SIEBEL SYSTEMS, INC.

MultiChannel Services White Paper

The Emerging Role of the

Sales Manager
How Sales Process and
CRM Technology Change
the Role of Sales Managers

Author: Dave Roberts

Managing Partner
Siebel MultiChannel Services
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Companies are radically altering their sales organizations—or attempting to. Today,
companies are implementing processes and technology in the hopes of creating effective,
efficient, predictable sales forces.

Until now, the focus has been on how these changes affect the individual sales person.
We suggest that you turn your focus to the Sales Manager, who both affects and is
affected by changes you implement in the sales organization:

1. Sales Managers play the pivotal role in making or breaking process and
technology initiatives in the sales organization.

2. Sales Managers can use process and technology to finally perform their optimal
role in the sales organization—if the changes are implemented correctly.

In this paper we explore the emerging role of the sales manager, what that role exactly
entails, what hinders the sales manager, and how the sales manager can overcome those
barriers through alignment, end-to-end sales process, and technology.

This paper can serve as a guide for ensuring the success of sales process and CRM
implementations and reinventing the role of the Sales Manager.

©1990-2000 Siebel Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary...................................................................................................................................... 2

Table of Contents.......................................................................................................................................... 3

The Emerging Role of the Sales Manager .................................................................................................. 4

The Optimal Role of the Sales Manager..................................................................................................... 5

What Sales Managers should be doing ....................................................................................................... 5
What Sales Managers actually do............................................................................................................... 5
What has to change to reach the optimal role ............................................................................................. 7

Barriers to Sales Managers Performing their Optimal Role .................................................................... 8

Expectations and Reward Systems ............................................................................................................. 8
Salespeople’s Behaviors ............................................................................................................................. 8
Selling vs. Managing .................................................................................................................................. 8
Time Pressure ............................................................................................................................................. 9

Reinventing the Sales Managers Role....................................................................................................... 10

Step 1: Alignment ..................................................................................................................................... 10
Step 2: Installing End–to-End processes................................................................................................... 11
The Ultimate Benefit - Leaving Behind the Lagging Indicators............................................................... 14

Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................. 15

©1990-2000 Siebel Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 3

THE EMERGING ROLE OF THE SALES MANAGER
Rarely does any company today offer a product vastly superior to its competition. Rather,
homogenous products have led to intense white-hot competition, and many companies
succeed by having a vastly superior sales force.

Because selling is so critical to success, especially for business-to-business models,

executives are demanding more control, more insight, and more predictable outcomes.
Yet, with years of business process re-engineering behind us, selling is still more art than
science—difficult to define, more difficult still to predict and manage.

Sales organizations will have to change how they operate. Proven, reliable processes and
enabling technology exist to create more efficient, predictable sales forces, but
implementing these initiatives has proven to be a problem. As many as 50 percent of
CRM installations fail.

Through our knowledge of change management and our experience implementing change
in more than 450 companies, we know that the key to changing a sales organization lies
in the influence and activities of the Sales Manager. However, our research shows that
Sales Managers seldom perform the activities that will ensure a sales force is “vastly
superior.” And, it’s not because they don’t know what to do. Our research shows that
Sales Managers understand and define their role very well, but are prevented from
performing their optimal role.

In this research report, we attempt to answer some of the questions companies are asking
as they deploy new sales process and sales technology. What is the optimal role of a
Sales Manager both before and after an implementation? What prevents them from
performing that role? How can Sales Managers ensure that the sales organization adopts
new sales process and CRM technology? And, how can these enablers free Sales
Managers to perform their optimal role?

Properly implemented, effective support systems and tools will empower the person most
able to take the organization to where it needs to be: the Sales Manager.

