MGT607 T9

							 LEADERSHIP

SALES MANAGEMENT

     TOPIC 9

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      AIM: Identify Appropriate
         Leadership Styles
9.1 Explain what is meant by leadership.
9.2 Understand how leaders manage
  change.
9.3 Determine the appropriate leadership
  styles for a particular situation.
9.4 Discuss what is involved in planning and
  conducting a sales meeting.
9.5 Recognize common people’s problems.
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                Leadership
Defined as the ability to influence & inspire the
actions of people to accomplish worthwhile
goals.
Leaders inspire trust & loyalty & understand how
to direct talents of others toward achieving
important objectives.
Sales leadership requires more intuition &
foresight than just supervising day-to-day
activities of sales force. Covers: skills of effective
leaders, using power effectively, managing
change.

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Research show that SP have better
attitudes to their job, greater commitment,
less job stress, more attachment to job &
improved performance when mgrs clarify
sales roles, demonstrate difficult tasks &
clearly define how sales force are
rewarded for their efforts.
i.e. great leaders are able to identify sales
force needs & show reps the benefits of
accomplishing individual & corporate
objectives.
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1. Skills of Effective Leaders

     Intuition                        Empowerment

                   Leadership
    Value            Skills
  Congruence                             Vision



                 Self-understanding




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Empowerment – a leaders ability to share
power with others by involving them in
setting objectives & planning. Requires
time with SP.
Intuition – the ability to anticipate change
& take risks. Experience helps, but
inexperienced sales mgrs can build a
sense of intuition by actively seeking info.
from customers, SP, co records…
Self-understanding – willingness to receive
& understand both +tive & -tive feedback
from others including subordinates.

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Vision – ability to conceive what may
impact a business in the future & what
changes are needed for it to prosper.
Value congruence – a skill achieved when
everyone in the org is striving for the same
business objectives. Achieving is requires
good communication skills, as well as the
ability to convince others that certain ideas
are worth implementing. Allows a leader to
delegate the authority to run their own
operations.

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  2. Using Power Effectively
Power is the ability to influence the behavior of
others. Ineffective use of power may lead to a
SP who merely complies with a mgr’s
expectations without enthusiasm.
Misuse of power may lead to resistance by
appearing to respond to mgr’s activity but not
really doing it.
Thus power is critical to leadership. There are 5
sources of power & effective leaders may need
to use a combination:

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a. Legitimate – is based on mgr’s position
   in the org. e.g. SP may put extra effort
   because sales mgr expects it.
b. Reward - a leader’s ability to reward
   subordinate for outcomes that they
   value. E.g. SP may put extra effort in a
   product because sales mgr has offered a
   bonus for each unit sold.
c. Coercive – leads to compliance due to
   fear of punishment. SP who believe that
   they could be fired will spend extra time
   prospecting for new customers.
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d. Referent – is the leaders influence on
   others because of friendship with the
   leader. SP comply because they feel that
   friends help friends or because they
   admire the mgr.
e. Expertise – is based on the perception
   that mgr has special knowledge, usually
   based on past success.




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      3. Managing Change
An important characteristic that today’s
leaders possess is their ability to deal with
change. People change, product lines
change, finally customer expectations
change.
Although many people thrive on change,
others have a low tolerance for
uncertainity.
A successful change mgt process has 5
phases:
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a. Assessment phase – sales mgrs engage in
   reexamining the customer environments in
   which the co operates.
b. Redesign phase – involves changes in one or
   all of the following areas: customer orientation,
   sales strategy, & or selling process. SP must
   be knowledgeable & align selling strategies
   with customer buying process.
c. Measurement – to determine success of the
   change initiative.
d. Sales support program – to help ensure long
   term success of change initiatives.

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  Effective Leadership Styles
Need to think about your leadership styles.
Every sales mgr has his/her own leadership
style when dealing with sales force.
Situational leadership – based on 2
characteristics: directive & supportive behavior.
Supportive – is the extent to which a leader
engages in a 2-way communication.
Directive – leaders engage in a 1-way
communication spelling out what, where, when
and how to do things.
E.g. a mgr provides low supportive behavior but
high directive behavior he is using – telling style.

