Performance Management - Balancing the Rear-view Mirror

A strategically balanced performance management plan is a key component of effective sales management. The most successful approach not only enables sales managers to identify opportunities for team improvement based on analyzing past activities and results, but to also identify preemptive action steps and strategies that can impact future results.

Balancing the Rear View Mirror
Managers who place all or too much focus on analyzing past performance analytics and then initiating improvement plans after-the-fact miss the opportunity to salvage what otherwise might be a sub-standard month, quarter or trimester.

Circumstances and competitive offerings within the marketplace are constantly changing. While the practice of reviewing past performance and using the data as part of a performance improvement plan is necessary, this “rear-view-mirror” approach can be costly in terms of lost opportunities if it encompasses ones entire sales management approach.

While there are different ways to accomplish a more balanced approach or sales management system, here’s a well-tested example consisting of five key components:

1. Team meetings - for teambuilding and team motivation; best if scheduled regularly on a "same time same channel" basis. Must be well-planned with a group-level agenda
2. Individual strategy sessions - also scheduled regularly; based on your sales process and model, the same topics should be discussed each time, such as territory management plan, key-account plan, pipeline, activity plan, etc.
3. Field support & team selling - regularly scheduled with each Rep; an ideal opportunity to lead by example, build relationships with key customers (key in times of transition!), stay current on market conditions and gather data or input for your team and individual meeting agendas
4. Proactive "impromptu" interaction - similar to Hewlett Packard's well-known practice of MBWA (Management by Walking Around); can be done in a variety of ways, such as email, voice mail, telephone, face-to-face (at the water cooler...) depending upon your logisitc structure. These interactions must be made in a spirit of being "interested" or "supportive" rather than "I'm checking up on you..."
5. Proactive to-do list - on which each Rep has a slot every week, and the manager has a proactive reason to interact with each Rep based on issues of the day, plans made during strategy sessions or team selling days, etc.

Finally, an organizational system - either electronic or in three-ring-binder style for field-based managers - must be created and maintained in order to implement this system. For additional information, please refer to paulcharles.com.