Getting sales staff
to do what you want.

This is one in a series of articles on approaches to enhancing sales management performance. The articles include coaching, appraising, motivating, managing hiring, territory management and many others.

Are you finding your sales staff don't follow your instructions?

Do you forget what you have told your staff to do?

Do you fail to follow up on requests you have given?

Here are five productivity-improving techniques you can implement to help overcome these problems.

1. No more verbals

When you give someone a task, make them write it down, and watch as they take the notes. If you're speaking with someone by phone, ask them to read back what they have written. It's important to dot all the I's and cross all the T's. By making someone write it down and have them read it back it guarantees that they understood what it is you wanted them to do.

This is a double-edged sword as you must write each task you assign, too. You will lose credibility quickly if you assign tasks to your staff that you forget all about.

2. Include an agreed deadline

Tasks without deadlines rarely get completed. When you assign a task, state the specific date - and time, if necessary - you need it by. Tell the person that you need it by 9:00am on Wednesday, or by 3:00pm on Thursday. Let them know that this is IMPORTANT! Create a sense of urgency.

3. Get their commitment

Get a commitment from your staff that they can complete the task to the level expected by the time you have agreed upon. Have an understanding for both the company and the employee of the consequences for non-completion. Make it clear that no excuses will be tolerated without prior discussion.

Record the commitment so you are reminded about it. too.

4. Give you and your staff reasonable time frames to complete tasks.

Always build a cushion into your time based requests, a margin for error for both you and your staff. If you need something by Friday. Tell the person who is doing the work that you need the delegated task by Wednesday afternoon.

That guarantees that you'll have time to review it.

You should call them on Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning, just to remind them that you need the work done by Wednesday afternoon. (Don't be surprised if they've forgotten about it. That's why you're calling in the first place - To give a 'gentle' reminder.)

5. Follow-Up On Delegated Work

Just because you've delegated a task to someone else doesn't mean you can forget about it. You must schedule a task in your contact manager, i.e. ACT!, Goldmine, Outlook, or your Palm, so that it doesn't slip through the cracks. Again, you will lose credibility very quickly if you assign tasks and then forget about them or even ignore them once completed.
Use these techniques and you'll find that more things get done in less time and with less effort. Your stress levels will go down and your productivity will soar.