Dear Cynthia,
There are four sales managers and in their DSR, they send the list of the sales call handled. But then rather than doubting the figures that they provide, first measure the following:
a) What is the sales to sales closure ratio i.e. for every PO, how many sales visits are required. Once this measure is established, they need to be given target how to reduce the frequency of the sales call.
b) They need to measure turnaround cycle for each PO. To measure this, they need to measure time duration between the first sales call to the date of quotation and then from the date of quotation to the date of receipt of PO.
You need to make Branch Manager accountable to improve the sales closure ratio and also reduce the sales turnaround time.
To improve these ratios, Branch Manager must accompany the sales managers for the sales calls. He must give proper feedback on how the sales call could have been improved. He must maintain proper records of each feedback.
Top management professionals from your company and not HR can monitor the feedback given by BM to his juniors. This is the monitoring of the higher order.
By the way, what is the nature of the industry? What is the sales turnaround time in your industry? In certain industries, the turnaround time lasts for an year or even more.
As stated in the previous post, you need to have well-researched sales process. To know more about it, you may
click here to refer my reply to one of the earlier posts.
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar