No Foolin' — Sales Leaders Should Be Thinking Summer

By Ken Thoreson, president, Acumen Management Group LTD

This past week during a consulting session with a client, with both the president and their sales manager, we discussed several points that I thought would be good items to bring up in this week's blog. The first point, which is not an unusual topic, was to ensure both the president and sales manager were in agreement on the weekly priorities. Often I find the sales manger focused on important activities during a their hectic weekly schedule; putting out fires, solving administration issues, coaching/mentoring, recruiting, oh and trying to ensure sales are being achieved. Meanwhile, the president is frustrated that other key objectives are not being completed. While time management is a major topic for sales leaders, what I almost always recommend is that on Friday afternoons the president and sales managers meet to discuss the priorities for the coming week and the achievements/problems of the past week. This is what I call managing your sales manager. On my website, you can download The Job of Sales Management. It was created for this specific purpose, and it defines the 40 top actions that sales managers must work on to achieve predictable revenues. By following this simple recommendation everyone is focused on the "agreed to" priorities.