Radio Sales Café

What measures/reports do you have in place to create individual accountability within your outside sales staff?  We need to put some things in place and want to create systems without going overboard into micromanagement.

Dan,

You might consider the RAB's new Account Management System. It establishes as much or as little accountability as you want and it is very inexpensive. We've had it for about two months now and I really like it.

In the past, other sales managers have tried various things:
- copy appointment books
- call clients and check up
- complete daily sales logs etc.
- account reviews to see if we were following the "system"

As an account executive, I felt not-trusted and knew how often people manipulated these and it really didn't get us anywhere.

Now as sales manager, I have weekly meetings, one-on-one, with each account rep and talk to them about their week. Are they having problems? Did they gain new clients? Did they close sales? Where can I help? What good things happened? I believe communication is the key to understanding where they are coming from and trying to offer assistance.

In addition, I believe you can always see red flags- have they not added new clients to their list? Have you not seen sales coming in from a particular rep? paying attention is also essential.

Finally, we have account reviews on any account that has been stagnent for a certain amount of time. If those accounts haven't been on the air for 6 months to a year, we talk to the rep and make a decision as to whether that account should be reassigned. This process also eliminates the "squatters rights" philosophy that some reps have.

Leslie is right on target. Any sales person can manipulate a computer program or data accumulation notebook.

There are a few issues here: 1) If you have a system that allows a sliding system of accountability, then you end up with a sliding scale of productivity. 2) If you use any system that requires sales people to "remember" or give opinions, the system will only be as good as the sales managers' ability to spot trouble. Having been a sales manager more than half my life I can tell you I cannot always spot it and have been burned when I didn't spot it soon enough. 3) What matters most (in my opinion) is this: Do you know how many orders they are going to ask for this week? Do you know how many dollars they are going to ask for this week? Do you know their closing ratio as it pertains to number of contracts sold? Do you know their closing radio as it pertains to DOLLARS sold. IF you know these figures you will be AHEAD of what is going on. Example: rep A has a 32.7% closing ratio on orders, but a 55% closing ration on DOLLARS. This means that this particular sales person is better at selling bigger stuff and not packages. This rep is pitching $20K this week. If all of the contracts being pitched are about the same size, I can expect to see about $10K plus of added billing this week IF THE REP PITCHES AT LEAST THREE ORDERS adding up to that $20K. But now back to the "fiction writers" and we all have them. The problem then is once they learn how to sell YOU, you are screwed unless your system relies on math to figure out what your people are doing, and math that compares them to THEM, not the rest of the team or some arbitrary "national statistic" . You also need a system that has defined goals for account rotation and defined rules. It seems in most stations the old dogs work on different rules than the pups. In our company we use a system that uses the reps on-line calendar. If the rep has not seen the customer in 56 days, the account automatically comes off their list. No emotion, no nothing. So how do you know if the rep actually saw the customer? Customer service calls! Finally I suggest that the Production Order system be laced to any contact management system. This way when there is turnover, the new rep walks right into an up and running account with all of the account history and all of the past copy. THAT is accountability... of the Radio Station to the customer. Hal... I have seen the RAB's new system. It is impressive. It looks surprisingly like our system used to look (www.InABoxOnline.com) when they asked us to demo it for them about 18 months ago. They did however shear down the accountability part so that sales people would give it more buy-in. If you have ever wondered why we in radio are nothing like the sales people ate MERC, I can give it to you in one word.... accountability. But hey, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

Great stuff Chris et al. Really appreciate the comments. Saying this nicely, we have a staff full of old dogs and they tend to be set in their ways and hold onto accounts tooth and nail. Our billing has been "ok" as we have had consistent growth...we are up nearly 10% over the last two years despite the current economy but I think that we could be doing so much more. These ideas are solid and I look forward not only to implementing them but also open to seeing more posted here by others.

Thanks!

The RAB has a good archived webinar, "Holding Your Sellers Accountable, Without Holding Yourself Hostage." I am sure it will help you!

I am not a sales manager, however, our stations use a web based program called "in a box". It keeps our calendar with notes. When one task is completed you immediately schedule your next task/appointment for that client. As far as the sales manager...my sales manager does not micro manage with this system but it keeps everyone in check as far as claiming accounts, backing up that you did see a client and what was done. We have used this system to settle account disputes, ie. who has been working it (or at least documenting it). Call me if you would like more information. It does soooo much more than I just described. 270-564-1097

I also think that most account executive's struggle with organization. I have talked with some co-workers about creating a small "accountability group". We would talk about what we are working on with each other and are accountable to the group for having it done by the next week meeting. Our sales manager is awesome, but he does not have time to spend micro managing. I think that obvious account rep issues will show in the numbers, but the concientious, driven individual will make themselves accountable in some way (like the group I mentioned).