to put that idea into action.
The book is organized so that it can be read straight through or used as a reference book. Either way, I would highly recommend it to any business leader or supervisor looking for guidance in managing salespeople.