7 Key Standards for Sales Managers

by | Aug 5, 2019 | Prime Time

 
I like having smart friends – the kind of person whom I learn from every time I sit with them. One of my smart friends is Jim Stoos, a Senior Marketing Consultant on the JDA team. Jim has an extensive management background, including running an ad sales region for a national cable company. This article really can help you look at your sales management and see where your opportunities are to improve. -Jim Doyle

7 Key Standards of Performance for Sales Managers

The sales manager position is a critical piece of any sales operation. Measuring a sales manager’s impact on the organization can be difficult because there are so many variables. It’s easy to just use percent-to-budget as the benchmark. However, I believe that there are a number of key standards that go into measuring, monitoring, and coaching a sales manager to higher levels of performance. In my many years of managing sales managers, I have reduced it down to 7 Key Standards of Performance.

1. Performance – Making budget matters. A sales manager must be able to make a budget. There are always special circumstances that can explain why a sales manager wasn’t able to hit the goal for a quarter or a year. Nevertheless, consistently missing revenue numbers is a huge red flag. This indicates that there are other issues going on in that sales department and with the sales leader. We get paid on performance, and if the team isn’t hitting numbers, then it’s up to the sales manager to do more within each month to get extra revenue. This means selling all of the sports and prime inventory at optimum rates. Creating and selling sponsorship packages. Developing and implementing a seasonal sales blitz. Utilize other non-traditional selling opportunities for quick revenue hits. In other words, make it happen.

2. Motivation – Can the sales manager get the team excited to sell their products? Is the manager personally excited about the products? Managing is like coaching and sometimes the coach has to motivate and inspire the team to perform at levels they didn’t think possible. When the manager steps on the gas pedal, does the team do what he or she asked them to do? Or, do they go off and do their own thing? Does the sales team listen when the manager is talking in a sales meeting? Is the team excited to come to work? Do they come in early and stay late or do they drag in at 8:20 AM and leave at 4:59 PM?

3. Activity – The sales manager should be the organization’s best salesperson – the closer, the deal-maker, the difference-maker! All sales managers should be required to be in the field, in front of the customer, as much as possible. Sales is a contact sport. The sales manager should make between 8-12 sales calls a week. The calls need to be with everyone on the staff, not just the superstars. Going on calls with the superstar is easy, going on cold calls all day with a rookie is hard work and desperately needed. It’s critical that the calls the sales manager goes on are worthwhile. At least half the calls should be “money calls” or calls where the goal is to make a sale and close a deal. Customer service calls are important, but we get paid when we sell something.

4. Support – Is the manager available to the team? Does the team ask the sales manager for advice on a daily basis? Is their door open or shut during the early mornings and late afternoons? Do they conduct effective one-on-one meetings each week with every team member? Are they prepared ahead of time? Does the manager provide leads during the weekly one-on-one? Are they meeting weekly? If not, that may also be a problem. Finally, does the manager answer their phone, emails, and texts in a timely manner? Two days is not timely.

5. Ideas – A great sales manager needs to be able to come up with great ideas for their clients and their AE’s. Anyone can have an idea, but do the sales manager’s ideas work? The world is full of ideas, but the AE only wants the idea that will work for their client and make a sale for them. Bad ideas don’t sell. Conducting brainstorming sessions in sales meetings about specific customer issues and needs is a great way to build a culture of idea generators.

6. Is the manager Relevant? Do AE’s go to the sales manager to ask for his or her opinion? Does the manager offer up their opinion prior to being asked? A sales manager who gives unsolicited advice runs the risk of being labeled a “know it all.” Most people don’t like to engage in conversation with “know it alls.” It’s fatiguing. Being forced to listen to someone go on and on about a subject that they only know half the story is tiresome. Asking a simple question like, “Do you need my help with this?” is a sign of a great communicator and leader. “Let me tell you what you should do” is a sign of a Buttinsky. Giving relevant advice that works in the field is a critical component of a strong leader.

