What Is Sales Management: Tips and Tools

Effective sales management boosts the performance of the sales team and, consequently, the company’s financial results.

We know that this is a goal for every company, but it’s also a challenge for many.

If you want to improve your sales management, check out this article we’ve prepared on the topic.

With it, you’ll discover tips and tools to enhance your process and motivate your team to sell more!

What is Sales Management?

Sales management is the process of coordinating efforts and investments to ensure the commercial work gets done.

This process includes planning, designing sales workflows, training the team, managing sales professionals, setting goals and tracking KPIs, selecting and implementing sales techniques, and support tools.

All of this aims to achieve the goals of the department and the company as a whole.

Why is Sales Management Important?

Sales management brings clarity to the processes carried out by the sales department.

Additionally, it’s through sales management that the manager can identify areas for improvement and solutions, as well as understand which actions and investments yield the best results.

You may also like: Main Growth Strategies to Apply in Your Company

How to Manage Sales?

But where do you start with sales management, or even improve your current process?

Our step-by-step guide is below.

1. Study of Products and Services

Knowing your product or service inside and out is one of the keys to successful sales.

Even the best sales representative would fail if trying to sell a solution they don’t understand.

That’s why, when designing your sales management plan, the starting point should be revisiting knowledge of your offering.

This knowledge should be accessible to everyone, through training, documents, or presentations—so every new salesperson starts with the same information.

2. Structuring and Training the Team

The second step is to train the team and assign responsibilities.

In larger teams, having group leaders can support the workflow, alongside the sales reps’ responsibilities.

The clearer and more effective the training, the better prepared and more productive the sales team will be.

3. Choosing Performance Indicators

Sales management also involves defining and tracking KPIs.

These performance metrics enable the collection and analysis of data.

Beyond tracking progress toward goals, these insights are crucial for making informed decisions.

Salespeople should also have clarity about these metrics and goals so they know what is expected of them and stay motivated.

Read also: 8 Sales and Marketing KPIs Leaders Want to See on Your Dashboard

4. Evaluation of Critical and Favorable Points

Use these indicators to assess which efforts yield the best results — and increase investment in those areas.

You’ll also be able to identify problem areas, such as low-performing channels or touchpoints.

From there, you can decide whether it’s worth improving those areas or changing strategies.

5. Asset Management

Asset management is the part of sales management that involves controlling values (team, tools, materials, campaigns, training, etc.).

The manager should also consider resources like time, workspace, and working models.

And also the relationship between departments that directly affect the sales process, such as marketing and logistics.

Who Benefits from Sales Management?

Everyone involved in the sales process benefits from effective management.

The main stakeholders, and how they benefit, include:

Sales Manager

It’s the sales manager’s responsibility to ensure effective management and implement improvements.

A well-structured process helps the manager develop talent, reach company goals, automate tasks, and reap the rewards of a motivated, productive, high-performing team.

Salesperson

Sales reps, with clear processes and useful tools, can better manage their productive time and get up to speed quickly when joining the company.

With efficient management, they work more confidently, achieve better results, and feel more motivated.

Customer

Customers interacting with a company that has a solid sales process enjoy a much better experience.

Satisfied customers are more likely to return and refer the company to others, generating more business opportunities.

5 Sales Management Tools

Technology, apps, and software are here to make work easier in various fields.

And sales are no exception.

Here’s how these tools can support your management process:

1. Agendor

The first tool that’s essential in sales management is a good CRM.

With this type of application, you can register and access the history of all your clients, track their progress through the sales funnel, assign leads to your sales team, and monitor the most relevant metrics of the process.

We recommend Agendor as a great option among the many available on the market.

Read also: What Is a Dashboard and How to Create a Panel to Showcase Your Team’s Results

2. Trello

A business organization tool that can also be applied to the sales team is Trello.

This free tool allows you to manage tasks and responsibilities. It’s also highly useful for each salesperson’s personal organization, all within the Kanban methodology using columns, cards, and boards.

3. Automated Invoice Issuing

In some companies, issuing invoices is a task assigned to the sales team.

If that’s your case, adopting automated invoicing software will make the process faster, reduce errors, and free up valuable time for your salespeople.

4. Slack

Team communication is essential to streamline routines and align relevant information.

The best way to manage this is by centralizing all conversations in one single tool.

For that purpose, we suggest Slack, thanks to its convenience, ease of use, and fast chat features.

5. Lahar

Lahar is a marketing and sales automation platform.

With it, you can automate email and SMS campaigns, capture leads, segment contacts, automate workflows, and build landing pages.

Continue reading: Sales Software – Top Options to Boost Your Business

12 Practical Tips to Improve Your Sales Management

Need more tips for improving your sales management process?

Check out the list and put these ideas into action:

1. Make a Plan

Anticipation is a key word in the sales process.

That’s why you should always use past data as a basis for analysis and new planning.

This makes it easier to deal with surprises, emergencies, or even challenges related to your targets.

2. Appoint a Leader

Sales management needs to be led by a professional from the sales department.

If this leader doesn’t exist yet, select the best person to track results, motivate and support the sales team, and help the company meet its goals.

3. Structure Your Company

Your company needs to be well-structured and open to a new sales process and management model.

So, make sure all points are aligned with leadership — including the need for new investments.

4. Choose the Right Tools to Simplify Work

Time, productivity, and customer experience can all be improved with tools and technology.

In this article, we’ve recommended five tools, but it’s up to you to determine which are the best for your business and specific needs.

5. Have a Structured Sales Process

In addition to strong management, your sales flows need to be well defined — including your sales approaches, objections handling, and communication channels.

This standardizes customer interactions and makes it easier to monitor results.

6. Evaluate Performance and Metrics

Once these elements are aligned, you’ll be able to track your success metrics and monitor the progress of your department, teams, and each sales rep individually.

7. Set Clear Goals and Commissions for the Team

Ambition and healthy competition are important motivators for salespeople.

That’s why transparency around goals and results is essential in sales management: your salespeople need to understand how they’re performing.

8. Give and Receive Feedback with the Sales Team

Recognizing strengths and guiding improvements on weaknesses is also part of effective management and helps keep your salespeople increasingly motivated.

9. Give Importance to People Management

Don’t focus only on individuals — think about teamwork.

Sales reps who share experiences and help their colleagues contribute to building a more cohesive and engaged team.

10. Invest in Professional Development

Don’t limit training to new hires or to times of management changes.

Invest in your team’s professional development — this investment will come back in the form of better sales results.

11. Value Motivation

Understand the profile of your sales reps so you can motivate them with what truly matters to them.

12. Encourage Self-Management

Promote a culture of self-management when it comes to tasks and responsibilities, and measure your team’s performance based on results — not on potentially biased perceptions.

Conclusion

With what you’ve learned in this article, the challenge of implementing and improving your sales management becomes easier, right?

Put these tips into practice, explore support tools, and strengthen your sales force!

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