Every modular home factory has growing pains in the
beginning. The pain could be the thought of failure or it could be trying to
figure out how to keep the explosive growth under control. Either way it is
pain.
The modular home business is not a cookie cutter business.
They come in all sizes and shapes from some of the largest like Clayton and
Champion through the large modular only factories like Excel, Handcrafted and
others to the new kids on the block like Blu Homes and Method Homes.
Every single one has had their share of growing pains.
During that growth, many if not all of them have had a Sales Manager in place.
Watching the industry as I have for many years, I’ve seen them come and go,
move to another factory after they were let go by their current factory and I’ve
watched in wonder as some tried to change everything they touched with little
or no success.
So the real question is “Do you really need a Sales Manager?”
The answer is YES…sorta.
First you need to look at how many people will be reporting
to the sales manager. If you have less than 5 sales reps, you probably don’t
need a dedicated sales manager. This doesn’t mean that the factory doesn’t need
one; just that it doesn’t need a full time manager. If your full time manager
has 5 full time sales reps working either remotely or in office, what are the their
duties? Do they take attendance? Maybe they call each one daily to check on
their sales effort from the day before. Maybe stomp out a fire.
Instead of a full time sales manager for this few reps, you
have two very good options. The first is for someone in upper management to
take over the job along with their own duties. It’s not like sales people call
in every 15 minutes with problems. If they did, you would probably let them go
for being incompetent. In this case the upper management person is in direct
contact with people in all departments that can actually make things happen.
Even the company owner is a great choice because problems are solved on the
spot in most cases.
The second option is to have one of the sales reps be named
Sales Manager while continuing to work with a reduced number of home builders.
This sales rep is given an increase in salary to offset any resulting loss of
income. Then give them a percentage of each rep’s sales. This part time sales
manager would be the channel through which information would pass between
management and the sales reps.
However, if your company has more than 5 sales reps or is doing a lot of business with builders and developers all trying to buy from you, then having a full
time Sales Manager does make sense.
If you decide to promote from within your sales ranks you
need to do it properly. The first thing you do is look at each sales person on
your staff and evaluate if they have what it takes to “manage” the other sales
reps.
Too many modular home factories make the mistake of
promoting their best salesperson to sales manager only to lose sales and find
that they now have a bad sales manager. Don’t
do this!
Some senior sales reps feel they are entitled to the
position without doing a thing to prepare for it. They feel they know enough
about sales to impart their wisdom on the others or they may be burned out
selling and simply want to sit behind a desk until they retire. Don’t do this!
So where do you look
for a new sales manager? This is a trick question. Don’t look for a new
sales manager until you have decided two very important things. What is their
role in the company and what are their qualifications for that role?
The first part is
tough. What do you want from a new sales manager? Without sitting down and
writing out what their responsibilities along with goals and metrics to insure
things are working properly, you are setting your company up for just another
so-so sales manager that will need to be replaced in a year. Simply writing
down “increase sales” is like a football coach getting his team together on the
first day of practice and “let’s go score some points…do whatever you want to
make it happen.”
The goals must be obtainable. Don’t give your new sales
manager a sick or dying patient and expect them to find a cure overnight. If
your company is hurting, maybe set the first goal simply to stop the bleeding with
the builders. Then move on to the next goal. All goals have to be agreed upon
by both parties. Enticing someone with a large increase in pay over what they
had without giving them goals is the best way to fail.
Along with goals are the responsibilities of being your
sales manager. List each one and make sure the new sales manager understands
exactly what you want. It is important that the new sales manager knows that a
larger salary and possibly a commission is not just sitting in a chair waiting
to put out fires.
The second part of
finding a good sales manager is a little tougher.
- Has
the candidate done anything to prepare them for the job? Have they successfully
run small projects with measurable goals? - Have
they proven they understand the sales process for a modular home factory?
Bringing in someone from a non-construction background is OK if you’ve
exhausted all other candidates. - Have
they taken any management courses or read books about management? How do
you find out? Ask them. Reading one good management book is better than
not reading any. - Does
the candidate show good teamwork ability? Would the sales reps respect
both the new sales manager and your decision to hire them? Hiring a bad
sales manager reflects badly on whoever hired them. Ouch! - Do
they have a proven track record of helping others? How can you expect a
sales manager to succeed if they don’t? - Trust
your gut. When it comes down to whom you should hire, trust your years of
being in the business. If nobody gives you that warm feeling in your
tummy, keep on looking. That is a much better solution than promoting or hiring
the wrong person.
When you need to hire a new sales manager, make sure you
enter into the process with everything you need to make the best choice.
