Sales & Marketing Management - September/October 2008 - (Page 21)

The right people, doing the right things With approximately 46,000 employees, including more than 5,000 sales reps in the field and 600 more in the TeleSales program, the challenge of maximizing human capital was a steep one for ADP. Many companies simply assume that success in selling is a direct indicator of success in sales management, so they take their top performers and make them team leaders. But the skill sets are not the same, and giving someone the title of manager doesn’t magically confer management abilities. To make matters worse, if you take that approach and get it wrong, it’s doubly disastrous. In addition to putting the wrong person in management, you’ve taken a top-performing sales rep out of the field. That’s why ADP prefers a transitional approach. “We spend a lot of time focusing on the career development of our employees,” Gleason says. “Our most successful salespeople have a real client-service orientation and a strong work ethic. Customers like to buy from knowledgeable people whom they like and trust, so we look for those qualities in a salesperson before we hire them. “When we have a successful rep who expresses a desire to explore a career path in management, we give that person the opportunity to try out those responsibilities one step at a time,” he adds. “As that process moves along, and the individual displays an aptitude for coaching and developing others, then we know we’re going in the right direction.” In other words, the company doesn’t simply pluck its top salespeople out of the field and expect them to become leaders overnight. “ADP is one of the top companies in providing training and career advancement opportunities to its associates,” Donato says. “When looking for management candidates, they look within their own organization first due to the great talent pool they have.” While most businesses spend the lion’s share of their training resources on new hires, ADP inverts that formula to devote a higher proportion of its resources to developing current employees. For example, a rep who produces great results selling to small clients would be given the opportunity to produce the same results with mid-sized customers, and then moved up to handling national accounts. When this type of performer then asks about opportunities in management, ADP moves the rep into its sales training manager position. “When that happens, the rep is given indirect management of another sales associate,” Gleason says. “We teach the trainee various coaching techniques, strategies to motivate people and tips on conducting a www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com “Companies with worldclass sales operations realize the characteristics that make a sales rep successful are not necessarily the same ones that make a sales manager successful.” review session. But that management trainee still has an individual sales quota to maintain as they develop their leadership capabilities.” And that, ultimately, is the secret to ADP’s success. If a salesperson begins to assume some management duties and decides it just isn’t the right fit, there are no hard feelings or perceptions of failure; the rep simply goes back to focusing on what he or she does best: pitching, closing and selling. “When someone begins the sales training management program, it is very much a trial period—not just for the company, but for the employee as well,” Gleason says. “Sometimes that person simply doesn’t have the knack for managing others, while at other times, the person might have the knack for management but doesn’t enjoy it as much as they did being a salesperson. Sales management training is not a one-way street at this company.” s&mm photo by Br uce Katz SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008 SALES &MARKETING MANAGEMENT 21 http://www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sales & Marketing Management - September/October 2008

Sales &�Marketing Management - September/October 2008 Contents Editor's Letter Brian Tracy University Smart Sales Sales Strategy Smart Marketing Marketing Strategy Smart Management Management Strategy The Low-Cost Sales Leader Why Sales Process Gets the Shaft Training Q&A Technology Making the Case for Travel (Part II) Travel/Meetings On the Road The Way I See It

Sales & Marketing Management - September/October 2008

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