The past year has been full of changes. There have been new challenges, opportunities and responsibilities and achieving goals. One of those responsibilities was hiring a Sales Development Representative to work with me on projects that will drive new business.
Throughout my career, I’ve had to define structure for many positions. Developing structure and strategy to drive mid-funnel opportunities through email campaigns was not on that list. I’ve since had to learn on the fly, and while doing so, I created a five-step guide to help me through the process of managing my new employee.
Step 1 - Define the goal. Figure out what needs to be accomplished from start to finish. Create short, readily achievable goals with clearly defined timelines. This isn’t a revolutionary idea, but it’s really important to us at SalesFuel as we strive to reach our goals.
Step 2 - Decide on a plan for success. How do we execute and measure our goal? This step requires a roadmap with clear direction. Define your key performance indicators. From there, get feedback from the employee and clarify that they understand exactly what needs to be done.
Step 3 — Analyze the plan. Depending on schedules, we will meet weekly to check in. When you’re doing something for the first time, be flexible. You have to be able to pivot if things aren’t going according to plan.
Step 4 — Improve the plan. At this point, we assess what, if any, improvements need to be made. What is and isn’t working? Are we achieving goals? By prioritizing where our efforts are lacking, we can set a new path forward.
Step 5 — Full implementation. After finding an approach that works, we can create a training plan for future use and modify as needed. Always be open to reworking your plan.
If you work in a corporate setting, you likely have a how-to guide in place for staff onboarding and retention. Even so, there’s no one-size-fits all approach to management; tailor goals based on the individual. Achieving small goals feeds into your company’s overall corporate strategy.