Many entrepreneurs in small business America today find themselves managing the sales force – the lifeblood of business success - and are ill-equipped to do so. Longtime sales consultant, Suzanne Paling, provides these busy leaders with the encouragement, advice and tools to successfully hire sales producers and create a high-functioning sales department.
As principal of Sales Management Services, Suzanne Paling has closely observed interactions between small business owners and their sales forces. Basic management principles rarely work with sales reps and more often than not, business owners have:
Insufficient knowledge about the basic sales process
Confusion regarding the right way to manage salespeople
Resentment of demands from the sales staff
Anger stemming from disappointing sales results
Little understanding of the unique needs of a new sales hire
"Easy to implement suggestions"
“Suzanne Paling’s easy-to-read style, step-by-step guidance, and numerous checklists, templates, worksheets, and sample letters make it easy to implement her suggestions in a real world environment. As a CEO who still finds himself an 'Accidental Sales Manager' from time to time, this book really helps when I need to step in and provide some corrective guidance.”
—John Eller, President and CEO, InSight USA
As principal of Sales Management Services, Suzanne Paling has closely observed interactions between small business owners and their sales forces. Basic management principles rarely work with sales reps and more often than not, business owners have:
Insufficient knowledge about the basic sales process
Confusion regarding the right way to manage salespeople
Resentment of demands from the sales staff
Anger stemming from disappointing sales results
Little understanding of the unique needs of a new sales hire
Each chapter in the book begins with a vignette that comes directly from the author’s interactions with clients, and takes a sympathetic but realistic aim at the fears, misunderstandings and frustrations that occur in sales environments. Typical sales management dilemmas are demystified through easy to understand examples, charts and worksheets.
This book focuses on increasing revenues through sales management: hiring the right salespeople and organizing the sales process, as opposed to sales training which focuses on improving sales skills set
Simplifies the sales management process for the non-career sales manager
Highlights the most common management mistakes
Explains why managing a salesperson is different from managing other employees
Discusses the benefits to the entire organization of effectively managing sales
Points out the downsides of not properly supporting the sales staff
Provides and in-depth road map for orienting a new hire
Offers easy to understand charts, graphs, checklists, tables, letters, and reports
Holds the entrepreneur accountable, no matter how busy.
"Concrete, practical, and realistic guidance"
“Suzanne Paling offers concrete, practical and realistic guidance to all of us entrepreneurs who become sales managers by default. We are not trained for this role and need to do it well to be successful entrepreneurs. This book is chock full of useful suggestions which have gotten me to think of even more ways as I strive to be the most successful sales manager possible. Thank you Suzanne!”
—Elizabeth W. Brown, President, Softeach, Inc.
