A topic that's coming up weekly in our sales meetings right now is our schedule for August and September. We're looking ahead and we know that we need more work sold now to keep our crews busy this fall. Can you relate?
So what do you do when you're staring down a big gap in the schedule? You manage your salespeople.
The first step is to set sales objectives that are based in fact and aligned with the company's goals, and that started last year when you worked on budgets. Keep this in mind as you look to 2027. Your total sales goal needs to align with your production capacity first and foremost in both revenue and type of work. You can't have a goal of doing $5M in hardscaping work if you don't have enough experienced team members to actually install that work.
A great sales manager always has a pulse on the sales pipeline. You need sales in every stage of the pipeline ideally. At Grunder Landscaping Co. this job falls to Dawn, who is constantly checking in on pipeline status and keeping various opportunities updated in Aspire. She's also setting expectations with salespeople around the activities they're doing to generate sales. Each week she emails out a recap of the:
Sales Closed
Pipeline Sales Proposed
Accounts Receivable
It helps us stay on top of my favorite mantra for strong cash flow and a successful business:
The more efficiently you get through these 4 steps the better for your entire team.
I'll go into more detail on successful sales management during our upcoming virtual event, the Virtual Sales Manager's Bootcamp. Sign up to join us if you're a sales manager, an owner, or the only salesperson at a company. I'll be joined by Chris Psencik and Emily Lindley to share tips and tricks to help you win more sales this year. The opportunities are out there - we'll help you capture them.
I hope you have fun plans ahead for the 4th of July this week, we'll talk to you next Sunday!
Marty Grunder
Founder & CEO
The Grow Group & Grunder Landscaping Co.