Managing a sales force under fifteen is a challenging task. It’s challenging because small sales forces have a "diseconomy of scale". Sales management should achieve three primary goals:
- Use superior skills to improve the sales process and maximize team sales
- Fully-utilize a forty-hour workweek
- Keep the cost of sales management per employee at a reasonable amount
However, with a small sales force, it is impossible to achieve all three goals. Something has to give. Too many businesses choose to sacrifice skilled sales management in the name of cost savings. This usually comes back to haunt them in the form of lost deals, weak salesperson performance, and turnover. There is no perfect solution to the diseconomy of scale created by a small sales force, but we encourage you to “pick your poison” instead of sticking your head in the sand and pretending that there is no sacrifice. There is a significant cost to under-managed or un-managed sales teams; the simple solution is to as for help. Read the academic paper written by Steven Bate and subsequent Whitepaper produced by PROACT Sales Management on the Competitive Challenges of SMB Sales Management.
