There is no ideal department structure and its structure depends on the specifics of your business. Your niche, scale of business, regional representation, distribution of functions between sellers. All this affects the construction of the work system for your employees.

One head of the sales department (ROD) should have no more than 6-7 salespeople subordinate to him. This is the most optimal number of subordinates whom he can efficiently help, guide, and train. If you have more, look for a second ROP.

Building a sales department: division of functions

When building a department, it is necessary to highlight the basic principles that will help to properly organize the work of your employees. Responsibilities can be divided:

1. By manager functions (hunter, closer, fermer)
2. By sales channel
3. By target audience
4. By product
5. By territorial basis

Also, the construction of a department can be linked to two types of organizational structure.

1. Cell structure (division by client base). The construction occurs based on the entire implementation cycle within one cell of managers (hunter, closer, fermer).

2. Linear structure (division by functions). The structure is based on the key link - the manager, and then all employees are divided by function.

Building a sales department: universal soldiers or specialists

One of the most important emphasis in building a department is the functional responsibilities of the salesperson.

Two types of building a management work system:

1. Universal Soldiers
2. Managers for every stage

Universal Soldiers

This approach is often found in small companies that are just starting out. When one person handles the entire sales cycle, from finding a client to further supporting him in repeat transactions. Additionally, this employee may also be involved in logistics, purchasing, etc.

The main pros and cons of this approach when building a department.

pros

1. You don't need to maintain multiple sellers. You have an independent staff unit that covers the entire sales cycle and performs additional functions.

Minuses

1. The structure is based on personalities. If such an employee leaves, he may take away a client who is completely tied to him.
2. Overloading a salesperson at one stage of a deal, such as negotiations, can cause downtime in another sales cycle. For example, when working with a cold customer base.
3. The less the seller is involved in his immediate responsibilities, the less he can sell.

Managers of each stage

When building a department, it is much more effective to select employees for three areas. This approach works well in both small and large companies.

1. Finding and attracting buyers (hunter)
2. (closer)
3. Maintaining relationships with the current client base (farmer)

The main pros and cons of this approach when building a department:

pros

1. Each sales stage is completed many times faster and with better quality
2. Sellers are easily and quickly interchanged
3. The risk of losing a client along with an employee is minimal (relationships are built only at one stage of the transaction)

Minuses

1. There may be a slight staff turnover due to the constant search for the best personnel

Building a sales department: types of managers

When building a sales department focused on the functional responsibilities of salespeople, it is necessary to distinguish 3 main types.

It will also depend on its type and functions.

1. Hunter

Hunter are employees whose main task is to find and attract qualified leads to the company.

The main hunters of the company:

• call center operators
• traffic managers
• SEO specialists
• sales representatives

They are busy mainly with cold traffic, and low-converting traffic. Even employees without experience who can be hired to work remotely are suitable for these tasks. Of course, you will have to conduct training within the company and make sure that these employees know how to sell using scripts.

Hunters' wages are not the highest, as they are busy with routine work. It is usually easy to replace. But for this category of sellers, it is necessary to establish a soft part of the salary, which depends on their efficiency coefficient. Plus incentives with bonuses.

When building a system for motivating hunters, evaluate both the quantity and quality of calls. This is expressed in the number of appointments made, where the closer will already act.

2. Closer

After identifying potential buyer interest, his contact information is transferred to the closer.

Closer - a salesperson who makes the main sales in the company. They are the ones who turn potential clients into real ones, increase the average check and the amount of revenue.

Closers interact with “warm” leads. The most qualified specialists work in this position, since the first transaction is the most difficult.

In this case, the bonus must be limited to a certain number or percentage. Closers should not be accustomed to incomes that are several times higher than the market average.

3. Farmer

Farmer (farmer) is a category of employees who serve current customers. Their main task is to increase the loyalty of the customer base, stimulate repeat sales, and increase the customer life cycle through up-sale (they sell more of the same product) and cross-sale (they sell another product).

If you are selling a one-time service, keep in mind that you do not need farmers when building a department.

The wages of farmers who accompany the buyer after the first purchase should consist mainly of salary. Because this work involves working with already loyal customers who have purchased your products. The construction of a bonus system for motivating farmers should be based on the results of the customer service period and the duration of the relationship.

