Effective sales management definition and best practices

An effective sales management process ensures every aspect of your company’s collective sales effort works efficiently.

To succeed in any industry, you need a great sales manager who helps their team satisfy buyers and maximize profits.

In this article, we examine sales management, its impact on the sales process and the role of a quality sales manager in building and managing sales teams.

What is sales management?

Sales management involves developing a sales force, organizing sales efforts and implementing sales techniques that allow a large or small business to achieve its sales goals.

The secret to boosting sales in any industry is precise sales management processes. A great sales manager can lead this effort and inspire the whole sales department.

A sales management system helps your company reach its sales objectives and enables you to stay in tune with your industry. It can be the difference between surviving and thriving in a competitive marketplace.

Whether you’re an experienced or new sales manager, gaining visibility into your current sales force will improve your sales management.

Once you have a clear picture of the processes to monitor and how to keep track of them, you’ll be ready to pinpoint issues early on, coach people and have a better overview of which tasks the team should focus on to increase sales.

Sales reps who understand how their company manages its sales process will be more in sync with teams, have stronger relationships with managers and achieve better individual sales results.

The three key aspects of sales management

There are three umbrellas to manage within the sales process:

• Sales operations

• Sales strategy

• Sales analysis

The process will vary from business to business, but operations, strategy and analysis are the three key starting points. We’ll discuss each point below in more detail.

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What is a sales manager, and what does one do?

A great sales manager is the person who guides your salespeople and handles:

• Setting sales goals and quotas

• Motivating and mentoring the team

• Creating sales plans and workflows

• Hiring and onboarding new hires

• Organizing sales training programs

• Choosing a customer relationship management (CRM) system

• Managing the pipeline and overall team

• Coordinating with sales enablement and marketing teams

Let’s focus on three critical tasks a good sales manager excels at: building the team, defining the sales process and reporting.

Sales operations: building the team

After you’ve acquired a great sales manager, it’s time to expand the team.

The sales team is the backbone of any company: a direct connection between product and customer.

Sales team members should feel like valued parts of the company and have the resources to progress instead of only being money-making machines.

Train new talent and develop their skills from onboarding forward, regardless of their sales experience and sales certifications.

Salespeople shouldn’t only be great sellers. They must also excel at handling your product and representing your organization so customers want to engage with it.

The sales team you manage must work as individuals within a collaborative unit. This approach will result in fewer errors and more achievements for the sales force and the broader company.

Give your team ambitious yet realistic sales targets. Measuring the right key performance indicators (KPIs) will help you prepare them for success.

Here are some ways to set realistic yet ambitious targets:

• Set development targets for each sales activity

• Assign territories for team members to manage

• Establish goals and sales quotas

The sales manager must also counsel the team throughout the process, ensure they’re still on track and motivate them when needed.

Consider what experiences drove you throughout your career; use them to inspire and motivate your sales team. On the other hand, remember to share your disappointments and failures, explain how you overcame those challenges and offer support during difficult periods.

Sales strategy: defining the sales process

Once you have a sales team and know your targets, how do you carry out the sales?

Every business has a sales cycle. This series of tasks helps a company’s product reach its users. A sales pipeline, or sales funnel, makes organizing these tasks and completing deals easier.

A sales pipeline is a visual way of tracking prospects and leads as they move through various stages of the buying journey. It helps salespeople organize their work into stages, from lead generation to first contact to closing the deal.

For example, this is what a pipeline view looks like in Pipedrive:

Keeping salespeople accountable for performance is also an essential aspect of the sales manager’s job, which is where sales reporting comes in.

Sales analysis: reporting

Reporting helps you understand how your current sales management strategy affects your company’s success and how you can improve your efforts – whether by hiring more salespeople or redistributing tasks.

Successful sales reporting involves using sales metrics or quantifiable indicators that tell you how each aspect of your sales operations performs and whether you achieved your targets.

Measure these four metrics with the standard sales funnel:

1. Number of deals

2. Average deal size in your funnel

3. Close ratio, or average percentage of deals won

4. Sales velocity, or average deal lifetime before closing

Collecting this sales data will help you find ideal customers. You’ll see which types of customers move through the process in the shortest time and who spends the most.

A CRM or sales management tool will help you gather this information in reports and dashboards to streamline your sales management process.

Once you figure out how to keep customers coming back, you’ll improve retention.

Who benefits from sales management?

Effective sales management helps everyone involved in the sales cycle.

The more mature your sales process is and the more the sales manager adapts and improves it, the more likely your team will achieve top performance.