7. Is the manager Effective? The first place to see if a sales manager is effective is to pose a simple question to the sales staff. “Does your manager help you make sales?” If the answer isn’t “absolutely” within seconds, there may be a problem. If a salesperson asks, “Which hill should I attack?” a good leader needs to know the answer and should be able to lead the charge into battle. They will prove their effectiveness by waving the victory flag on top of the hill when the battle is over. A manager’s effectiveness can also be measured monthly in their budget performance of the overall team and the individual AE’s. They also need to be an effective communicator, recruiter, trainer, teacher, closer, etc. In the end, effectiveness is the culmination of the other traits. The bottom line is this – if the sales manager is doing the basics at a very high level, the results will follow.

Relevancy and effectiveness go hand-in-hand. Ask yourself this question: Is my manager working on things that are relevant to the team today and is it having a positive effect on individual and team goals?

If you’re an RVP, GM, GSM, DOS, take a few minutes and go through this checklist for your team. If you’re an LSM, perhaps it’s time for an honest self-review. In the areas where there are deficiencies, come up with specific, measurable action items that will nudge the struggling manager down the right path.

Some managers may not realize that all these standards are part of their daily duties. Once you develop a group of standards, coaching towards achieving the standards is much easier.

Kindest Regards,

Jim Stoos

If you haven’t seen our interactive Doyle On Demand training platform, we’d love to show it to you. Send an email to me at Jim@jimdoyle.com and I’ll make that happen.

Ken Marks is a Senior Marketing Consultant for JDA.media.

Ken’s media experience spans 27 years in marketing, sales, and sales management. Working closely with hundreds of small and mid-sized business owners, he’s helped them navigate and leverage the ever-changing media landscape of television, radio, digital and streaming.

Ken started his career in radio advertising in Central Florida. A successful seller and General Sales Manager of several Cox Radio stations, he was recruited across the street by Gross Communications where he eventually became the VP/GM of the company’s radio, print, and digital divisions.

Prior to joining JDA.media, Ken spent nine years as a marketing consultant with the Hearst Corporation at WESH 2 NBC and Hearst Digital in Central Florida.  While there he earned the company’s prestigious Eagle award three times(!), given to the most valuable marketing consultant in each Hearst market annually.

Marks grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and graduated from Missouri State University.  He played professional racquetball briefly after college, then began his media career.  He and his wife, Jennifer, owned a retail franchise called “Once Upon a Child”, which they sold in 2018.  They also currently own and manage several short and long-term rental properties.

Ken and Jennifer reside in Orlando, Florida and have three children, two boys (a Senior at the US Naval Academy and a Senior at Cornerstone High School), and an amazing eleven-year-old girl in the fifth grade. When not working Ken loves to spend time with his family, boat and fish on Lake Conway, play guitar, piano, and golf.

Brittany Tomjanovich is the Director of Operations at JDA.media.

Brittany has a passion for data and details. That passion, coupled with her healthy respect for broadcast and digital’s powerful marketing platforms, has led to a fun and growing career in media.

In January 2011, Brittany joined Madison’s ABC affiliate, WKOW, as a sales assistant.  Immersing herself quickly into the sales process and organizational flow, she thrived and by the time she moved into a corporate role, she had supported local sales, national sales, and the programming department reporting directly to the station’s General Manager.

As the Broadcast Group Sales Coordinator at Quincy Media Inc., her role consisted of training and supporting the sales support staff in Quincy’s 16 markets.  She also handled communication and reports for the company’s VP of Sales.

Brittany is a quirky, creative, introverted-extrovert, focused on solving problems and dedicated to producing high-quality results.

Brittany is a graduate of The University of Wisconsin – Madison (On Wisconsin!), and currently lives in Blue Mounds, WI with her husband, Tyler, and two children, Hailey and Mason.

When she’s not behind her computer, you can find her spending time outdoors with her family.  She enjoys camping, kayaking, fishing, crafting and growing food in their backyard garden.

 

 

 

Kathrine Glass is a JDA.media Senior Marketing Consultant.

Kathrine Glass, PMP, ACC has been inspiring individuals and leading teams for over 25 years with her “we can make it happen” attitude. She is a successful entrepreneur, sales and marketing expert, Project Management Institute certified Project Management Professional, and International Coaching Federation certified coach.

