Introduction
Strategic performance management is a necessary practice for each organization regardless of which field it operates in. It includes setting clear criteria for the employees’ professional achievements, detecting progress, and improving the principles of the job. Its main goal is to align the work with the organizational goals and objectives and ensure that everyone follows the same direction. The evaluation consists of certain aspects that allow for recognizing the quality of the work done and identifying how it affects organizational productivity in general. Strategic performance management includes such factors as high revenue, good customer service, effective working processes, and an increase in the company’s potential.
In turn, a strategic performance management plan serves the purpose of creating a clear strategy for the specific position in the workplace. It investigates the information about the organization and its background and core values. Firstly, the vision and mission of the company should be identified along with the overall strategy. Secondly, the description of the job has to portray the role this position plays in the general performance and how it is evaluated. For this purpose, will be studied the company Dialogue Direct (Highland Park, MI} and the position of the sales manager. Thus, the paper aims to create a strategic performance plan for the chosen company and recognize the attributes that will be rated regarding the position of the sales manager.
Background of the Organization
Dialogue Direct is a service provider for businesses that focuses on marketing processes and works with customers. For 37 years, the organization has existed and operated in the marketing field, and during this time already opened 11 branches all over the United States (About us, n. d.). About 250 major brands chose their services and turned for guidance (About us, n. d.). The company develops the solutions to problems and helps to improve the marketing strategies and build strong and productive relationships with the clients.
Dialogue Direct develops a personal plan and monitors the ways of interacting with customers, creating a dialogue with them and helping to leave them satisfied with the service. The three primary fields that the organization operates in are connected with the development of lead solutions, sales approach, and customer-related objectives. The vision of Dialogue Direct is “to revolutionize how brands create remarkable experiences along the customer journey” (About us, n. d.). It emphasizes the unique experience the company strives to create for its clients. Its mission also reflects this philosophy and aims “to help brands connect and engage with their customers by creating personalized and relevant dialogue through the entire customer journey” (About us, n. d.). Altogether those statements demonstrate the client-oriented policies and the willingness to work with each of the customers personally.
Dialogue Direct’s Current Strategy
Considering the organizational vision and mission, Dialogue Direct adjust the current strategy to them and focuses on the unique and specialized method of work. Each of the main fields, which includes the development of lead solutions, sales approach, and customer-related objectives, requires its strategy. The general tactic of the company is to get a deep insight into cooperation with clients, supplement the work with innovative analytical tools, and stick to persona-based marketing and high-quality interaction with the stakeholders. Although a salesman should have absolute wholesome knowledge about the products and offerings, their function has a specific purpose in the organization. The sales manager focuses primarily on the search for potential clients and pursuing them to cooperate with Dialogue Direct. While marketing is the main tool for promotion and engaging with clients, there also has to be a mediator that will guide the customers. The corporate strategy also includes the possibility for the customers to experience high-quality service from them that would be memorable and remarkable. The company does not try to do the work by a template that would be suitable for everyone. Instead, they strive for innovations and creative decisions in the customer approach. The path that the organization takes is rather challenging because there is always a need for unique and individual methods of dealing with problems and helping customers with their issues. Each brand that comes to Dialogue Direct expects to receive specialized treatment. Thus, all the departments work synergistically to analyze precisely the situation and learn all the necessary information and specific aspects of the case they are working with. Each brand is unique and may specialize in different subjects such as sports, cars, or the dairy industry. Helping them to find, retain and build solid and trustful relationships in the future perspective. Those details demonstrate the reason why Dialogue Direct strategically aims t focus on creativity and innovations in their work. Sales managers are one of the most crucial people in the structure; therefore, their performance should be evaluated accordingly.
Sales Manager Job Description
The sales department is responsible for various duties in the workplace, and it demands severe training and knowledge. Sales associates not only have to present the services and products to the customers, but they also should be deeply involved in the company’s inner processes. Firstly, the sales manager should be well informed about Dialogue Directs history and corporate values. Employees from the sales department are the representatives of the company, and those who meet them judge the organization by the interaction they have with the sales managers. To correctly represent the company, the workers have to understand how to beneficially portray the company’s image and deliver the right message. Also, the sales manager should be perfectly aware of all the processes and organizational moments that are happening. In addition, the employee has to be a great communicator and create trustful relationships with the customer and make them willingly choose to work with Dialogue Direct. At the beginning of the interaction, the salespeople have to identify the customers’ needs and problems to suggest an effective solution. If they made everything correctly and the customer felt understood, then there are higher chances for cooperation in the future.
