Sales Management

Sales management is attainment of an organization's sales goals in an effective & efficient manner through planning, staffing, training, leading & controlling organizational resources. Revenue, sales, and sources of funds fuel organizations and the management of that process is the most important function.

Sales Planning

An essential sales leadership role is to establish a sense of purpose or vision and clear direction to get there. A key element of a business’ strategic 12-month plan is to answer the question: “Where will all the sales come from?” The sales plan is not a guesstimate. It takes its direction from the marketing strategy and is based on thorough research and a considered positioning of the company within the market place..

Sales planning involves predicting demand for the product and demand on the sales assets (machines, people, or a combination of both). Failure to plan always means lost sales. Planning insures that when a consumer wishes to purchase the product, the product is available, but it also means opportunities for additional sales are presented and the sales assets are available to exploit these opportunities. Planning should allow for meeting increasing customer demand for more products, services and/or customization as the business is growing, but also react quickly when demand decreases. Sales planning improves efficiency and decreases unfocused and uncoordinated activity within the sales process.
[edit] Sales Reporting

The sales reporting includes the key performance indicators of the sales force.

The Key Performance Indicators indicate whether or not the sales process is being operated effectively and achieves the results as set forth in sales planning. It should enable the sales managers to take timely corrective action deviate from projected values. It also allows senior management to evaluate the sales manager.

More "results related" than "process related" are information regarding the sales funnel and the hit rate.

Sales reporting can provide metrics for sales management compensation. Rewarding the best managers without accurate and reliable sales reports is not objective.

Also, sales reports are made for internal use for top management. If other divisions’ compensation plan depends on final results, it is needed to present results of sales department’s work to other departments.

Finally, sales reports are required for investors, partners and government, so the sales management system should have advanced reporting capabilities to satisfy the needs of different stakeholders.