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Implementing changes in the sales department. Part 6/12. Stage IV – Defining the team roles of individual employees.

This stage of team potential analysis is an activity that should be combined with broadly understood managerial intuition. This is associated with a certain vision of team building, and in particular the design of appropriate relationships in the team that will create the right conditions for the group to achieve better results at work. In short, the point is that relationships in a team be a positive motivation factor.

Team roles can be determined based on the following tools:

  • Observation of work,
  • Individual interview with employees,
  • Interviews with direct supervisor and close associates.

As a result of this analysis, which can take up to several months, the roles of individual team members will be determined. The classification proposed by Meredith Belbin is best used to classify these roles. Not all roles proposed by M. Belbin will suit every team. Some roles will also be dysfunctional from the point of view of further cooperation opportunities and, as a result, will affect personnel decisions.

The biggest dysfunction are team roles consisting in non-objective criticism of proposed changes and expressing disapproval in the team forum. The effect of such behavior is an unfavorable internal atmosphere, increasing distrust and dissatisfaction. Changing these attitudes, based on contesting everything, despite many attempts and tools used, may prove impossible.

At this stage, the most important thing is to identify the core of the team, giving prospects for further development and building an efficient sales department. Personnel dysfunctions arising from the attitudes of individual employees towards colleagues and superiors, as well as towards clients should also be determined. As a result, the manager will obtain a clear picture of the team and a vision of its development from the interpersonal side in internal and, above all, external relations – cooperation with clients.

Implementing changes in the sales department. Part 5/12. Stage III – Analysis of employees’ competences and division of tasks.

Managerial analysis of employee competences can be implemented based on the following data sources:

  • Periodic severance pay – observation of team behavior,
  • Delegation of special tasks – checking individual managerial competences and potential,
  • Coaching during remote work with clients and visits to recipients,
  • Analysis of developed documents,
  • Periodic interviews regarding job evaluation,
  • Opinions of the direct superior,
  • Analysis of measurable work results,
  • Customer reviews (informal)
  • Customer satisfaction survey, which mainly concerned sales department employees,
  • Evaluation of the quality of cooperation between heads of other organizational units.

Based on the conclusions saved in the form of a checklist resulting from the determination of the team position of individual employees, their competences and the probable source of motivation, it is possible to create a competency model of employees at individual positions in the subordinate division. This model will not result from the system of the entire corporation (if it has not been implemented) but will serve primarily to build a real employee team that can achieve ambitious goals.

The information gathered in previous stages will allow to make further managerial decisions in the field of team development, verification of its members, change of the organizational structure of the division, new division of tasks, and creation of a motivation system.

Implementing changes in the sales department. Part 4/12. Stage II – Understanding the characteristics of employees.

This element of implementing changes cannot be treated as closed in time. Throughout the cooperation period, the manager gets to know his employees during various professional and sometimes private situations. Getting to know employees, their expectations and preferences requires building appropriate relationships. To gain employees’ openness is to gain and maintain their trust. This can be achieved by the manager’s openness to various opinions and by enabling employees to express their tasks during conversations. As a result, an atmosphere of trust will be built and employees will openly inform about their problems and errors, allowing them to be quickly repaired and corrected.

An opportunity to understand employees’ attitudes are:

  • Training (desire for further development, position in the group, commitment)
  • Joint business trips (observation of field work, opportunity to learn about the private situation during informal conversations),
  • Talks with employees and heads of other departments about the quality of cooperation between organizational units and individual persons,
  • Individual meetings.

Each manager should get to know his employees in a different way than in professional situations. Often, living outside work affects decisions taken in professional life. Lack of knowledge of the private sphere of employees may in some cases lead to non-objective assessments of their work. On the other hand, care should be taken that excessive intimacy and empathy do not cause decision-making paralysis of the manager in difficult professional situations.

Implementing changes in the sales department. Part 3/12. Stage I – Team communication system.

