All entrepreneurs and companies must manage their sales because without sales the company is no longer viable. Sales management sounds easy, but it is not easy at all. Most small businesses cannot afford a sales manager to solely work in the sales department. Instead the sales manager usually has multiple jobs; such as sales trainer, new product development, sales and managing the other salespeople or a team of salespeople. Nevertheless, the manager who is in charge of sales must maintain performance otherwise the company cannot grow from its efforts.

Having built a small business into a large franchising company serving 450 cities, 110 markets and 23 states we learned very quickly that if we did not make sales we were running in the red. As we grew I were many hats in my company, like you perhaps I was the janitor, company president, company marketing department and of course the sales manager to. In fact sometimes there was only myself to manage and as things got bigger we had a team of people. Perhaps like you, I did not have an MBA and much of what is written in this article is written from personal experience and not necessarily anything I read any book. Of course I did buy books on sales and sales management along the way, as I was frustrated and like most entrepreneurs I wanted more.

I think you will enjoy this thought process because it is written straight from the guts and the entrepreneurial spirit. Indeed, I appreciate you reading this book because it is important for your business to understand sales management. Perhaps this article is of interest to propel thought in 2007?

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington

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