Rating the Role
Rating sales managers is necessary to ensure that employee performance aligns with Dialogue Direct’s strategy. Certain attributes have to be evaluated for this purpose: communication skills, negotiating ability, proactivity, client orientation, and the total number of deals. The first two factors are communication skills and the ability to negotiate successfully. Communication serves as the primary tool for making contacts and approaching potential customers. To determine whether this competency is met, it is necessary to check if the employee has a template and guidance for various situations so that they always know how to lead a conversation productively. Moreover, it should be evaluated considering the written and oral forms of communication. For the sales manager, it is crucial to be able to deliver the information simply and clearly. The measurement scale for the criteria is the following: excellent, good, satisfactory, general, and unsatisfactory. The following performance attributes are assessed by the same method and characteristics. Communication, in particular, is one part of the wholesome strategy of providing unique services for the customer and building relationships with them.
Negotiation is closely connected to communication but focuses more narrowly on the discussion with the clients regarding the sales issue. Negotiations include such business subjects as customers’ requests, desired conditions, and prices (Lawrence et al., 2021). The ability to negotiate successfully contributes not only to the increase in the company’s profit and flourishing by maintaining the customers but also to the overall direction (Lawrence et al., 2021). The negotiations can be considered successful if the deal was made predominantly on the company’s conditions.
This leads to the attribute of proactive behavior in the workplace and additional supplements. Proactivity comes along with the intuitiveness and leadership qualities demonstrated in job performance (Varela et al., 2019). The sales manager strives to maximize productivity in the workplace and might even do additional tasks and use predictive technology (Curcuruto, 2019). An employee who meets the criteria prioritizes the quality of work and understands that the individual success of each employee contributes to the achievement of corporate goals, and eventually, it benefits both parties. Such behavior brings creativity and innovations to business solutions and helps to achieve organizational goals.
Customer orientation is related to proactive behavior and represents one of the crucial factors that allow for evaluating the sales manager’s performance. Clients’ needs should always come first because only in that case it is possible to effectively communicate with the clients and develop the appropriate solutions for them. Even in certain situations, the conditions of the deal are not as excellent as and convenient for the company. It is better not to pressure the client but consider their wishes. Retaining the clients and leaving them satisfied with the results is an indicator of a high score in this criterion and means that the manager performed well and contributed to the goal of persona-based marketing. Finally, the concluding standards are the total number of closed deals by the end of each month. These factors demonstrate that the sales manager met if not all, but the majority of the criteria mentioned above. Although this characteristic cannot determine the effectiveness of the employee completely and generalize the performance, it is more likely one of the most important criteria.
Conclusion
Overall, were identified five primary criteria for the assessment of the sales department performance: communication, negotiation, client orientation, proactivity, and the number of sales. Each of the criteria aligns with the organizational goals and contributes to attaining the purposes of the company. Dialogue Direct has several strategies, which include the development of lead solutions, sales approach, and customer-related objectives. Sales managers, as the central representatives of the company, should be appropriately assessed and constantly evaluated for their performance. This position ensures that the company maintains a decent image and provides it with new customers who choose the organization because of its unique approach to customer service. Dialogue Direct has an opportunity of widening the opportunity for corporate goals and results. Thus, the regular assessment of the working processes of the sales department can positively affect the overall company’s well-being and development. The paper creates a strategic performance plan for Dialogue Direct and recognizes the attributes that will be rated regarding the position of the sales manager.
References
About us. (n. d.). DialogDirect. Web.
Curcuruto, M., Parker, S. K., & Griffin, M. A. (2019). Proactivity towards workplace safety improvement: an investigation of its motivational drivers and organizational outcomes. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 28(2), 221-238. Web.
Lawrence, J. M., Scheer, L. K., Crecelius, A. T., & Lam, S. K. (2021). Salesperson dual agency in price negotiations. Journal of Marketing, 85(2), 89-109. Web.
Varela, J. A., Bande, B., Del Rio, M., & Jaramillo, F. (2019). Servant leadership, proactive work behavior, and performance overall rating: Testing a multilevel model of moderated mediation. Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, 26(2), 177-195. Web.