|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Saturday, 24 April 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Features | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
Become an effective Sales Manager by Prasanna Perera Marketing and management consultants, chartered marketers, CIM, U.K. Leaders of sales teams have a great responsibility towards their organizations. After all, sales is the currency that drives businesses forward. Hence, the importance of effective sales management cannot be ignored. Style It is vital that a motivational environments is developed, to get the best from your sales teams. However, you must examine the atmosphere you promote through your current management style. Most often Sales Managers cause motivational problems by failing to manage their team closely, in order to create an environment that promotes success. Therefore, as a Sales manager, you must develop a Management Style that gets the best out of your team. As a coach Coaching your team will be an essential ingredient for success in the present competitive environment. Not only coaching, but also the ability to counsel sales persons. Sales Managers who play the coaching role, must realise that their goal is not to do the sales person's job but to lead, guide and train sales persons. To be a successful sales coach, there are several ingredients that are required. - Communication should be positive. - Look out for sales persons doing things correctly and compliment them. - When addressing negative things, reconfirm the positive aspects as well. Proactive Manager In a competitive environment, Sales Managers need to be proactive. As a Sales Manager you need to be leading your team, not trying to outsell them, by being a super salesman. A proactive Sales Manager will be concerned on providing guidance to the sales persons. Regular meetings and communications is a must, to review performance and discuss other operational matters. Sales Manager also need to help their sales persons to get organised and plan their work. This means emphasizing the priorities and preparation of work plans and calendars. As a proactive Sales Manager you also need to manage your time effectively, so that you do not neglect the truly important aspects of Sales Management. Many Sales Managers are too distracted by day to day operational issues, resulting in not having time to work with their team. Self-esteem factor Self-esteem is the respect a person feels for himself or herself. As a Sales Manager, this is an important factor that needs to be improved by working harder. The higher your self-esteem, the more at ease you will be today, even as you work towards what you want to be tomorrow. Sales Managers who have positive self-esteem, feel good about themselves and are able to accept others as they are. The more self-esteem you have the greater the ability to manage and motivate your team. It is important for a Sales Manager to understand that people work hardest and achieve the most when they feel good about themselves and their work environment. Leave the spotlight to your sales team, so that they will work harder and smarter in positive mental framework. As an effective 'communicator' The ability to listen is a vital skill for Sales Manager to muster. By effectively listening, a Sales Manager will be in a better position to engage in productive communication. Many sales persons complain that their Managers are poor listeners and are only interested in talking and talking! In addition to listening, when communicating Sales Managers would do well to make positive comments, rather than neutral or negative ones. Besides spoken communication, you will need to have excellent written communication skills as well. As a Sales Manager, you will be spending a large amount of time, shuffling paper and information. In order, to manage information flows, you need to identify what they are. Some information will be about past activities, others about present and future activities. An effective Sales Manager will spend a major portion of time on present and future activities/communication. As a 'Motivator' The most effective motivational environment is created with open, honest communication. As a sales Manager, the only way you can build an environment in which people motivate themselves, is to discover what they really want. Money is always mentioned as an effective motivator. How important is money as a motivator? Of course, it is important, but there are non monetary factors that can motivate sales persons. As a Sales Manager you will do well to balance out monetary and non monetary rewards, so that you can get the best out of your team. Sales persons are interested in advancement and career development. By providing long term career prospects, a sales Manager can retain talented and experienced sales persons. Sales persons also value recognition by management. A tap on the back for a good sales performance and to be recognised in front of the team. A way to increase management recognition is to give senior sales persons added flexibility or freedom in the way they do their jobs. Empowerment is a powerful motivator for sales persons and Sales Managers would do well to capitalize on this. If you give sales persons more authority and control over their job responsibilities, they can be moved to work harder for their self benefit. Responsibility Sales Management is a management responsibility for sales. It is a serious function, that generates revenues for an organization. Hence, organizations are interested in employing Sales Managers who are dynamic and results oriented. In this brief article I have endeavoured to address critical issues for sales management success. One important factor worth repeating is that the modern Sales Manager has to assume the dual roles of both strategist and coach. As a strategist, to work out the customer game plan and as a coach, to guide, motivate and facilitate superior performance. "To develop people, catch them doing something right and congratulate them" ################## Choosing a career that is right for you by Ananda Rajapakse Most colleges and universities accept the fact that their educational courses and MBAs are not for career preparation, rather for general education. Even the regular career guidance seminars, exhibitions, books or newspaper supplements will not take you through the crucial step of "choosing the career that is right for you." If you ask many people why they chose the career they are in now, most of them will tell you that they ended up there by chance or by accident and not by choice. We must find a better way than this to choose a career. I believe that you must look for a career that will fit your interest, knowledge, skills and values while generating sufficient income for your expenses. Choosing a career is one aspect but being successful in that career is something else. So I will concentrate my next few articles to introduce some new careers that are available to us in Sri Lanka and Internationally. This will help you maximize your chances of a successful career choice that suites you. When we speak of new careers there are some that are hidden within a mainstream career like legal, medical or engineering. Some are less known. Some are totally new. Some can make a major difference in our society. Some are self employment opportunities. Wherever possible I will try to highlight the income potential, skills, personality needed and job satisfaction levels of each of these careers. In addition, I will list popular websites for more information. If any reader can add to the list of these careers or the websites, please email them to the editor so we could make a joint effort to give the best leads to Sri Lankans who are seeking careers. Let me start with some new careers "if you like to work with people". 1 - Care Manager is someone who takes care of ageing parents of those children who cannot find the time to do so but have the money to meet the expenses. This way the aging parents need not be sent to nursing homes or elders homes. If you are a caring person then this is very satisfying and highly paid career in USA, UK and Europe. Very soon it will be so in Sri Lanka. Visit www.caremanager.org 2 - Relationship Therapist is a new career that is now popular in developing nations. What you have to is be a person who has much empathy to counsel couples who are considering divorce. Relationship Therapist will have to learn human behavior and help couples accept each other as they are rather than changing each other. This too is a highly paid career and is good only for those who are not gossip mongers. This career works very closely with Lawyers and Religious Leaders who are the first to hear of a split among married couples. Not many websites that can be of help. 3 - Child Mental Health Counselor is one who helps parents with children who are born with mental disorders or physical disabilities. Your job is to guide the parents in bringing up a challenging baby while retaining their sanity. It is a tough task. But a very specialized field and highly paid career that is much in demand in USA and Canada where many children are born with mental and physical disorders. www.msu.edu 4 - Childbirth Specialist helps mothers during pregnancies, through labor and child birth to provide pain relieving exercises, breathing techniques and massages. You will also provide advice on nutrition, emotional strength and companionship. This is a ladies only career and a good self employment career too. www.dona.com and www.childbirth.org 5 - Employee Relationship Manager is beyond the role of the HR Manager. Your role is to help employees overcome their personal problems that affect work or productivity. For example help with drug abuse or a child or spouse who is a drug addict, domestic violence, personal or domestic financial mismanagement, health disorders, a romantic mess up and even physical fitness. A very well paid career in USA, Canada and Australia. www.eap-association.com 6 - Child Care Specialist is a career for those who love kids and who are creative. You are called upon to keep kids busy and interested in their homes with some things they did not learn in school. You may even have to drop and pick the kids from their school. It is not like a Montessori teacher or nanny. Highly paid career in USA and Canada that needs specialized training and a license to practice. This is also a good self employment career. www.naccp.org 7 - Parenting Coach is a new career that has caught on in developed nations. Your role is to help parents make decisions regards their children when it comes to selecting schools, planning holidays, incentives for kids, studies and help with home work, selection of tutors, advice on advanced studies, career planning, or even when the kids have fights in school, guiding through romantic affairs of the kids etc. This is an exciting self employment career. www.portalgroup.com 8 - Personal Organizer is a career for those who are good at planning things for others. With so much of day to day work getting into our lives and where both parents work there is a need for effective planning at our homes. I know of great corporate planners who have miserable family lives due to bad personal planning. Some of our politicians and corporate heads will need this service to keep their home fires burning while they keep the public fires glowing. This is another great self employment career for those who are independent and trustworthy. From arranging drivers to pick up kids sending the car for marketing or even seeing relations in hospital or even to remember an anniversary or birthday or planning a party or a holiday is all yours to be paid for. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