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 Four Leadership Styles:
High


                       Supporting      Selling
 Supportive behavior




                       Delegating      Telling


 Low                        Directive behavior   High




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          Team Building
Has become very important in org due to
changing customer environments &
requirements, technology, globalisation of
customer & competitor, increased focus on
relationship marketing.
Lack of team work due to reward &
compensation on individual basis, lack of
info.
Job of sales mgr is to break down barriers
& reduce destructive competition.
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     The Homans System
Homans thinks of a group as an interactive
system of activities, interactions,
sentiments & norms.
               Activities




  Norms                     Interactions




             Sentiments

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Activities - include analysing problems,
evaluating & cross selling, making
decisions, writing proposals.
Interactions – communication between 2
or people. Amount of interaction can be
seen from with whom do SP talk, how
often, how long & who starts conversation.
Sentiments – reflect emotional climate of
group (every day feelings, deeper feelings
as trust).

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Norms – informal rules of behavior that are
widely shared & enforced by groups.
Norms develop through:
- sales mgr or SP explicitly state what should or
shouldn’t occur.
- events in a sales dept. history also lead to the
development of norms.
- a carryover of norms from past experiences
may also influence the formation of norms in
new situations.
External conditions – outside conditions can
influence how sales teams operate – org.
structure, tech, mgt values.

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              Coaching
An important function of 1st line mgrs is to
develop skills of sales team through
coaching.
Is a sequence of conversations & activities
that provide ongoing feedback &
encouragement to SP with goal to improve
their performance.
Consists of 3 components: positive
feedback, role modeling & trust.

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Feedback – can be used to increase
selling effectiveness. Planning (includes
setting territory, call objs, routing of sales
calls, use of time). Attitude (includes
attitude to product, specific customers, co,
SP career, co program & policies).
Knowledge (product, customer business,
industry, competition, territory, co &
policies). Selling skills (prospecting, selling
steps, handling objs, buying centre roles,
negotiating skills).

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Role modeling – achieved when a SP
perceives a sales mgrs behavior as being
consistent with both the sales mgr’s values
& org’s goals. includes demonstrating
selling techniques, being on time, honesty,
moral & professional behavior.
Trust – SP trust in & respect for mgr.
without trust role modeling has no effect
on SP job satisfaction.



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         Sales Meetings
Coaching is best suited to individual
training & motivational issues.
Common method for motivating &
communicating with the sales team is
sales meeting.
Sales meet needs to be organized around
3 key things: budget, location & time.


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Meeting Obj’s – meaningful objs
(communication, reward, encouragement,
training).
Meeting budgets – can be costly. Can use
online, teleconferencing.
Locations & timing – pulling SP from territories
means some sales may be lost. Can be held
during slack time. Local sales meet are usually
held by field mgrs & are frequent. Regional
meets include SP from different states may be
quarterly. National meets bring entire SP
together central location may be once a year.

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Common Problems:
 Interest – when participants find it boring.
 Participation – SP spend more time
 listening.
 Follow up – lacking at times.




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Sales Force Personnel Issues
Sales mgrs face difficult personnel issues in their
development of effective selling teams.
Plateauing – occurs when people stop growing
as sales professionals.
Causes of P no clear career path, bored,
economic needs met, overlooked for promotion,
reluctance to be transferred.
Solutions to P, respect experience of SP & get
them to try new approaches to serving
customers. Need to confront it asap.

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Termination of employment of SP – should
be considered as last resort. Steps are
establish paper trail (co policies,
performance review on regular basis, doc
in writing, discussion bet. Mgr and SP).
Sexual harassment – a client may
misinterpret the SP. SP need to travel,
spend time away etc…
Need to be professional, dress
appropriately, be cautious, avoid being
alone in a one-to-one situation.
Alcohol & chemical abuse.
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