drmstream

What does it mean to man­age?  Is it a call for increased control?

Actu­ally, effec­tive man­age­ment is less about con­trol as it is about iden­ti­fy­ing an out­come, decid­ing on a plan and agree­ing on the infor­ma­tion that will mea­sure our progress against that outcome.

The most impor­tant aspects of excep­tional man­age­ment are great peo­ple and rel­e­vant information.

For a busi­ness to exe­cute suc­cess­fully, the lead­er­ship should have a clear per­spec­tive as to what kind of peo­ple they want in the busi­ness.  What val­ues do they want every employee in the com­pany to share.

Then, the lead­er­ship should have a clear idea of what infor­ma­tion they value and how they want to get it.

All busi­ness lead­ers get reports: monthly finan­cial reports, profit and loss state­ments, etc.  And most man­agers use those reports to man­age the activ­ity of people.

But is that infor­ma­tion that will make us suc­cess­ful and that will let the peo­ple who the busi­ness recruits be successful?

Rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion lets a leader under­stand whether the things that are hap­pen­ing in his busi­ness will add up the the out­comes that have been set out.

In a sales orga­ni­za­tion, infor­ma­tion becomes incred­i­bly impor­tant.  Too often, peo­ple use the absence of sophis­ti­cated infor­ma­tion sys­tems to explain why impor­tant infor­ma­tion is not available.

Every mem­ber of a sales orga­ni­za­tion should be able to share the fol­low­ing information:

Who are their prospects?

Where do they advertise?

Which of them cur­rently adver­tise with your company?

Which of them used to advertise?

How many com­pa­nies are they cur­rently doing busi­ness with?

How many, or what per­cent­age, are on a con­tract and do not need to be sold each period?

What per­cent have renewed their business?

Who has paid and who hasn’t?

As a result, each busi­ness leader should know:

Their mar­ket share

Their mar­ket penetration

Their cur­rent book of business

Their renewal rate.

At any moment.