Tuning up Sales

In the ERE article by Lee Salz, "12 Keys to Tuning UP Your Sales Force", Lee brings up a number of real great points to think about often and review your own company's policies and strategies. 

Two of his areas stand out to me that are under used but can make a great impact on your success. 

- Ideal client profile, is very critical to understanding where your company performs best.  I know it's attractive to take any and all orders a client is willing to give you.  It looks great on an Open Order Report.  But remember, you're probably not paid on orders, but on starts.  If you take "purple squirrel" orders, you'll never get anywhere.  But if you take the orders, you know your recruiters can fill, your number of orders will drop, but your starts should increase.

- Compensation.  Way too often, I see sales/recruiter compensation packages and management goals that conflict.  Take a hard and objective look at your plans and make sure you manage to THAT.  If there's a conflict, don't blame the team for doing things you didn't tell them to do.  Blame the plan and get it changed.