Developing Critical Objectives

Your analysis may not be perfect, but you certainly can now begin to define the most important critical objectives that you, as the sales manager, must address to be successful. Try to relate your customer’s solutions to sales behaviors. For example, your results may have shown that you are deficient in meeting the needs of your customer’s challenges on one or more of the following:

• General response time

• New or existing product development

• Sales professionalism

• Industry, product, services, or applications knowledge

• Technology interchange

• Safety or quality

• Pricing or terms and conditions

• Packaging or delivery

• Co-marketing support

• Distribution model

• Value-added resources

• Technology transfer

• Integration capabilities

• What else can you think of?

The world of sales management has changed. You must now address all of the above factors and address them in a manner that will allow you to prioritize your actions based on the issues that will have the greatest impact on sales and organizational success.

Based on what you have determined is most important to your targeted customer base and comparing your performance against your primary competitor(s), what objectives must you set for your organization, yourself, and your sales team to achieve superior results? Remember, you are now a part of the management team, and it is your responsibility to identify what needs to be fixed and to convey a plan of action in a prioritized management form of communications. No whining and no vague complaints. You need to present clear, concise, and measurable actions that have to be taken based on situational realities