BUSINESS Managing Your Sales Force at closing sales are absolutely horrible at getting their paper- work done accurately, completely and on time. You need to design and establish your paperwork (which may be a combination of electronic and actual hard copy forms) system as an integral element in your sales process. When you don’t establish and enforce such internal rules and expectations, you are effectively training your people to engage in bad be- havior. Patterns of such bad behavior must, of necessity, incur consequences. You may need to consider mild waterboarding, but beware, HR departments tend to frown upon such politi- cally incorrect motivational practices. Require a daily call report or something similar from your salespeople. There are innumerable format variations of such reports, but they all essentially capture the sales-related activi- ties and status of what’s in the funnel or pipeline. They show how your salesperson has been spending their time and (if ap- plicable) where accounts, leads or prospects are in terms of the predefined stages of your sales process. Here again, if you employ one of the sales management/CRM soſtware applications, such reports can be generated (literally) with the click of a mouse, to the extent that the input is cur- rent. It’s essential that you know where your leads are coming from and which sources tend to generate the best opportuni- ties and return on investment. Be sure to monitor and track your conversion rates (or ratios) and cost for each primary type and source of lead. Moreover, if you use a network or cloud version of such soſtware, you can look for yourself rather than distract the salesperson from important field activities just to give you an update or report. We probably should mention that many such sales management/CRM applications will “bolt on” and fully integrate with popular accounting soſtware programs such as QuickBooks, Peachtree/SAGE, etc. As Yogi Berra should have said: “Avoid redundant entering of data again.” Credit Cards, Cash Advances and Expense Reports Ideally, your sales force would use their own personal credit cards and submit legitimate business expenses for timely reimbursement. But this approach is not always available, practicable or desirable for a variety of reasons. Accordingly, many companies issue company credit cards (which must have appropriate credit limits) to their sales force and pos- sibly other employees. Make sure that your employee handbook includes a policy statement that essentially says something like “falsifying ex- penses will result in disciplinary action, up to and including 24 KEYNOTES DECEMBER 2020 termination of employment, and employees will be personally liable for any such fraud.” Be sure to state that under no cir- cumstances should company credit cards be used for personal or non-authorized business expenses. You should also include such a statement as part of the receipt an employee signs when accepting possession of a company credit card. You might want to discuss this with your legal advisor. It’s highly recommended that — even if you have the credit card statement (at the end of each month) featuring all of the charges — you insist on a weekly expense report that is signed by the employee. Nip any irregularities in the bud and insist on immediate reconciliation of any apparent discrepancies. Copies of receipts (whether cash or credit card) can be attached and faxed or scanned and emailed by the end of each week. To the extent that employees are required to advance money for legitimate authorized company expenses, be sure to reim- burse them promptly. Practice what you preach and don’t fall behind on paying your company’s credit card bills, thereby risking having the card cut off. Lead by example! Do yourself a favor: When your salesperson recruiting process reaches the short list stage, be sure to obtain per- mission and run a credit check on anyone you are seriously considering for a sales position. Yes, you need to run a back- ground check, but also consider running a credit check for anyone who will likely receive a company credit card. It’s amazing how many otherwise solid citizens simply don’t have the ability to manage money, especially credit cards. It’s better to know this up front, but keep an open mind be- cause some folks can be victims of identity theft, an ugly divorce situation, etc. Although you may not need permission to run a credit check, requesting it could help you avoid unintended consequences. It also provides an opportunity for a potential employee to dis- close and explain any past or current credit-related issues. As an example, if a potential employee is in the process of securing a mortgage, ready to close on a house or get approved for a car loan, their lender may have instructed them to avoid superflu- ous credit checks that could potentially lower their credit score and, thus, jeopardize their loan. Expectations It’s common for companies to quantify expectations by im- posing quotas upon their salespeople. Of course, like so many other things, the key here is reasonableness. While it is OK to have stretch targets, unreachable quotas will quickly demor- alize your team. WWW.ALOA.ORG
