The Two Golden Rules of
Successful Sales Force Development
Bob Slattery
Core Sales Force Development
Rule #1
Any organization looking to improve the effectiveness of its sales group MUST first identify, up
front, the problems, challenges, weaknesses, strengths and skill sets of their sales group before
investing any time, money or resources.
In our world, providing a prescription prior to diagnoses is called sales force development
malpractice. At Core Sales Force Development, we perform a sales team evaluation before we
begin working with a group. The findings provide everyone - the sales executives, the sales team
members and us - with actionable insights as to why the sales team functions the way it does.
Additionally, the Impact Analysis findings give us a guide as to what can and should be done to
improve sales outcomes with the right sales leadership, management systems and processes.
Rule # 2
The company MUST have Great Sales Leadership.
Did you notice we didn’t say a company MUST have a great sales manager? Although our
experience concludes most companies perform better with the right person in a sales
management role, Sales leadership must understand that developing the full potential of a sales
team is a full-time job predominantly focused on 5 very specific management functions. These
functions require approximately 80% of the sales manager’s time.
The 5 functions required of a sales manager are:
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Performance Management
Coaching
Recruiting
Mentoring
Motivation
Our findings pinpoint the two most prominent functions are Performance Management and
Sales Coaching.
Performance Management involves:
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The ability to set goals
Inspecting actual performance against goals
Eliminating excuses for lack of performance
Rewarding success
Implementing discipline when objectives are not reached
Copyright© 2013 www.coresfd.com • Phone: (440) 918-0900 • Fax: (888) 898-9768 • info@coresfd.com
Sales Coaching skill sets include the ability to:
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Debrief sales calls effectively
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Handle joint sales calls effectively
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Ask questions
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Have no need for approval from sales people
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Control emotions
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NOT rescue the sales people
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Create an effective selling system
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Know why and how people will buy
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Be Effective at getting commitments
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Consistently coach and debrief
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Have Record collection which supports coaching
This list is a combination of skills that involve working directly with sales people to help them
improve a set of skills specifically tied to effective selling. The evaluation of sales skills makes sense
since the sales manager will need to identify and then effectively address the specific problem
areas their sales people are struggling with.
Your sales manager(s) beliefs (record collection) can make or break your sales team’s success. If the
sales managers believe it’s important to know what motivates their sales people, then they will
make sure they know what specifically motivates each sales person. If they believe they cannot let
a sales person lose a sale, then the sales manager will rescue the sales person on a call resulting in
the sales person NEVER learning how to effectively deal with the problem they were rescued from.
Your beliefs are tied directly to your actions. It is your actions that tell us (and even you) about
your own beliefs. And the results of your sales people indicate if your beliefs are supportive or
non-supportive of successful selling and sales growth.
Copyright© 2013 www.coresfd.com • Phone: (440) 918-0900 • Fax: (888) 898-9768 • info@coresfd.com