This approach to building a department makes each employee interchangeable. It is much easier to find a specialist for a specific segment of work. In addition, your customers interact with the company as a whole, and not with a specific seller, so the possibility of him leaving for a new place along with his client base is significantly reduced.

We looked at the basic principles of building a sales department. Review its structure in your business and redistribute the roles of managers. Remember that both the number of leads that will need to be processed and the revenue received depend on the correct structure of the department.

Organization of the sales department- this is the first thing a department head should do in a new position. He must take care of the organization so that the work in the sales department becomes more efficient and effective. We'll talk about how to do this.

Organization of the sales department: main tasks

At the first stage, the organization of the department’s work is associated with determining the readiness of workplaces for the production process, the operability of equipment, telephone lines, the condition of furniture, and the required amount of office supplies.

If the work of specialists stops due to a lack of paper or a broken chair, this will be the stupidest reason, the probability of which is important to reduce to zero. Therefore, organizational issues must be resolved first, and the necessary expenses must be agreed upon with the head of the organization. If such a problem occurs, it should be resolved immediately, and not drag on for several days, or even weeks.

Sales managers should be comfortable. Their leader is responsible for this and must organize everything.

If there are men working in the sales department who constantly help someone in the organization to bring something or go somewhere - stop it immediately!

A sales manager should, first of all, bring money to the company, and not perform the duties of a driver, loader, or courier.

To deliver or carry goods, we have our own personnel with appropriate qualifications and pay levels. By focusing solely on sales, the department can significantly improve its performance, and the organization can increase profits. This point must be taken into account when effectively organizing the work of the sales department.

The same can be said if sales employees are assigned other, non-core responsibilities. This could be website promotion or creating a database - these tasks have their own specialists who can solve them with great desire and efficiency.

Organization of the department’s work includes creating an incoming flow of clients

A specialist should spend more than 80% of his time communicating with clients. It is better and more efficient if it is an incoming flow, since its processing requires less labor. Therefore, share your ideas with the marketing department or management on how to organize this incoming flow.

If the specific work of employees is based on outgoing calls, increase the number of calls per hour first to 15, and then, if necessary, to 20 (if there are many refusals). If an employee does not go every hour to smoke, drink coffee, go to the bathroom, or chat with colleagues, he may well be able to cope with this figure.

Weekly plans and meetings

We communicate personal weekly plans to the staff - we organize everything necessary to implement the plan - we monitor the results of work at a weekly meeting.

Each employee should know his plan for the month, week, day. He must know what will be asked of him for carrying out this plan. The plan must be personalized, otherwise managers will not be able to feel personal responsibility for the result, and therefore will not be motivated to show it. A list of personal results on the office wall and its daily monitoring is an excellent stimulant for work and competition.

When you are just trying to organize the work of a sales department, it is better to make extensive planning, that is, indicate the required number of new clients, the number of regular ones and the planned amount of sales.

In addition to daily monitoring, weekly meetings must be held to analyze and motivate employees. Here are some tips for holding effective meetings with employees:

• The meeting must take place under any conditions.
• The duration of the meeting should not exceed one hour.
• All items to be discussed should be planned and announced at the beginning of the meeting.
• All issues must be resolved during the discussion, those responsible are recorded on paper, lines are established.

Dividing managers into experienced and not so experienced

We organize work with employees according to skill level - different levels of goal formulation - different levels of control.

It is imperative to separate the leadership of managers with extensive experience, as well as newcomers who have recently plunged into the sea of ​​sales.

People with experience will not tolerate excessive control and pressure, especially from a person who comes from the outside and, perhaps, knows sales very well, but is not familiar with all the intricacies of the work. In this case, the main task is persuasion.

Yes, you need to find an approach, you need to be a little psychologist, but it’s worth it. Teamwork between a professional manager and experienced sales managers can give the department a new lease of life.

Beginning sellers at the initial stage of work require clear instructions, an accessible explanation of goals, ways to achieve them, and just regular help and human support.

However, working with beginners also has its advantages - you learn together, achieve success together, go through “thick and thin” together. After some time, a team is formed that can handle any goal.

