In the competitive world of business, effective sales management is crucial for success. However, sales teams often face numerous challenges that can hinder their performance. In this blog post, we will explore some of these challenges and discuss how Verbat Technologies, a leading name in software development in UAE, can help overcome them.

Challenges In Sales Management & methods to Tackle them

Overcoming the challenges in sales management requires strategic planning, effective communication, and strong leadership skills. Here are some actionable methods to overcome these challenges:

1.    Transitioning from Sales Representative to Sales Manager

This is often one of the first challenges a new sales manager faces. The skills and mindset that made someone a successful sales representative are not the same as those needed for effective sales management.

As a sales representative, success is often measured by individual achievements, while as a sales manager, success is measured by the performance of the team. This transition requires developing new skills such as leadership, strategic planning, and team building.

HOW TO TACKLE

This transition can be facilitated through targeted training programs that focus on the skills needed for effective sales management, such as leadership, strategic planning, and team building. Mentoring from experienced sales managers can also be beneficial.

2.    Time Management

Sales managers often have to juggle multiple responsibilities, from coaching their team members to strategizing sales plans and liaising with other departments. Effective time management is crucial to ensure all tasks are completed and goals are met.

HOW TO TACKLE

Effective time management can be achieved through prioritisation and delegation. Sales managers should focus on high-value tasks and delegate other tasks where possible. Using time management tools and techniques, such as time blocking or the Eisenhower matrix, can also be helpful.

3.    Building a High-Performing Sales Team

Assembling a team that consistently meets or exceeds sales targets is no easy task. It involves hiring the right people, providing effective training, setting clear expectations, and maintaining a high level of motivation among team members.

HOW TO TACKLE

This involves hiring the right people with the right skills and attitude. Providing ongoing training and development opportunities is also crucial. Regular feedback and recognition of achievements can help motivate the team and improve performance.

4.    Meeting Supervisor’s Needs

Sales managers often find themselves in the middle of their sales team and upper management. They need to balance the needs of their team with the expectations of their supervisors. This involves clear communication, negotiation skills, and the ability to manage up.

HOW TO TACKLE

Clear communication with supervisors is key to understanding their expectations. Regular updates on progress and challenges can help keep supervisors informed and build trust.

5.    Creating a Sales Career Advancement Plan

Sales managers need to guide their team members in their career growth and development. This involves understanding each team member’s career aspirations, strengths and weaknesses, providing constructive feedback, and offering opportunities for skill development and advancement.

HOW TO TACKLE

Understanding the career aspirations of team members is the first step in creating a career advancement plan. Providing opportunities for skill development and advancement within the company can help motivate and retain team members.

6.    Dealing with Internal Dynamics and Collaboration

Every organisation has its own unique culture and dynamics. Sales managers often need to navigate these internal dynamics and foster collaboration within the team as well as with other departments.

A well-managed sales pipeline is crucial for forecasting and meeting sales targets. However, managing a sales pipeline can be challenging without the right tools.

HOW TO TACKLE

Building a positive team culture can help overcome internal dynamics. Encouraging open communication and collaboration within the team can also improve team dynamics.

7.    Keeping Up with the Fast-Paced and Competitive Sales Environment

The sales industry is dynamic and competitive. Market conditions, customer preferences, and competition can change rapidly. Sales managers need to stay updated with these changes and be able to adapt their strategies accordingly.

Sellers often struggle to spend enough time selling. On average, they spend only 30% of their time actually selling. The rest of the time is spent on various preparatory and administrative activities.

HOW TO TACKLE

Regular market research and staying updated with industry trends can help sales managers adapt their strategies to the changing environment.

8.    Building Trust Virtually

With the increasing trend towards remote work and virtual teams, building trust virtually has become a new challenge for sales managers. This requires effective virtual communication and team-building strategies.

HOW TO TACKLE

Building trust in a virtual environment can be achieved through regular virtual meetings, clear and timely communication, and by being responsive to team members’ needs.