Kathrine is an idea person with the resourcefulness and grit to get things done. For much of her career, she has worked on behalf of local broadcast stations to develop campaigns and sponsorships for clients of all sizes. Having served in production, marketing, sales, events, and syndication, she has a unique perspective that stations and clients welcome. In addition, she has worked side by side with sellers across the country, helping them create new revenue streams by identifying non-traditional marketing decision-makers.

She started her career producing commercials, music videos, and corporate films. And was soon recruited by The Dallas Morning News, an A.H. Belo newspaper, to run a multi-million-dollar advertising budget.

After fine-tuning her marketing chops, she moved to oversee business development, equipping sellers with tools and ideas to secure incremental local and regional advertising dollars. It was in this role Kathrine had the ability to employ all platforms in Dallas-Ft. Worth owned by Belo with new advertisers ... from local broadcast (television) to cable to digital platforms including extension products like weather.com and cars.com.

In 2005, she founded C&S Creative Solutions, Inc., an innovative project management and marketing firm and one of her first clients was WFAA-TV, the Dallas ABC affiliate. Since then, Kathrine has worked with a myriad of local broadcast stations across the country, both television and radio, in the generation of new and incremental revenue on all their platforms. Joining JDA.media was a natural fit for Kathrine, her station partners and their advertiser clients have embraced her collaborative style and results oriented thinking.

Kathrine is a graduate from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, and received a Graduate Marketing Certificate from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. She is an avid dog lover and fosters pups in need. In addition, she and her husband are foodies and love to travel. They currently reside in Dallas, Texas.

 

 

 

 

Margie Chilson is a Senior Marketing Consultant for JDA.media.

Her vast experience includes nearly three decades in broadcast television and digital sales marketing, working in and with multiple markets and affiliations including Dallas-Fort Worth at WFAA, Denver at KUSA-KTVD, KMGH, KWGN, and as a team manager at Millennium Television Sales.

Margie’s years as a local seller were award-winning and inspiration for her jump to JDA.media. She exceeded new business and digital goals on a consistent basis at Belo Corp., Scripps, Tribune, and TEGNA Inc. stations. A true innovator, Margie pioneered job-sharing positions in Dallas and Denver, balancing hectic work schedules and family, paving the way for working parents with careers in media sales.

Margie is well known and respected for her diligence, drive, and new business results. Due to her years in the business as an account executive and sales leader, she knows the station environment well and can easily relate to local sellers as well as the most senior managers.

An alum of Oklahoma State University who graduated with Honors in Journalism Advertising, Margie boasts an outstanding track record of helping business owners strategically grow their revenue through broadcast, streaming and digital solutions.

Margie and her husband Tim have been married for 23 years. The couple and their two children live in Littleton, CO, a suburb of Denver. Their son, Ryan, attends the University of Colorado Boulder, and their daughter, Mary, is in high school.  In their spare time, the Chilsons enjoy travel, hiking in the picturesque Rocky Mountains, cooking, watching movies, and cheering on their kids in various sporting events.

 

 

 

 

 

 

About Jim Stoos

Jim Stoos is SVP, Revenue Drives at JDA.media.

For over 20 years, Jim has crafted successful marketing programs for hundreds of local businesses.

His expansive media experience includes delivering significant advertising results utilizing broadcast, digital, cable, and radio.

His specialty is helping small-to-medium-sized businesses address sales and marketing challenges while developing game-changing strategies with real-world creative solutions.

Prior to joining JDA.media, Jim held strategic management positions as Regional Vice President, General Manager, and Local Sales Manager at television and cable companies in the Midwest.

His leadership roles give him the opportunity to apply JDA.media principles in helping sellers and media marketers develop campaigns, combining broadcast and digital solutions, to positively impact local business owners’ success.

The media veteran’s skill set also includes web design, email marketing, audience extension and targeting using display or video, as well as OTT and Streaming platforms. This extensive digital background allowed him to launch a suite of digital solutions for an entire sales division.