It is very good when young specialists undergo training within the department in which they will work, thanks to the mentoring system. Moreover, it is very important that the mentor is friendly and interested in the positive results of his trainee. This form of training demonstrates to the beginner practical ways to solve work issues that would require a long time and a lot of trial and error to solve during self-study.

If there are many newcomers in the department, the manager needs to constantly maintain feedback with colleagues, collect information about all the difficulties they encounter, find optimal solutions, and then conduct quick five-minute training sessions or weekly training.

The effectiveness of sales training is determined by the following rules:

• regularity
• clarity and specificity of information
• having homework
• checking homework
• practicing knowledge in practice
• monitoring the use of new skills at work
• final exam

Documenting your work

Do not forget that organizing the work of the sales department consists of regularly compiling reports on its activities, otherwise management may doubt the quantity and quality of your work. Get into the habit of preparing weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual reports, even if you are not asked for these reports, so that you can present them to management at any time upon request.

Sales department from scratch: traffic channels

Sales channels are the first thing to think about before creating a department from scratch. There are more than 20 of them. It is important to understand that there are no universal channels: it all depends on the business area in which you work.

Use a few tips to help you find your way to sell your product.

1. Analyze the most successful competitors. You can learn a lot about a potentially successful traffic source by looking at the effective business model of someone in your industry.

2. Analyze companies from related industries. A simple transfer of a channel and even part of the entire business model can exceed your wildest expectations.

3. Analyze companies from substitute industries. In a situation where it is not possible to consider the sales channels of competitors or related industries, you can look at how substitute products are sold.

4. Tailor everything to your target audience. When you already have information about competitors, change everything taking into account the target audience.

5. Check competitors' channels. Immediately ask consultants and experts in your field what you should not do.

6. Continue to study the effectiveness of tools for generating consistent traffic. It can change.

Remember, if you choose the wrong sales channel, you can completely lose your business or grow very slowly.

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Sales department from scratch: organizational structure

When creating a department from scratch, remember that there is no optimal one. It is caused by many factors. Our experience has shown that when creating or reorganizing a department, it is worth paying attention to the following points.

• Availability of department head

There must be a person who controls and directs managers. Independent work of managers is much less effective.

• Controllability zone

We suggest focusing on these numbers. The head of a department cannot have more than 7 managers subordinate to him. Ideal structure: 1st department (1 + 3 managers) + 2nd department (1 ROP + 3 managers).

• Correct identification and distribution of functions between managers

Closing transactions, maintaining the current client base.

• Channels

You must have at least one manager for each channel. This is due to the fact that the business process through each of them is completely different.

• The target audience

Different groups of your audience require a different approach and different techniques.

• Product

Products can also be divided between managers if they differ in audiences and channels.

• Territory

If you work in different regions, it can be useful to divide the territories between managers.

• Competition

In a competitive environment, any manager will show better results compared to when he works alone. In addition, a competitive environment helps to quickly weed out ineffective employees: if one of your salespeople cannot withstand the competition, most likely he is not on the same path with you.

Create your department from scratch, taking into account the listed factors.

Sales department from scratch: motivation system

A competent system of motivation for the ROP and his subordinates will help you build an effective department from scratch. Correct motivation should be set up in such a way that the employee feels as bad as the owner from unfulfilled indicators.

Must consist of three blocks. Approximately they can be distributed in this proportion.

• Fixed salary (30%) – covers basic needs
• Soft salary (10%) – paid for “diligence” (fulfillment of established indicators)
• Bonus (60%) – encourages you to sell more

Also be guided by the following principles when building a motivation system from scratch.

"Transparency". Employees must be clear on any day of the month how much they have already earned.

"Three times more". Those who make a plan receive three times more than those who do not.

“What I answer for, I get for.” A manager should not receive a significant increase for working with clients he has long attracted.

"Darwin's Principle". Those who fulfill the plan receive above the labor market, and those who do not fulfill the plan receive below the labor market.

"Fast money." When completing a weekly payment, he can immediately collect a special bonus without waiting for the day he receives his salary.

"Big Rapids" The motivation system assumes a large difference in remuneration between those who have fulfilled, those who have not fulfilled and those who have not fulfilled the plan.

Do you want to build an effective sales department from scratch and make a profit in 3 months?

