Insights from 3S

International know-how and research projects

HOW

DO YOU BUILD COMPETITIVE AND SUCCESFUL LOCAL SALES

ORGANISATIONS THROUGH A STRONG INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE SALES

MANAGEMENT?
3S senior specialists continuously meet with and interview senior executives as
part of our own development work. During the coming year we will focus on a
vital function in the international organisation the Vice President Sales, Chief
Comercial Officer, Chief Sales Officer, or more often referred to as Sales Director.
How do people in this key function work? How do they create impact for their
strategic changes in a geographically spread and culturally diverse organisation?
Which are their main challenges in this time of increasingly faster changes
internationally as well as locally?
Purpose
Our ambition is to investigate how the modern Sales Director manages sales
managers and/or country managers, creating a competitive sales organisation
through them. We want to know what their challenges are, and what they do to
handle them.
Background
We know from experience that the link between the strategic and tactical
management is a challenge for many companies. This is certainly valid for the
international customers we work with, but also national companies have similar
issues in managing a geographically spread sales organisation.
During a number of years we have seen of focus in terms of development- and
training efforts on the development of sales reps, to some extent on the
development of sales managers, and the link between sales leaders and sales
reps to increase efficiency and success in the sales organisation.
Our reflection, and hypothesis, is that often you find the biggest challenge in the
link between the strategy of the management team and the tactical and
operational reality of the sales management. Many companies lack
manouverability and capacity to manage and drive change and development in
the sales force because of this. We would even state that you would often find a
missing link within this area in many companies.

Examples of questions we want to find a response to

How do they work to adapt and develop sales to benefit from the
opportunities offered through modern technology and media?

When recruiting, how has the profile of sales managers evolved the last 5
years?

How has the profile of the sales reps recruited evolved the last 5 years, and
how does that affect the demands on the sales managers?

How do they build a sales organisation to prepare it for change?

How do they build the sales organisation to ensure it can efficiently

implement new strategies and central initiatives and programmes?

What facts are used to measure and follow-up the development of the
sales organisation and the implementation of new strategies?

If relevant, what is the experience from merging different sales forces at

M/A sitautions?

What leadership tools and enablers are used or prioritised for the sales
managers? What processes are mandatory to use for sales managers?

How do they motivate and reward sales managers to attract and retain the
right people, and guide them towards desired actions and focus?

What KPIs are used to manage sales managers?

How do they work to increase insight and understanding of the work and
challenges of the sales organisation upwards in the organisation; in the
management team, the board and among owners?

How do the international Sales Directors develop themselves? How has

the job evolved, changed or been redesigned during the last years?

What is the role of the local country manager in the sales organisation.?
How active is the country manager in the work of the local sales
management function?

How do the International Sales Director collaborate with the local sales
manager and the country manager?

Definitions

With the term Sales Director we mean the person and/or the function
that is responsible for building, developing and managing sales managers.
It can be a national or an international sales organisation. This person or
function should be part of the management team. Sometimes no specific
person is appointed Sales Director, but the function could still be held by
e.g. a BU Manager or the CEO.

The Sales Director can have local sales managers reporting directly to
him/her. Sometimes they report to the local country managers, meaning
the Sales Director will then have a more indirect role and need to work
partly through the country manager.

We are looking for organisations with a minimum of 3 sales managers.

With a sales manager we mean a person responsible for building,

developing and managing a group of sales reps.

With sales reps we mean a person that through meetings, telephone and
modern media work to get customers and prospects to purchase and to
purchase again.

Feedback to participating Sales Directors and companies

We will write a comprehensive report that all participants will receive.

We will invite participants, free of cost, to a seminar presenting the
findings and conclusions.
We offer all participants to present the findings and conclusions in a
personal meeting or presentation for a larger group.

Barcelona, October 2016

Gerdt Larsson
3S International Senior Partners

Johan Carlsson