Sales projects tracking

B

billbindo

0
I'm a sales director. I have an excel sheet where I track delegated projects. I have 3 direct report and approx 25 people under them. The excel sheet contain all the projects and for each of them I track owner, volume, start date, vendor.

Do you track Next Actions for each project or just stop at the same level as I do? If you don't track Next Action then how do you remember where the project was left and if there was any progress?
 
For work I have delegated to others I track:
- project status (one line description of where it is at)
- agreed actions or deadlines (not necessarily 'next' actions, but all committments)
- date of the update (reminds me when I next need to check in with the person)

The spreadsheet is a good idea, I currently keep these in Word project files and have to go through several to get all the info.
 
Suelin,

I understand that 100 projects multiplied by even 5 actions is 500 actions to follow up is too much for me. I'm looking for that minimum I can do and still have full control over the situation.
 
some thoughts

I feel you are in a very high level league here, playing a higher level than I could ever do, but I can't help but have a few idea.

If your reports and their reports have projects that follow a similar pattern, maybe you could just track certain key points in all of them.

I would think you could require everyone to report their plans and work in the same format, then have info sent to you at specific intervals.

Maybe certain staff could be "experts" n certain points in the projects and review them for you using a criteria you develop.

I think the critical thin is what parameters are meaningful to you. When these fall above or below a certain value at a certain time. then you need to do some more careful monitoring.
 
I believe, as Jamie Elis, these trackings should be the tasks of your sales force.

Would be possible ask them to send to you every week? Same excel format with a macro that copy and paste.

What if you should ask them a list of the targets for the next year and the summary of the activities they had?

What if you should monitor only the 20% of the main sales of the salesmen on training?

Would be possible with the established salesmen monitor only the agreed results?
 
I was thinking a lot about that yesterday. Answering your questions and my thoughts in line with that.

Would be possible ask them to send to you every week the same excel format with a macro that copy and paste? It is possible. Actually what I need in the end is the margin for the company and I don't care how and where they take it. So actually I do not need that directly. Let's say they send me a lot of information about their activity. It would take me hours just to read through. I believe I need a higher level of informational input here. The question is what is that minimum I need to have and control?

What if you should ask them a list of the targets for the next year and the summary of the activities they had? I have a list of the targets for them. I don't need summary of activities. I need activities and the result!

What if you should monitor only the 20% of the main sales of the salesmen on training? That what I was thinking about. The sales should be interested in getting as minimum money as the plan they had. In total that gives a plan for the company. It means I can sit still and wait when there's the result. Now we live not in idealistic world so sales sometimes do not fulfill their quota. So I have to push them. I don't want to push all the projects but those critical 20% that provide 80% of the margin. I think that would simplify my life. Then the question is how deep should I be involved in those 20% projects and should I control smaller actions or let them go?

Would be possible with the established salesmen monitor only the agreed results? Sure. I can monitor whatever I want.

Would appreciate any advice or reading on that topic. Prefer advice as there's not too much time for reading with so many information going around :)
 
It seems you are looking for a margin. And I think you'd like to feel safe and achieve it, each month, each week, each day. Isn't it?

This is therefore the first number to check. Then I think you have to understand which are the basic steps of your sales. And which are the established sales on which you can rely and which are the growing salesmen you have to train. You can differentiate the performance review by the different level each men reached. ( Four groups:1- New salesmen that need mainly training and directions, 2 - Salesmen that need directions and support; 3- Salesmen that need more involvement that directions; 4 - Salesmen you can fully delegate)

Which are the main elements that could help you to get an higher margin? New customers? Higher number of new approaches? Higher number of what? So this could be the number to check to be safe that later your stream could produce, "guarantee" to you and your company a good margin
 
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