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Sales department from scratch: implementationCRMsystems

The creation of a department will not be complete if the lion's share of business processes is not automated. The implementation of a CRM system will help you with this.

Here are some tips for setting it up:

• There should be no transactions with overdue tasks,
• There should be no transactions without tasks,
• Work is carried out on counterparties, and not on specific transactions,
• There are methodological materials on working with CRM,
• There is CRM integration with the website (landing page),
• All transactions are conducted in CRM,
• There is integration with telephony (IP, cell phones),
• All reports are generated automatically, not manually,
• Configured.

To properly implement/configure CRM, you should do at least three things.

• Develop technical specifications for CRM for your specific tasks (reports, functionality, access rights),
• Develop manuals for working in CRM from scratch,
• Motivate staff for order in CRM - pay bonuses for the quality of entering information into CRM.

Sales department from scratch: reporting system

Without control, that is, reports, there is no result. There are 36 department performance indicators that are important to monitor. Moreover, this must be done daily immediately when starting work from scratch. There is data on the numbers - there will be ideas on how to change them for the better.

When creating a department from scratch, you will not be able to immediately cover all 36 indicators. Therefore, when setting up a reporting system, follow these 4 points.

1. Set up at least 7 funnel reports:

• for new clients;
• for current clients;
• by products;
• through channels;
• by target audience;
• by managers;
• by region.

1. Set up several reports on the current daily activity indicators of managers:

• daily report “Payment plan for the week”
• daily report “Act of payments for today”
• daily report “Payment plan for tomorrow”
• summary report "Board" for the current date

1. Create and announce a meeting plan. Meetings mean:

• Planning meeting at the beginning of the day;
• 2-3 five-minute sessions during the day - preferably at 11:00, 14:00, 16:00.

This rhythm of short but frequent meetings on the case makes it possible for the ROP to promptly correct the actions of employees.

1. Conduct an ABCXYZ analysis that will divide your current customer base into 9 categories based on two parameters: the volume of purchases of each counterparty (ABC group) and the frequency of their purchases (XYZ group).

ABC Group:

• A – buys in large volumes
• B – buys in medium volumes
• C – buys in small volumes

XYZ Group:

• X – buys regularly
• Y – buys irregularly
• Z – bought once

And then you need to control migration from category to category. Those. you need to know how many customers you have in categories A, B, C, and how they move between them. And also how they move between X, Y, Z. Migration can be tracked by counterparties and by each manager.

6. Consider a professional development program based on the skill model and job profiles, preparing adaptation training, a product tutorial and tests.

We've looked at the key areas where your efforts should be focused when building a sales team from the ground up. Using these tips will allow you to get the desired profit.

“In today's business world, there is no use being a creative thinker if you can't sell what you create. Managers will not recognize good ideas unless they are presented to them by a good salesperson.”

David Ogilvy

Process formation of a sales department from scratch - quite labor-intensive, requiring certain skills and knowledge.

You can create a sales department in different ways:

hire

good, experienced sellers, and sales will come on their own because they have the necessary skills and know how to sell. It will not be difficult for them to independently create all the necessary conditions for themselves;

take advantage professional services"Full construction";

do all this work on one's own.

Let's look at what steps you need to take to create a sales department yourself.

To begin with, decide whatfinancial resources You have it. This includes the organization of the workplace, rental of premises, salary, communication services.. Then determine temporary resources - how long should the sales department be formed. Well, then - human resources: you need to know how many managers the company can afford financially and in terms of selling goods sold.

Create regulations all sales processes, namely: attracting new clients, preparing commercial proposals, interacting with the purchasing department and accounting department, as well as customer support. Regulations should work 80% of the time. Implement standards and norms of daily work, as well as sales technologies.

Develop a personnel policy. That is, decide who will be relied on when selecting sales managers: young people or professionals with work experience. It is best to have a sales team of at least 5 people.

Sales department functions - what is meant here is not actions or processes, but the results that are required. Namely: increasing the number of large orders, expanding the customer base, building customer trust, creating the company’s image, professional and personal development of department employees.

Decide on control. It is simply necessary for everyone, even the most successful managers. But reports should be generated automatically.

Motivation system — material and intangible. It should help managers strive for new achievements.

Manager support by sales - monitor how they use all the necessary information in real sales.