©1990-2000 Siebel Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 4

THE OPTIMAL ROLE OF THE SALES MANAGER

What Sales Managers should be doing

In 1999 Siebel MultiChannel Services conducted a comprehensive study to identify the
key attributes and competencies of the most effective Sales Managers. Our research
concludes that the Sales Manager’s optimal role has three essential elements:

• Planning — Developing and owning the operating plan for the business unit’s
market analysis, business development, and resources

• People Development — Establishing the resources needed to successfully

execute the operating plan by hiring, coaching, and developing people

• Proactive Review — Managing the revenue by monitoring, controlling, and

reviewing sales activity. Sales Managers accomplish this through proactively
reviewing sales plans and consolidating these plans into the business forecast for
the organization.

What Sales Managers actually do

We also analyzed how Sales Managers actually spend their time. Sales Managers already
do some of the things needed to accomplish these three functions. They do spend time on
planning, people development, and proactive review. Unfortunately, they don’t spend
most of their time in these activities—only 37% of their working day:

• 15% in planning

• 11% in people development

• 11% in proactive review1

Fifty percent of Sales Managers’ time is spent on firefighting and reacting to urgent
issues (23%), reporting to management (12%), and administrative tasks (15%). Only 13%
is spent with customers.

1 Figures from the 1999 Survey of European Field Managers by Siebel MultiChannel Services

©1990-2000 Siebel Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 5

 Sales Manager Survey:
Good News

Planning 15%
People development
Proactive review
11%
11%

Figure 1: Sales Managers today do spend 37% of their time on the core activities of the job.

Sales Manager Survey:

Bad News

15%
Admin
Reporting
12% 23%
Reacting

Figure 2: However, the lion’s share of their time is spent on non-essential activities.

©1990-2000 Siebel Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 6

What has to change to reach the optimal role
Sales Managers already know that they need to change how they allocate their time. In
our survey, Sales Managers suggested that the following changes would help them
achieve the ideal time allocation:

• Reduce the time spent on reacting from 23% down to 9%

• Reduce the reporting time from 12% to 6%

• Reduce the administrative time from 15% to 5%

These shifts would allow Sales Managers reallocate time to desired activities:

• Increase planning time from 15% to 18%

• Increase people development time from 11% to 21%

• Increase proactive review time from 11% to 17%

• Increase customer time from 13% to 24%

The Desired Change

Reacting -14%
Reporting -6%
Administration -10%

Planning +3%
People development +10%
Proactive review +6%
Customers -10%

0 5 10 15 20 25

The Sales Managers we surveyed obviously understood what they should be doing, so
why did they spend so much time on the “wrong” activities? Next we explored what
prevents Sales Managers from performing their true function and what is required to
reinvent their roles.

©1990-2000 Siebel Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 7

BARRIERS TO SALES MANAGERS PERFORMING THEIR OPTIMAL ROLE
To understand what was needed to reinvent the Sales Manager’s role, we first identified
the barriers that exist (both real and perceived). These barriers fall into four areas:

Expectations and Reward Systems

Most companies do not clearly identify and reward the activities they actually want their
Sales Managers to perform. We asked Sales Managers to compare the amount of time
that their senior managers spend discussing people development versus the lagging
business indicators of revenue or profit performance. Sales Managers said their managers
spend anywhere from 1-5% of the time discussing people development and 95-99% of
the time discussing revenue and profits. The axiom “Tell me how a person is measured,
I’ll tell you what they do!” holds true here. This measurement / reward / expectation
system drives Sales Managers to focus more on the delivery of business despite rather
than through their people.

Salespeople’s Behaviors
The behavior of salespeople often influences and interferes with the Sales Manager
activities. Many salespeople cannot clearly identify how and when to use their Sales
Managers appropriately. Granted, this is usually because the sales person has suffered
through ineffective and inappropriate historical experiences with a Sales Manager. The
relationship between sales person and Sales Manager may even be adversarial, with the
Sales Manager fighting for the right to coach when they accompany salespeople on sales
calls. The result is infrequent and ineffective people development.

Selling vs. Managing

Companies usually promote salespeople to Sales Managers because of their stellar selling
ability. It’s assumed that because a salesperson sells well, they automatically have the
skills, ability and willingness to manage other salespeople. Companies seldom coach and
train Sales Managers for their jobs, so it’s not surprising that Sales Managers don’t coach
and train their salespeople. Sales Managers have the tendency to remain within their
comfort zone, i.e. selling, and not stray too far into coaching, reinforcing skills and
process, and sustaining sales behavior change.

©1990-2000 Siebel Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 8

Time Pressure
That rare commodity, time, is also a barrier. Time is the only source of capital a Sales
Manager has, and it is a unique asset: you get it only once; you can spend it only once;
and once it is spent, it is gone forever.

With the increasing scope (number of reports), and the pressures for help, insight, and
mind share from communities both internal and external, Sales Managers are left with
little time for their core activities. And, because these activities are frequently more
difficult (i.e. coaching vs. selling), Sales Managers tend to put them off.

Obviously, removing these barriers and creating an environment in which Sales

Managers bring real value to the organization—beyond administration and “super
selling”—will require more than a compensation overhaul. The next section outlines
three steps to reinventing your Sales Manager’s role.

©1990-2000 Siebel Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 9

REINVENTING THE SALES MANAGERS ROLE
To eliminate the barriers discussed in the previous section and reinvent your Sales
Manager’s role, you will have to:

• Align expectations

• Install enabling processes

• Implement supporting technology

Step 1: Alignment
The first step in enabling Sales Managers to focus on their core activities is to align
senior management’s expectations around the sales management role. Part of this step is
aligning the Sales Manager’s measurement and reward system with the real objectives.
Once Sales Managers are being compensated on the preferred activities, it will follow
that they will spend time on the critical priorities of planning, people development, and
proactive review.

In parallel, you must provide and align resources that allow your sales people to sell and
your Sales Managers to manage. This is the foundation of an empowered sales and sales
management organization.

The real difference between empowering Sales Managers and abdicating responsibility to
them is creating an effective environment and conditions through:

• Developing Sales Managers to ensure they can perform the expected activities
well

• Building a supportive infrastructure,

• Creating a measurement and reward system that rewards the preferred behavior

©1990-2000 Siebel Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 10

Step 2: Installing End–to-End processes
The second step in realizing the full potential of the Sales Manager is to install complete
end-to-end sales processes, and then integrate the sales management function into these
processes. An end-to-end sales process consists of four phases:

• Market Management: Targeting of company resources on the right markets.

• Customer and Partner Management: Creating predictable business streams.

• Opportunity Management: Performing the activities required to win business.

• Service Management: Delivering significant and measurable value.

These four phases are then supported by the sales management functions that allow Sales
Managers to monitor, control, and review each process, within each phase of end-to-end
sales processes. Each phase is detailed in the following pages.

End-to-End Sales Processes

Targeting Resources Business Creation Winning Business Delivering Value

Customer
Market & Partner Opportunity Service
Management Management Management Management

Monitor, Control and Review

Figure 3.: End-to-end sales process will be supported by the sales management functions of
monitoring, control, and review.

©1990-2000 Siebel Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 11

Market Management. During the Market Management phase the market space is
segmented into areas in which the sales and marketing organizations will communicate
value propositions. Companies should use a process that segments based on identified
customer, partner and product portfolios, and then support each segment with an
accurately managed database. By using a process that integrates the Sales Manager’s
function, this phase results in targeted sales and marketing campaigns that the Sales
Manager can easily resource, monitor, and review.

Customer and Partner Management. The Customer and Partner Management phase
involves proactively driving profitable and predictable revenue streams from and with the
company’s selected clients, prospects, and partners (both resellers and alliances). The
intent is to maximize the revenue from, and the relationships with, the company’s
enterprise, mid-market, mass, channel, and alliance accounts. Employing proven,
predictable processes for each type of account and integrating the Sales Manager’s
functions into processes ensures better coaching, review, and planning.

Winning Business. The Winning Business phase consists of all activities that are
necessary to compete successfully for sales opportunities. A valid opportunity plan is
built on deep insight into the client’s situation, and it encompasses strategy selection and
detailed engagement planning designed to ensure that you win and the competition fails.
Sales Managers must be “stitched in” to this process and used appropriately by individual
salespeople.

Service Management. The last phase in the end-to-end sales process, Service
Management, includes all activities from the “Point of Sale” to the “Point of
Implementation” and beyond into ongoing support. Only by delivering, measuring,
recording, and communicating value can the sales organization build sufficient
momentum for further business with clients and within markets.

Monitor, Control, and Review. The four phases of the end-to-end sales process are
supported by a sales management control structure, including a real-time measurement
system that provides Sales Managers with accurate leading indicators. With such a
system, Sales Managers can correctly make timely modifications and adjustments to
marketing, sales, and service behaviors.

©1990-2000 Siebel Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 12

Step 3: Installing Supportive Technology
The third element in achieving optimal sales management effectiveness is to implement
appropriate and supportive technology. The emergence of Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) software has significantly helped companies implement structured
sales process, and thus relieve the pressures on sales management.

However, merely installing the technology is not enough. Companies have widely
adopted CRM in an attempt to support successful sales processes, but historically many
CRM implementations have been unsuccessful. Salespeople accustomed to succeeding on
instinct and personal skills have resisted this change. They also dislike the strain of
working with an unfamiliar software system.

In their book, Managing at the Speed of Change, Daryl R. Conner and David Clutterbuck
explain that to successfully change a process, two sponsors are needed:

• An initiating sponsor to introduce the need for change and demand its
implementation

• A sustaining sponsor to ensure that the change is implemented and take charge
of the change process

The sustaining sponsor, Conner and Clutterbuck argue, must understand that they stand
on “a burning platform”—that if this change is not successful, their very livelihood is at
risk. In a sales environment, the Vice President of Sales is invariably the initiating
sponsor for changing sales process. However, it falls to the Sales Manager to be the
sustaining sponsor. For a Sales Manager, the task is two-fold: ensure that salespeople
successfully change their individual behavior and support the CRM implementation.

A CRM system, if implemented effectively, is one of the best tools to support Sales
Managers. It allows them to regain the time they need to be effective managers and
relieves the firefighting, troubleshooting, and administrative burdens.

CRM can easily automate and support all four phases of end-to-end sales process and
integrate the Sales Manager into each phase. CRM is the ideal vehicle for enabling Sales
Managers to monitor, control, and review.

©1990-2000 Siebel Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 13

Ultimately, CRM can provide other substantial benefits including:

• Faster time to market share

• Accuracy of insight

• Strategy based on reality

• Best practice pooling

• Knowledge sharing

The process of reaching the position where CRM creates these benefits is not itself easily
quantifiable. We believe that recognizing the Sales Manager’s role in this process is the
first critical step and that without this as a starting point, companies will not realize their
goal of adopting sales processes.

The Ultimate Benefit - Leaving Behind the Lagging Indicators

CRM gives Sales Managers an opportunity to gain control over their time by creating
real-time leading indicators of a sales team’s performance. Leading indicators are
important because salespeople have traditionally only been measured on a single, lagging
indicator: their performance against a revenue target. Salespeople have seldom reported
their progress when their performance is less than perfect, leading to extreme difficulties
in predicting revenue and, as we have seen, turning the dour attention of business
managers to the sales force. Sales Managers require leading indicators to accurately
forecast revenue and manage their teams, instead of guessing about potential revenue
inflow and managing without data.

©1990-2000 Siebel Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 14

CONCLUSIONS
Since markets have changed, selling has also changed—it has become more difficult.
Salespeople may still not fully realize the full impact of this change. In particular, they
may not fully appreciate how their business managers will put increasing pressure on the
sales organization to perform, not only in terms of delivering revenue but also by doing
so predictably. Creating predictability requires a sales process that is measured by leading
indicators of sales performance.

The pivotal role in realizing the required sales behavioral change, utilizing the leading
indicators to effect course corrections, and achieving the return on organizational
investment is that of the Sales Manager.

The key to supporting Sales Managers is to ensure that the organization is proactively
aligned with their role, and to install effective end-to-end sales process supported by
effective technology and systems.

©1990-2000 Siebel Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 15