He lives in Bettendorf, Iowa, with his sweetheart Stacy, and his two sons.

For years Jim has worked as a dedicated member of Iowa’s Big Brothers Big Sisters program. Jim was a multi-sport college athlete and today enjoys running in competitive track meets for “old guys”.

In his spare time Jim enjoys working out with his boys (both scholarship track athletes at St. Ambrose University in Davenport), camping and riding his horses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

holly allenHolly Allen is a JDA.media Senior Marketing Consultant.

With nearly 27-years in the industry, including over five years as President & General Manager of FOX23 and MY41 in Tulsa, OK, Holly has developed a deep expertise in many facets of media. However, her true passion is working directly with clients.

Her “no box” thinking and creative mind allow her to design effective marketing strategies that drive significant results for advertisers.

Holly believes the first step to helping a business grow is to “peel back the layers” to uncover their unique needs, goals, and opportunities.

Next, she formulates and executes a thorough, well-rounded marketing plan that exceeds their expectations.

She enjoys the brainstorming process and seeing clients get enthusiastic when her strategies bring their businesses to unprecedented levels of success.

Experts say the greatest predictor of success is past success, which rings especially true with Holly’s career. Starting as an effective ad agency rep, she quickly moved into broadcast sales and marketing.  Moving up through the sales ranks, Holly eventually became the President & General Manager of a pair of dominant broadcast television stations in Tulsa, OK.

Most recently she founded All-en Media, LLC, where she works with clients in various categories, including auto, banking, retail, and more.

A proud graduate of Oklahoma State University, she lives in Tulsa with her high school aged daughter Lila, while her son Henry attends the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Holly enjoys long walks outdoors, visiting with family and friends, and volunteering her time to local causes whenever possible.

 

John Hillary is a Senior Vice President at JDA.media.

Since 2006, John has worked directly with thousands of small-to-medium-sized businesses, developing fully integrated, results-driven media marketing strategies that have consistently helped meet and exceed client goals.

John began his career with New Revenue Solutions (NRS) in Atlanta, GA. During his tenure with NRS, John consulted for 25 different media outlets in television, digital, radio, cable, and print, throughout the U.S. and Canada. As one of NRS Media’s lead consultants, John helped hundreds of local businesses grow through innovative and creative advertising campaigns.

Due to his success at helping businesses and stations drive revenue, he was recruited to join WCIU-TV in Chicago as an Account Executive. There, he worked with local, regional, and national businesses collaborating on innovative ways to make advertising messages resonate with customers in a large, competitive marketplace.

In 2017 John joined JDA.media as Senior Marketing Consultant, and in 2023 was promoted to Senior Vice President.

John’s energy, passion, creativity, and understanding of results-oriented marketing strategies have consistently made him a vital asset to clients and company colleagues in every phase of his career.

A native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, John graduated from the University of Michigan and remains an avid Wolverine fan.

John and his wife Katie reside in Roswell, GA and are proud parents of daughter Nora and son Henry.

 

Billie Adkins is a Senior Marketing Consultant for JDA.media.

She is an expert at crafting innovative, creative strategies that get dramatic results for advertisers.

Decision-makers appreciate Billie’s unique ability to ask the kind of provocative questions that lead to the development of distinct and effective TV and/or digital creative that gets viewers’ attention and drives consumer action.

Through her 25-plus years in media, Billie has developed an extensive professional portfolio with a depth of experience that includes a variety of management positions in sales, and important posts in news, production, station promotion, and market research.

As a General Sales Manager at WDTN, the NBC affiliate in Dayton, Ohio, she led a multimedia marketing team that specialized in achieving clients’ marketing and operational goals with a client-centric approach.

She embodies all aspects of the JDA.media philosophy recognizing that each business is unique, with its own challenges and opportunities. In order to build a results-driven advertising plan for clients, you must first understand the business and then formulate a strategy to make the company stand out from competitors.

Billie resides in Carlisle, Ohio with her husband and two children. When not traveling the country for JDA.media, helping business owners increase their sales, she enjoys family time, reading, and coaching soccer, often cheering for kids that need a special someone in the stands just for them.