The first stage of implemented changes should be the implementation of an effective communication system with all team members. This is a fundamental task from the point of view of implementing further changes. The diagnosis of the current communication system may indicate the following dysfunctions:

  • No regular meetings with the management of the sales department, and no wider meetings with all employees in the department,
  • Lack of any system of reporting commercial activities to the supervisor except financial data automatically generated by the system,
  • Lack of use of available system tools to record and analyze commercial activities,
  • Lack of standard internal electronic correspondence.

In connection with the identified dysfunctions that prevent efficient management of the team, the manager should establish a system of meetings and briefings with sales department employees in order to:

  • Transmission and consultation of decisions,
  • Receiving feedback on problems,
  • Informing employees about long-term goals and tasks,
  • Informing employees about results and progress in strategic areas.
Implementing changes in the sales department. Part 2/12. Premises for managerial decisions.

When making managerial decisions, it should be noted that sales teams usually have large but unstructured market knowledge. Additionally, individual employees present a different attitude (openness) to proposed changes. Therefore, you should take the following approach related to the personnel functions in the sales department:

  • First, catalog the tasks performed by employees,
  • Then diagnose the intensity of these tasks and distribution to individual team members,
  • Perform a full mapping of the customer service process to be able to identify step by step its positive elements building a stream of value for the customer, and those points that for the final recipient did not constitute any added value,
  • Present and discuss with the whole team the conclusions of this analysis and ask for an opinion on the proposed directions of change,
  • Start implementing changes and monitor implementation progress,
  • Engage directly in processes.

In this process, the manager should assume the position of an active participant in changes, involving all interested employees in order to obtain the widest possible perspective and dynamics of reorganization.

In the context of the process of implementing changes, the manager should be guided by his own concept, which will be based on a checklist that allows analyzing the organization in terms of the value stream for clients. This may be due to the following premises:

  • The team has not previously dealt with modern management systems,
  • Employees are apprehensive, mainly afraid of job losses,
  • The pay scale is below market standards,
  • Recruitment of new team members is time consuming and requires significant expenditure (team verification will be unavoidable anyway),
  • It is necessary to motivate employees to learn new things and perform more demanding tasks.

It should be remembered that a manager cannot suddenly or drastically make a slowdown or even stop the sales and customer service processes. Therefore, the manager should adopt the concept of implementing changes based on intense motivation factors that will lead to increased involvement in work and building employee openness to new challenges. The basis for all decisions made will be team cooperation as a basic element of work culture in the entire sales department and the company.

Implementing changes in the sales department. Part 1/12. Characteristics of the problem.

This article begins a series of 12 parts about implementing organizational changes in the sales department. Today, we all have a little more time for conceptual and analytical work. May we come to practice as soon as possible. Let’s prepare for a great dynamic of work after the crisis.

The main task of the sales manager who reorganizes the sales department is to increase work efficiency. Therefore, the goal is to increase the sales volumes of products offered by the company, and increase revenues while maintaining adequate profitability. Realization of the goal requires multi-faceted action covering all areas of the company’s operations. However, focusing on direct contact with current and potential customers, the foundation is to build an effective sales team – motivated to the effort of broad expansion on the domestic and international market.

Initial managerial analysis can reveal many problem areas that negatively affect work results, and cause numerous dysfunctions in collaboration within the team. Here is an example list of problems:

  • Lack of clear division of competences between employees,
  • Overloading tasks of some employees and wasting time by others,
  • Significant discrepancies in remuneration for the same positions in no way justified by skills or the scope of tasks,
  • No delegation of responsibility for carrying out tasks,
  • Lack of reporting system and feedback from managers,
  • Taking over tasks from other organizational units that should not be located in sales department tasks,
  • Lack of preparation for direct work with clients resulting from lack of practice and concerns about their skills,
  • No use of appropriate IT tools for sales support.

As a result, the sales department is characterized by many administrative functions, performing in fact a passive “Back Office” function in relation to customers. The sales model of such an organized sales department is based on old habits, and the poor organization of work and the lack of a system of incentives for employees do not allow for more ambitious sales results. Activities targeted at clients are characterized by stagnation and a lack of willingness, but also a lack of competence and beliefs to change the work model.

I will publish the next part next week. Subscribe to this blog to receive a notification.