The sales management process involves three key stakeholders: the sales manager, the salesperson and the customer.

Sales managers

A sales manager directs an organization’s sales team, oversees its processes and is usually in charge of talent development and leadership.

Clarity and scope are essential to sales managers, who typically oversee the planning and execution of company-wide targets.

Having an effective management process allows them to drive the company forward. They’ll have a clearer vision of where they stand against the competition and know how to stay ahead.

Salespeople

A salesperson represents the company and contacts potential customers face-to-face, over the phone or online. Salespeople typically report to and work closely with their sales managers on performance goals.

The main goal for salespeople is to engage the current customer base while expanding their reach (and the company’s bottom line).

Salespeople (like sales managers) get increased confidence and better visibility from effective sales management. If you’re a business owner, consider investing in sales training for every team member – it’ll pay off in the long run (more on that below).

Customers

Customers are more likely to have a better experience and purchase your product or service if they go through an effective sales management process.

They may even share their experiences on social media sites like LinkedIn, providing further proof to help other prospects convert.

A great sales company can set itself up for success if all these parts work well together.

Use technology to manage customer relationships

You need an organized sales funnel to understand your sales management process.

A sales funnel shows a sales team the opportunities available and forecasts revenue for the months ahead.

While some opt for Excel spreadsheets and sticky notes, a sales CRM tool will give you a more precise overview of your current assets and pinpoint key factors in your company’s future success.

Incorporating technology into your sales strategy will help to ensure no deals fall through the cracks so you can maximize profits.

Cloud-based CRMs are great for helping your team improve collaboration, as they typically offer flexible pricing and easy access.

Before purchasing any CRM tool, answer these questions to ensure you make the best choice for your team:

• Is it easy to learn and use?

• Can I customize it to fit my needs?

• Are there cross-platform integrations?

• Will it notify me when I need to act, and will those notifications come in real time or at intervals?

• Does it offer accurate sales forecasting and reporting?

• Is it mobile-friendly? Can I access it from anywhere?

Note: Finding the CRM market daunting? Check out our guide on how to choose the perfect CRM. It covers the core features to prioritize and includes an evaluation checklist.

Sales management best practices

Your sales process should be simple and save you time, not drain it. The goal is to make sales professionals’ work easier.

If you use a CRM that aligns with your processes, needs and goals – employing integrations and automation to help you save time – you’ll be able to push more deals through the pipeline and generate more revenue.

Here are some more tips:

Use productivity tools

Busy sales leaders and salespeople can use plenty of productivity apps to ease the process of managing and closing deals. These are tools that streamline processes or simplify repetitive or complex tasks. Examples include:

• Communication platforms (e,g., Slack and Microsoft Teams)

• Project management tools (e.g., Asana, Trello, ClickUp and Any.do)

• Note-taking and time management apps (e.g., Evernote)

• Writing assistants (e.g., Grammarly)

• Document management apps (e.g., Scanner Pro)

Find more productivity tools in the Pipedrive Marketplace.

Create content marketing

Sales managers can develop content marketing materials that build value around their new products or services, making selling easier for salespeople.

Content can convince and reassure potential customers about your services, especially if they solve a particularly relevant pain point.

Having a content team working within the company ensures creators know the product and understand the value it provides to customers. However, you can also outsource content creation to a freelancer or agency if you’re not ready to hire full-time.

Great content is more likely to move consumers along the sales cycle than a salesperson alone because informative content often introduces products and services to potential buyers – especially when it appears high in search engine results pages (SERPs), where many buyers start their journeys.

Keep up your training

Maintaining a strong sales management process requires continuous learning so you can adapt as your company grows and changes.

Formal sales training is a great way to hone your skills. Programs like Pipedrive Academy help you improve at every stage of the sales process.

Beyond formal training, you can keep up your skills through activities like the following:

• Reading account management books, sales books or blogs

• Setting a Google alert for key terms such as ”sales management” to stay up-to-date with the latest news in your industry

• Experimenting with sales management software that will help you gain visibility into and stay on top of your management process

• Reading a sales glossary to brush up on your sales vocabulary

Encourage your employees to pursue ongoing learning as well to keep your whole team on the cutting edge of your field, and provide incentives for those who complete training.

Sales management FAQs

Final thoughts

Succeeding in sales management requires hard work and knowledge of operations, strategy and analysis. Being the best sales manager possible also means using the right technology – starting with your CRM.

Sign up for a free 14-day trial to see if Pipedrive is the right fit for you.