The department structure is divided into sectors to perform different tasks:

Typical mistakes when forming a sales department are as follows:

You can't save money on personnel selection, otherwise you will recruit incompetent employees who are also poorly trained;

Don't offer low salary;

90% of managers do not know how to handle objections, the main thing for them is to impose the product on the buyer and get the maximum salary, so they are not able to adequately represent your company;

Sales specialists should not be competitors, but partners;

Don't forget that even the most successful and talented salespeople need rest, but if they recycle, then it’s worth the reward.

P.S. For any business, no sales means no future. That is why it is necessary to very clearly build a sales system in the company. To avoid making mistakes and increase your profits, take part in Test drive of a comprehensive development program for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs Business Coaching. The result is guaranteed.

Sales people work effectively and pay them decent remuneration. In today's episode, Commercial Director of VentureClub.co Hayk Julakyan will talk about how to organize the work of the sales department in the company.

The work of the sales department in detail

In my career, I went from a simple manager to a commercial director, so I can see the work of the sales department through the eyes of both the boss and the line employee. The work on both sides has its own difficulties and nuances. The main responsibility for the coordinated work of the team lies, of course, with the management - the head of the sales department and the top management of the company. But if employees do not understand business processes and the rules of the game, no effective work will happen.

I propose to take apart the process of building a sales department “brick by brick” and look at its activities from different angles in order to understand how to most effectively build the work of the commercial department.

View from below

In my opinion, anyone can become a good enough salesperson.
Yes, there are sales geniuses, “stars” of commercial departments - in some companies they make a significant part of the revenue. But depending on such people is very risky. They can be lured away by competitors at any moment. They can catch star fever and blackmail you, demanding an increase in salary. They can leave and take their biggest clients with them.

Therefore, I advise you to focus on confident “average” players. You can grow one in any company that has streamlined business processes, a good level of automation, competent scripts and transparent rules of the game. There are no bad sales people - there are insufficiently effective sales managers who do not help a person grow and become successful in the company.

Let's start, perhaps, with rules of the game.

A sales manager who has just joined your company must understand the rules of the game well. First of all, give him the documents and make sure that he not only signed, but also read them. The documents must indicate the procedure for receiving remuneration, methods for resolving controversial situations, fines (for example, for the fact that the employee deviates from the scripts).

Let's consider this situation. The client called the company, spoke with employee #1 and decided to take some time to think. Two months later, he calls again and gets in touch with employee #2 - he now receives a “warm” client who easily makes contact and is ready to buy your product. Employee #2 successfully completes the transaction and wants to receive his percentage for it. But here employee #1 intervenes - after all, it was he who made the first contact, without him this sale would not have happened at all! Employee #1 also wants to receive a percentage for the transaction. How to resolve such a controversial situation?
There are several options.

The contract that managers sign at the beginning of their employment may specify how compensation will be divided. For example, the one who made the first contact receives 30% of it, and the one who made the deal receives 70%. Or the percentage is divided equally between all managers who participated in the sale.

Another option is to stipulate in the contract that all controversial situations are resolved by the managers themselves. And if they do not come to an agreement, the head of the department will decide for them. In such situations, I always advise managers to come to an agreement on their own - who knows what’s in the head of the manager, he can always resolve the situation not in your favor. Usually, employees still agree and split the reward in half.

Whatever dispute resolution option you choose, it must be clearly stated in the documents, and all employees must know: in controversial situations, we act in such and such a way. Otherwise, conflicts, hidden games and unhealthy competition for clients are inevitable. And we don’t want unhealthy competition, we only support healthy competition – we’ll talk about this a little later.

Automation and clear business processes Very important. I don’t understand those sales managers who still don’t use . Or they use it “for show,” but all the important information about clients is still in the heads of sales managers, in some notebooks, and so on. You shouldn't do that. All salespeople should receive clear instructions: what information, when and to what extent to enter into the CRM.

A CRM system allows you to keep all information about a client in one place. If the client calls again, and the manager who worked with him is on vacation/sick/quit, valuable data about the previous contact will not be lost. The new manager will quickly get up to speed and will be able to communicate with the client as with an old acquaintance.
When using CRM, you have much less risk that the “star” salesperson will leave, taking all the clients with him. No, of course, he will be able to copy his contacts, but at least you won’t lose them.

