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Sales Clinic
(continued from page 21)
is short-term operational management.
Here's what I think is a better definition
anyway: Management is making sure that
everything, from the big things to the little
things, gets done and done right.
Micromanagement may have a bad reputation, but I'm not sure there's a better
word to encompass that definition. So
with that in mind, I want to attempt a
change in attitude via a change in language. Micromanagement is a good thing.
Overmanagement is admittedly a bad thing.
But anything less than the right amount
of management is undermanagement, and
that's a bad thing too.
The Underside
In my experience, most printing salespeople are undermanaged. They're
allowed to set their own schedules and
their own priorities. They're expected to
set their own goals and to motivate themselves to reach those goals. And, boy, is it
ever not working!
I routinely ask printers to rate their
salespeople on a scale of 1-10. The most
frequent answer is seven or eight, which
is good-but-not-great, and I also worry
that many of those sevens and eights
are overly generous ratings. Beyond that,
w w w. M y P R I N T R e s o u r c e . c o m
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I hear a lot more fives and sixes than
nines and tens. And obviously, a six or
below needs a lot more management—or
a pink slip! But let's not talk about fixing
"bad" today. Instead, let's talk about taking "good" closer to "great," because that's
where you're likely to get the best return
on your investment of time and energy.
The Plan
I suggest a simple plan. Schedule a meeting with your salesperson for tomorrow,
first thing in the morning. Ask one question: "What is your plan for today?" Then
talk about that plan, putting most of the
emphasis into three areas:
1) Does your salesperson's plan represent a full day of business building activity?
2) Do you agree with his/her priorities?
3) How can you help your salesperson
to deal with any problems that he/she is
likely to face today?
Those can be sales problems; for example, how to convince someone to set an
appointment or how to close a sale. They
might also be internal/production problems. You may not always have all the
answers, but two heads are usually better
than one, and if nothing else, you want to
know about the problems.
The second stage of this plan is to do it
again the day after tomorrow, and every
day after that, adding one more element.
After the first meeting, you start each
subsequent meeting with a different question: "How did yesterday go?"
Specifically, you want to know if your
salesperson followed the plan you agreed
upon the day before. In other words,
whether everything from the big things to
the little things got done and done right. This
is an opportunity to talk about how the
previous day's problems were resolved, or
not resolved. Then you continue into the
plan for the current day.
In my experience, most salespeople
need this sort of micromanagement, at
least until they prove to you that they're
capable of producing at a nine or 10
level without it. Some of your non-sales
employees may need it too.
Bottom Line: Micromanagement is a
good thing. Overmanagement is a bad
thing. Undermanagement is a really bad
thing! ◗◗
Dave Fellman is the president of David
Fellman & Associates, Cary, NC; a sales and
marketing consulting firm serving numerous
segments of the graphic arts industry. Contact
Dave by phone at 919-363-4068 or by email
at dmf@davefellman.com. Visit his website
at MyPRINTResource.com/10004781.
July 2013 / QUICK PRINTING
33