Fundamental steps starting as a new sales manager to make a solid start and set yourself up for sustaining success.

1. Success as a New Sales Director
Keys Points to Effectively Managing
A Sales Team Initially
And For the Long Run
Steve Fawthrop
714-876-7062, cell
stevefawthrop@outlook.com
December 2014

2. How to grow customers in the “New Normal” economy
Growth for most businesses has been challenging the last six years—to put it nicely--and dynamic as a long term trend. It has only accelerated in the last few years due to a variety of influences:
 The Great Recession and lingering high rate of unemployment/underemployment.
 Underemployment and anemic job growth due to higher productivity via technology and outsourcing of jobs.
 Shrinking disposable income by most U.S. households which is limiting growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
 Shifting government priorities for social programs, debt spending and tax policy that affect the lending market and social support programs further into the future.
Fortunately for most businesses, if they made it through the last six years, they do see a positive growth and increased activity in 2014 even if slower than desired. For some other companies on the leading edge of shifts in market activity, there has been tremendous growth. For example, Amazon.com reflects the continuing high growth of e-commerce when traditional retail has been flat and going through a huge structural shift. Apple’s iPhone, introduced in 2007, seeded the smartphone market and all the related apps. The mobile market reached the point of having a much broader cultural impact that will affect business operations and opportunities.
Most companies are not high profile or seen as selling products or services that are leading edge, yet they have a key role in the economy to fulfill needs in the consumer and business markets. For one company to success over another in a growth economy or one that is flat, a sale must be made.
A good idea still needs to be sold—really now more than ever because there are many quality goods and services offered in all segments of the economy. The sales discussion is where the ideas, technology and operational structure of your company are leveraged into customer value and value back to you in a sale and new revenue.
Leading the charge to maximize value is the sales staff. A sales representative is the brand personification of the company and related products and services that need to be represented and sold at the highest value.
As sales manager your key role is to effectively work with the team to integrate the company mission, financial goals, products and services into profitable operations through the sales efforts and customer growth by the sales team. In other words, you are coaching successfully when you have a team working from the same playbook to serve your customers to win in the marketplace.
I have outlined some of the mechanics and processes that should be addressed starting new in the sales manager position. These include evaluating the current state of business, the activities of the reps and your role, including evaluating talent and support systems, to set the foundation a positive start and sustaining success.
These actions operate under an overriding need for each member of the sales team to recognize the changes in the market, embrace the offerings of the company to help clients, commit to their own success and the success of the company.
I look forward to getting your feedback on these ideas.

3. Get to Know the Staff, Their Clients and Key Opportunities
Step One: Face Time. Spend one-on-one time with everyone right away to know them better and establish individual communication. On an individual level the first goal is to develop trust and openness so you can work effectively with those reporting to you.
Approach the initial time with the attitude that each person on staff was hired appropriately and can perform well in their position. Since all have some track record, even if just a few months ahead of you, you will have benefit of seeing results and perhaps can also get guidance from upper management. For now, unless warned in advance of real problems, treat the staff with the attitude of optimism.
Step Two: Territory Tour. This will be “virtual” tour with the inside reps and in-person, as appropriate, for the outside reps.
If it is beneficial to get a better understanding of the current outside reps based on their geographic coverage at this point, then join them on a tour of their territory as a general overview. Meet with five to ten key clients for an introduction, update and presentation of one new idea. This shows customers your interest in them, gives you the opportunity to meet clients and allows you to observe the interpersonal dynamics of the rep with their clients and prospects.
This is also a prime opportunity to see what offerings from the company are being discussed. With a competitive environment—no matter what industry you are in--and so many options for clients to use for suppliers (or just the challenge of getting their attention), it is critical to determine how well the reps are connecting client goals with options and ideas you offer.
Step Three: Probe sales team product knowledge. Have the reps present you information from PowerPoint presentations, collateral material and other support tools they may use. This will help you understand their working knowledge, work habits (do they know the materials or not?), strength in presentation and application of resources. It also accelerates your learning process.
Accomplishing the goals within the first few weeks or month (if a larger staff or geographically dispersed) is critical to let you quickly assess the approach being taken by the sales staff in managing their prospecting and sales relationships.