Finally, the CRM system makes it easy and convenient to track a salesperson. How does it move through the sales funnel? Does he have a lot of unprocessed applications? How much money did he bring to the company?
When a company has automated business processes, both management is calmer and line personnel work easier and more efficiently.

Leadership function

The main functions of a sales manager are to plan, motivate employees and evaluate their performance. But, in fact, the role of a leader is much more complex. We can say that he is constantly “between two fires.”
On the one hand, there is top management, which demands to constantly raise plans, introduce strict discipline and fire all ineffective employees.
On the other hand, sales managers who complain about impossible plans want more freedom and creativity and sometimes make mistakes.

There are leaders who take one side or the other, but, in my opinion, this is an ineffective position.

The commercial director, who plays on the side of management, turns into a tyrant and despot for sales people, punishes for the slightest offenses, constantly puts pressure and demands that plans be fulfilled and exceeded, without thinking about how realistic this is with the current tools and the market situation. Such a leader will have a high staff turnover and an unhealthy atmosphere in the team. And in an atmosphere of constant pressure and fear, employee motivation will inevitably fall - along with sales.

If the head of the sales department plays on the side of his employees, this is harmful to the financial performance of the company as a whole. Such a manager can lobby for low plans, and his employees will work relaxed - why try and exceed the plan if the boss will already give you a good bonus? Top management will sooner or later understand that this situation does not suit the company, and the head of the sales department will be fired.

Healthy competition

We have already talked about the fact that you should not provoke unhealthy competition when employees are ready to fight for clients and get personal. What is healthy competition in the sales department?

It is better to organize such competitions for a certain average, not too short and not too long period of time. The period must correspond to the plans and specifics of the company’s activities. If the reporting period is a month, then the bonus is monthly, if the quarter is quarterly. It makes little sense, for example, to make the bonus weekly if the sales cycle is three weeks. Also, if the competition period is too long, motivation is lost and people relax. And when the time allotted for competition is too short, the likelihood of random fluctuations is high. And then it is not the strongest who will win, but the one who is lucky this time.
But, for example, if you need to sharply and quickly increase sales - say, a competitor has released a new product, and you need to become more active - you can enter a weekly
Competition between salespeople should help.

As a bonus for the winners in such competitions, I choose something material, but not money - some gadget or a trip to Thailand. You can display a prize smartphone right in the office - people will walk past it for a month, look and think: “Okay, I need to call a couple more clients, I want to win this phone.”

Plans and uncertainty

I am for employees to work in a state of at least relative certainty.

The job of a salesperson is already unstable: they don’t know how much they will sell, and therefore what salary they will receive at the end of the month. By the way, this is why I believe that in companies where a lot depends on the salesperson (not the mass segment), the manager’s salary should at least cover his basic needs - food, rent. A person should not sit at work and think whether he will be able to pay the rent next month - this will not have the best effect on sales.

Another great way to demotivate an employee, besides depriving him of his salary, is to make receiving a percentage of the income as unpredictable as possible. For example, constantly change plans, remuneration schemes, evaluation systems, and so on.

Typically, executives want to increase the sales target if managers have exceeded the current target. But you definitely need to look - is this not an accident? Are seasonal variations to blame for this? Only if managers consistently, for at least three months in a row, exceed the plan, does it make sense to think about revising it.
And one more thing about plans. It happens that one employee worked and worked poorly, and then suddenly fulfilled the plan by 150%. And immediately he receives glory, honor and a prize! And there are a lot of other employees who fulfill the plan month after month - maybe they don’t have outstanding achievements, but they are confident “average” employees who provide the bulk of your sales. And this situation may seem very offensive to them. Don't forget about people who work well and consistently, reward them for this, and not just for one-time exceeding the plan.

So, let's summarize. For the effective work of the sales department it is important:

• Have a competent leader, which serves as a “buffer” between employees and top management, motivates, encourages salespeople, and promotes healthy competition
• Write down clear rules of the game and familiarize all employees with them
• Automate business processes, implement CRM
• Don't revise plans too often and remuneration procedure
• Pay salary, which will cover the basic needs of the salesperson