Does lateness of your sales people cost you money?

This interesting article about options for handling staff who continually arrive ate for work on Sydney Morning Herald small business pages made me think about how do you monitor and manage your sales team when they are late.

I'm not just talking about being late on arrival at work in the morning. For many people in a sales role they don't have to check in at their desk at the same time every day like other people in the office might.

Latness can easily go unnoticed.

Lateness for sales people can be:

* Late for meetings
* Late with submitting reports
* Late for returning phone calls
* Late for responding to client requests
* Late with submitting expenses
* Late with providing input or ideas when requested
* As well as being late to start in the morning (but this may go unnoticed if they are in the field)

The SMH article talked about lateness as a sign of lack of commitment and possible attitudinal or behavoural problems. Or maybe even problems in their personal life.

This raises the importance of staying tuned-in to your sales team and understanding their individual motivations. When signs of lateness (or lack of commitment) appear you can start to ask... Why?

Looking after your sales team is smart business

Recently I was engaged in a discussion with a business executive about a familiar topic - the performance of their sales team. Even if your sales team is only one person, it makes very good business sense to look after them. And look out for them.

Let me explain.

Your sales people are often out on their own. Trying to secure customers and revenue for your business. But they don't always get the support they need.

• - They can miss out on current information.
• - They can be kept in the dark on new projects that are released to customers and the public.
• - They can be unsure of how they are being measured (what are their key KPI's?).
• - They can feel as though their customer relationships are being undermined by other communications from the office.

Most of these problems can be effectively addressed by improving communication. But it requires commitment from management to do so.

'Looking out' for your sales people means being aware of what they are doing in the field.

• - How well do they represent your services and products?
• - Do they talk about 'benefits' for the customer, or do they get bogged down in the technical details (i.e. the features of your service or product)?
• - Do they fully and enthusiastically support company initiatives?

As a manager or business owner - in a Sales Management capacity - you must be on the lookout for behaviours or skill-sets that need improving. Your sales team spends a great deal of their time away from your office, or in 'private' conversations with clients. Make sure you regularly assess how well they are doing.

Remember, your sales team needs your support and direction to produce the best results. It can be dangerous for them and for your business to leave them on their own to 'get on with it'.