Book introduction

If you are a sales manager, this book was written with you in mind. If you are a Financial Director or Financial Controller, we would appreciate it if you would immediately put it back on the shelf. All joking aside, the purpose of this book is to help managers manage employees who are, by definition, harder to get to work within more rigid processes. The best sales professionals are often those who tend to bend the rules. Isn't that true in your company, too?

If you manage an accounting team, it would be unthinkable for a balance sheet to be wrong. If you are a sales manager, you should accept that part of the sales job is to tame failure. Ours is not an exact science. You know as well as we do that scientific sales management is nothing more than a myth. We can guide, orient, motivate, and analyze; but managing in the true sense of the word remains illusory. Right now, as you read this, what is your sales team doing? Perhaps they are doing what you hope, but perhaps not.

This publication is ambitious, very ambitious even, because it represents our desire to keep it simple while at the same time delving into the management reporting tools that are truly useful to a sales manager seeking to boost the efficiency of his/her resources. There is nothing so complicated or sophisticated that would require investing time that you don't have or would keep you from excelling at what you are paid to do. Push your team to get results.

So, how can you push your team to get these results? By methodically and passionately applying the fundamentals of sales management. Yes, we believe in this. We even believe in the manager's magic formula, the one we have coined as the "formula for success":
Results = How Much x How x Why

• Results: This is what's most important. Without results, the rest doesn't exist. Results are the end-game in our profession and what most concerns your boss.
• How Much: Action is emphasized here. It's the measurement of activity, the measurement of sales pressure, the measurement of the intensity of your team's individual and collective efforts.
• How: This is the way in which activities are carried out. Of course, when an initiative supported is well organized with a qualitative approach, the result can only get better.
• Why: This gives it meaning. Meaning to initiatives that you took. Meaning to projects that you proposed to your employees. Meaning to their daily tasks and duties, even if they can be repetitive.

It's simple. But we hope to show you that it's not simplistic. So, by choosing to use this publication you are sweeping aside complexity to implement this simple formula. You will find at the end a selection of management reporting tools and concepts that will help you make them relevant day-to-day by optimizing each component.

For those of you who have never read specialized management-oriented books or participated in larger management training programs, each chapter presents a quick overview of the fundamentals we use to highlight the relevance of each management reporting tool.

We have also included pertinent, and often not-so-glamorous, practical examples to facilitate understanding. You will probably think that these are just the fruit of our imagination. . . . We have also peppered the literature with some "Pause and Reflect" sections. Use this time to take a break from the reading to quickly envision the first steps you could take to apply the techniques to your environment. Our goal, somewhat like if you were in a seminar, is to push you to identify what is critical for you and what would help you be more effective. The CD also includes the main tools presented. This allows you to modify them based on your specific goals and objectives. The purpose is to save you time -- a very precious commodity indeed for sales managers.

We suggest you divide the reading into three parts.

Part one provides an overview of the topic. The first step is to decide which components are key for a sales management system. We, of course, do not believe in scientific management or the "Best of the Sales World," but we do accept that sales management should include certain components. There are large categories of sales performance components that we will review. The purpose of the second chapter of part one is to share keys for efficiency to help you create your management reporting. We will try to convert you over to the "Russian Doll" principle and the "Weight to Strength" ratio.

Part two delves into the three factors in our success formula. First, we will detail useful management reporting tools and how to analyze and manage the concept of "How Much." After dealing with the quantitative aspects, we will show you how a sales manager's management reporting tools can bring success to the qualitative aspects as well. This is included in the chapter on "Managing the Concept of How." We will then see what, in our opinion, sales managers do not sufficiently address - the issue of meaning, of communicating the project vision. In other words, how to sell the concept of "Why." The management reporting tools included here will help you learn how to do this.

This second part is the heart of the book. If you don't think you will have enough time to read everything, start with the second part. You can read the first part later.

We decided to create part three to address two transversal issues that are clearly linked to the three multiplying factors in our success formula. First, there are the management reports to be used by the client. The purpose of these reports is to convince our clients of the financial impact that our relationship with them could have ("How Much"), of the quality of our services ("How"), and of the obvious reasons why they should retain our services ("Why"). We hope to convince you of the utility of developing management reports, at least for your most strategic clients.

The second issue in part three of the book addresses paying your sales professionals. Sales managers know that only someone who has never managed a sales team could think that bonuses aren't important. This issue is clearly linked to the three factors in our sales success formula. We deal with this issue from many different angles, as you will see.

We sincerely hope that this book will provide you with ideas to improve your personal practices and to help your sales team to always be the best in this exciting and demanding game that is sales.