4. Know the Territory and Communities of Interests
Step One: Territory Analysis. In conjunction with the individual reps, conduct a territory analysis (geographic, vertical or “virtual” for inside reps) to clarify the current state of business for revenue to goals, understand trends good or bad and learn overall territory structure. This will clarify their current structure and, perhaps, help you measure how a structure may need to shift for growth.
This helps you understand the activity and results currently taking place and helps identify any gaps in the results for both the rep and you.
This also ties back to the points above about the reps needing to understand the various products and using the knowledge to expand their world of prospects.
The analysis will also help clarify the status of basic activities and results like call volume, pipeline revenue, customer count, contract count and “average” client revenue. Is everyone clear where you stand in these measurement areas? What other core measurements need to take place?
Step Two: Expand the Customer Base. A key indicator of momentum is looking at the percentage of new clients as part of the total revenue. You may need to establish:
 Are enough new contacts and first appointments (phone or in person) taking place to support a revenue pipeline to meet goals?
 How are new products or expanded markets being used to grow the prospect base?
 Does the analysis reflect growth in the sales of new products or categories?
 Are the activities and results in line with the financial goals of the company and of the individual income goals of the reps?
After the evaluation clarify and update goals as needed. Reasons:
 While the rep may already have sales goals for revenue results, the broader goals may also include specific activities or key selling opportunities that exist or are pending.
 Setting the short term goals also establishes a clear agenda for follow up discussions during regular update meetings or in spending time in the field.
To be successful all the reps have to be more highly disciplined in their activity, flexible in working with their clients and creative in seeing how new products and services can open doors to new prospects. This has to happen within a well-organized operational structure.

5. Master the Internal Processes/Resources
You need to identify what working knowledge and administrative information is needed to be effective in your own role and to help develop the team. This includes:
 After evaluating the current sales success, decide how the talents of team members can be further developed to be better contributors.
 Determine how reps can best apply themselves to use their strengths more productively in their individual sales efforts and to the benefit of the team as possible.
 Related to this, learn what tools exist to support the sales team and you that did not come up in initial discussions. If there are gaps in knowledge or training then you need to make use of available resources as soon as possible.
Additionally you need to cultivate effective, collaborative working relationships with other management and staff in the company. This includes:
 Administratively be clear about necessary reporting. When does it need to be done and how does it need to be delivered?
 Just as you will work with the sales team to have an effective work style with them, it is also necessary for you to understand the desires, needs and styles of management and those in any other departments with whom you interact.
I appreciate the opportunity to share this and hope you find this of value.
You are free to copy or share this summary as long as proper credit is given for it. Thank you.
Steve Fawthrop
714-876-7062, cell
stevefawthrop@outlook.com

6. About Me
I have been a sales professional in advertising and marketing as a career. This has included managing my own territories, selling with others and managing sales teams.
Some career highlights:
 Seven years in sales management including five years at the Puget Sound Business Journal in Seattle growing local sales to over $5 million annually (+70%). In Seattle I worked with an in-market staff with outside territories and inside sales. In Orange County I worked with dispersed reps across the country.
 Joint selling with local reps in the U.S. mostly in the West, Midwest and Texas. I also had the unique opportunity to work with independent reps in Asia while maintaining individual revenue responsibility as part of my eight years working with USA Today. All of the work in Asia was pioneering to break new markets with my dominant focus on Japan. At one point my national territory for USA Today was nearly $7 million annual revenue.
 Have opened and grown individual sales territories for regional and national accounts. This included opening the first office in Los Angeles for the Network of City Business Journals, the national sales arm of American City Business Journals.
 Over the last six years I shifted more deeply into digital marketing and most recently worked on a mobile ad technology start up, moment M.
I was born and raised in Seattle and graduated from the University of Washington with a B.A. in Communications with a concentration in Advertising.
While a good portion of my professional career has been spent in California—19 years split between Los Angeles and Orange County—I returned to Seattle October 2012.
I have two children. My son, Nolan, is a 2014 graduate from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. My daughter, Hayley, is a junior at Seattle University.
As part of my personal interest and community involvement, I have been a volunteer and board member of the Friends of the Seattle Public Library since returning to Seattle. I also do some volunteer mentoring for my college fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi.