Buffalo Grove, Illinois Headquarters position.
Skill Factors
A Regional Sales Manager will be self-directed, self-disciplined, high-energy, forward and creative thinking with high ethical standards. He or she will possess strong leadership skills, self-efficacy; planning skills, organization, and plan execution skills. He or she will be a persuasive and effective communicator and will be an enforcer of high ethics.
Skill factors include interpersonal skills, problem solving skills, and the ability to predict how the behavior of individuals is aroused, started, sustained and stopped. A Regional Sales Manager will possess an understanding of character traits of individuals and what’s important to them as well as an understanding of group dynamics, which includes an understanding of what to expect from an individual one-on-one and how this person’s behavior often will change when she or he is subjected to group behavior.
Multitasking skills are essential to the job, as is the ability to perform in a work environment where multiple and frequent distractions are commonplace. The incumbent will be clear thinking and be able to prioritize while working in an environment of constant change.
A Regional Sales Manager will possess the ability to teach, develop, coach, and be a mentor to the field sales force, which is also known as Senior Area Managers (SAMs): Plus, she or he will be vigilant in creating a work environment whereby SAMs are motivated to perform beyond expectations.
Computer skills and administrative acumen are required.
Education: University degree in marketing or equivalent. The individual will have a solid grasp of business practices and concepts, plus, a grasp of organizational behavior. The incumbent will have strong leadership and people skills.
Experience: Goal setting and identifying the means to attain them is required. Two to three years experience as a SAM operating in the field or someone other than a SAM with one to two years operating in a work environment of kind.
Effort Factors
Physical Demands: The individual will have a presence about her or him that will quickly earn the respect of colleagues and direct reports and employees. She or he will be articulate and will be fluent in English, written and oral.
Mental Demands: A Regional Sales Manager will possess character traits such that he or she responds positively to constant stress brought about by demands of the job. He or she will maintain a positive attitude even during extreme situations.
Working Conditions. She or he will be working out the individual’s personal residence.
Duties
The individual is responsible for working jointly with the National Sales Manager and Regional Trainers in finding ways to improve on sales delivery mechanism effectiveness, which includes SAMs’ technical skills, communication skills – oral and written, and relationship building skills internal to SMS and with clients, and selling skills.
He or she will report to the National Sales Manager each SAM’s performance relating to the number of cold calls for any given week. She or he will take steps to ensure that cold calls are in fact cold calls, that an attempt was made to meet with the business owner, or that the owner wasn’t available but left business literature with advisement that an associate would call to arrange for an appointment, in which case a business card was forwarded to the particular sales person’s BC This two step effort is referred to a hybrid lead.
Hybrid sales, which are made possible through the BC following through on hybrid leads, are designed to maximize teamwork in selling and creating warm leads for the BC The individual therefore will ensure that SAMs are indeed calling on businesses other than their daily appointments.
A similar sale but separate sale is the self generated sale, which results from the SAMs effort without the involvement of the BC. A self generated sale is a successful cold call of the first order. A Regional Sales Manager therefore is required to inform the National Sale Manager that SAMs have the required self generated quotas over a finite period, plus, have the means and the mechanics in place to track them.
She or he will make certain that Regional Trainers are coaching SAMs on the importance of the Prospect understanding that the Analyst will diagnose problems and make recommendations, but will not resolve the issue(s). Further, the person authorizing the sale (Prospect) must be made to understand that while there is no obligation on the part of the Prospect beyond the payment of the Survey Fee, the Analyst will discuss the cost of SMS services to implement the recommendations and will ask the Prospect for an immediate decision to Go-Ahead with the plan of action that SMS recommends.
She or he will ensue that Regional Managers coach SAMs to inform Prospects that the primary focus of the SMS business analysis is on management systems, which are critical to the economic well being of the Prospect’s company. Further, SAMs must be coached that on completion of the analysis the Analyst will have identified specific deficiencies in the business and will show the Prospect how those shortcomings are impacting on the profitability of the Prospect’s company. To do this the Survey Analysis will focus on six building blocks. The six building blocks: (1) Opening Conference; (2) Company Plan and Goals; (3) Financial Trend Analysis; 4) Employees Questionnaire; (5) Review of any agreed upon issues, and; (6) Findings/Closing Conference.
A Regional Manager will take steps to ensure that SAMs convey to Prospects that Analysts’ opening conference take approximately one to two hours, during which time the Analyst becomes familiar with the Prospect business. He or she will convey to the SAM the importance of Prospects understanding the benefits derived from the opening conference.
She or he will make certain that Regional Trainers that SAMs talk to Prospects about the Analyst’s need to conduct interviews with the Prospects key personnel and to distribute questionnaires to other employees. Also, she or he will ensure that Regional Trainers coach SAMs talk to Prospects about the Analyst’s findings/closing conference. Specifically, the SAM must be coached to inform the Prospect that the findings conference will last for about 2 hours on the day 2 of the Survey, during which time the Analyst will present his or her findings.
He or she will make certain that Regional Trainers coach SAMs to convey to Prospects the nature of the Analyst’s recommendations. Specifically, one group of recommendations will relate to work the client himself or herself can do and the second group is concerned with work that will require professional services. For those recommendations requiring professional assistance, the Analyst will offer the Prospect an opportunity to have SMS’s Consulting Services implement the resolve to the problems.
A Regional Manager will ensure that Regional Trainers coach SAMs on the major areas Consulting Services cover, the SAM, in turn, will convey to Prospects the services that Consulting Services provide. These services include, but not limited to: Profit and expense controls, which includes budgeting; employee incentive plans which will reduce costs, increase sales, improve quality, increase productivity, and improve profit; Financial management issues, which includes account receivables, account payables, cash flow, etc.; Organizational issues such as procedures, manuals, paper flow and the like; Operational issues relating to inventory controls, training manuals, etc.; Sales and Marketing such as sales controls, sales incentives, and sales and marketing plans; Management issues such as business planning, defining lines of authority, etc.; Industry specific issues such as estimating procedures for contractors and the like; Strategic planning and succession planning, and; Expansion planning, downsizing, and re-engineering.
She or he conjointly with the National Sales Manager and the Regional Trainer will devise a framework by which Regional Trainers can effectively communicate the above content to SAMs on an ongoing basis. The framework, in addition to being a viable enabler tool, will serve as the platform for system thinking and the glue that will hang the pieces together. It will become a teaching and coaching tool for the Regional Trainer and a ready reference and guideline for SAMs. Part of this framework will include techniques such as Spin Selling. He or she will draw heavily on such tools in an ongoing effort to improve on SAM sales productivity.