1. Getting in Front of Decision-Makers:

One of the key challenges in sales is getting access to decision-makers who have the authority to make purchasing decisions. This requires strategic prospecting and networking skills. The market is constantly changing, and sales teams need to adapt quickly to stay ahead.

HOW TO TACKLE

This requires strategic prospecting and networking skills. Building strong relationships with gatekeepers, such as secretaries or assistants, can also help gain access to decision-makers.

In conclusion

overcoming challenges in sales management requires the right strategies and tools. Verbat Technologies, with its expertise in software development in UAE and ERP software development, can provide the solutions you need to boost your sales performance. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business thrive.

While developing software, every team will have to determine that point of time where performance testing of the product will benefit them most. The challenge here is to figure out where software testing should begin – from the beginning of the project, parallel to development or at the end of development?

Obviously, this depends on the software development methodology adopted by the development company. The methodology also applies to testing. Generally, developers either go for the Agile methodology or the Waterfall approach.

In the Agile approach, testing especially performance testing is started at the beginning of the development process and goes along with the development till the end. The waterfall approach is where testing is done only at the end after development.

Let’s look into both testing approaches in detail.
 

Waterfall Methodology – Pros & Cons

 
Though Agile has taken over the modern software development sector, many companies still practice the Waterfall model. As mentioned before, performance testing is done only at the end of the development process in the waterfall approach.

Pros

• Easier to plan the testing and allocate resources since it’s done only at the end of development.
• Typically uses test environments that share many similarities with the production environment.
• Testing can focus on specific characteristics of the product based on priority.

Cons

• Testing environment being similar to that of production makes it challenging to procure infrastructure exclusively for testing purposes.
• Might demand architectural changes toward the end of development as testing also occurs at the end, which would in turn increase cost.
• The team and the client would have to wait till the end to get assurance on performance which is also risky. Should the team identify major bugs in the system, they’d have to fix it before release which could essentially lead to failure in release by the deadline.

Agile Methodology – Pros & Cons

 
There is a reason why Agile development services enjoy great demand today. However, along with all its benefits, Agile does come with a fair share of challenges. In an Agile approach, testing begins right from the beginning of development with unit testing. Implementing continuous integration into development makes the entire process much faster, transforming simple performance testing to ‘performance engineering’.

Pros

• Reduced risk
• Early, constant feedback.
• Continuous improvement, where testing finds bugs that are rectified in successive sprints.
• Facilitates continuous integration.

Cons

• Requires more effort in maintaining scripts and handling automation.
• Automating less or more can lead to complications. The best practice is to automate critical test cases at the GUI level.
• More testing effort where the team has to test components individually, and then test them working together to achieve optimal results.

Making the choice

 
Choosing the development approach requires us to consider the desired outcome and the project’s deadline. There are other important factors as well including the people who are going to work on the project, the technology that’s going to be leveraged, the development and testing tools that would be used, the processes involved etc.
 

Testing for Waterfall & Agile

 
Testing processes generally include test design, test automation, test execution, and test measurement.

For Waterfall

Software testing in waterfall development requires the tester to execute a load simulation at the end. With the simulation, the tester can:

• Verify whether existing system supports a certain load
• Give proof to the client as to how the system meets a predetermined standard for performance.
• Check if the application requires some tweaking for the context where it will run.

For Agile

Performance testing is essentially ‘performance engineering’ in Agile, which reduces both cost and risks. It allows the team to understand the concept of performance engineering while executing it throughout the development cycle.
 

Conclusion

 
At the end of the day, we can’t choose one testing approach over the other though this isn’t the case when it comes to development. Early performance testing and load simulation for acceptance testing are both important, and needs to be part of the testing strategy depending on how far the development has progressed.

This blog explores the two most commonly practiced testing approaches – Waterfall and Agile, and where performance testing fits in both.

Making the choice between Waterfall and Agile performance testing is not easy. This blog shares some insights on both approaches and where performance testing fits in them.