By Kimberly Wade^*

How to Manage a Sales Person

Your membership or tournament sales person, let’s call him Jeff, can be described as sociable, gregarious and an extrovert. In addition to those personality traits that make the individual wonderful at his/her role, there are also traits that make that individual challenging to manage. Typically, a sales person does not enjoy reporting; is high energy; appears to have adult ADD (attention deficit disorder); and is very outgoing.

But, Jeff is a necessary evil for growing your revenues. You may ask: “How do I get more from Jeff?” or “How can I direct Jeff to achieve the maximum ROI?” This dynamic personality operates best in an environment that is goal oriented with specific quantifiable objectives. In regards to compensation, an effective approach is to develop a compensation package that has a nominal base salary with a significant commission package that increases as revenues increase.

Jeff has an entrepreneurial spirit and operates with autonomy. To direct this complex individual, you must have tools that enable you to motivate him while allowing him to operate independently.

Steps

Step 1: Define a Prospect

The tool needed to manage this free-spirited individual is a concise sales plan for the facility. As part of the sales plan, the first objective is for you and Jeff to agree on the definition of a prospect. Many facilities have a common and useful definition of a qualified prospect: someone that has visited the club.

Step 2: Develop a Sales Plan

Next, you should develop a complex sales plan within Excel that is directed toward achieving your club’s sales objectives. You can find a sample sales plan at http://www.wadeandcompany.com/whitepapers. The sales plan includes but is not limited to the following:

• # weekly prospect telephone calls
• # tours given to prospects weekly
• # letters mailed
• # emails sent
• Detail of marketing activities that are occurring and an ROI on each.
  • Email marketing
  • Direct mail
  • Event marketing
  • Telemarketing
  • Magazine advertising
  • Television advertising
  • Radio advertising
  • Referral program
• # of networking events attended
• # of off-property visits
• Closing ratio per member

Step 3: Implement/Manage the Sales Plan

For a comprehensive approach to sales management, it is strongly recommended that the club acquire contact relationship management (CRM) software, such as ACT, Goldmine, or salesforce.com. (There's also CRM software specific to the golf industry.) The keys to success are to spend valuable training dollars on learning the CRM software – and then to use it. The CRM will enable you to be a better manager of the sales person and the sales person to become much more efficient. From the CRM software, you’ll probably be able to pull a report that includes the necessary data for a sales plan.

To implement the sales plan, conduct a bi-weekly or weekly meeting with your sales person to review sales performance. During this meeting, review the sales activity report, discuss which marketing activities are generating new prospects, and provide positive encouragement. In addition, encourage the sales person to become involved in the local chamber of commerce. The chamber provides valuable resources such as networking opportunities and motivational seminars. Due to the nature of this position, it is imperative for you as a manager to provide positive support and encouragement.

Another resource for Jeff, the sales person, is Miller-Heiman, a sales performance company. This organization provides valuable sales training across all industries.

Conclusion

With a solid sales plan – and your active management support – Jeff will appreciate the autonomy of working independently and you can manage him toward the membership goal.

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Credits

Originally posted by KimberlyWade on 07 Nov 2008.
All contributors: KimberlyWade, LynnwoodBrown, MichaelBrezin,

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