The first discussion focused on perhaps one of the most critical questions circulating among sales organizations looking to attain World-Class Status. How does the sales manager accomplish more? How do front-line sales managers balance everything expected of them? For example: being a deal closer, managing key accounts, internal relationship management, reporting/ forecasting/ planning, putting out fires with customers and hiring new sales reps? Where are sales managers spending time, where should they be spending time? All of these things need to be balanced, but it seems a daunting task.
To kick off the discussion, Reese commented that, “It’s different from company to company - but one thing that’s clear is that managers are a repository for every corporate initiative that’ll touch customers. They have tons of competing priorities and one thing they have to balance, regardless of leadership, is that they need to be on top of accounts. It’s not acceptable to lose credibility within an account. But for sales managers who have hundreds of accounts, balancing that is almost impossible – which leads the manager into update mode. ‘Where are we with this, that?’ etc. When there are a multitude of things they’ve got to do, their safety lies in what they know how to do [sell] - despite the top priority of managing.”
An executive added that, “Great sales reps don’t necessarily make good managers, as they’re not able to give up the ‘high’ of closing big deals. It’s not a guarantee they’ll pan out. So how do we identify the characteristics of great managers? At the end of the day they have to [give up closing sales]. My job is to help [managers] focus and be a coach to them, just like they’re supposed to be a coach to their people.”
Incorporating the idea that sales methodologies can provide a common denominator, one participant observed that, “One reason to have a methodology is to allow them to know where to spend their time. If I asked, they couldn’t tell me right now where they need to spend their time. The biggest thing to do for front-line managers is to give them the tools they need to drive focus and allocate resources. Invest in [managers] so they’re able to focus on those priorities, and bring resources in that help you scale outside the manager.”
Jones also asked about the behaviors a sales leader would want their managers to adopt. To troubleshoot, he mentioned that “sales vice presidents need to be the role model for their managers. The managers look to their boss for examples of how they should be behaving with their teams.”
“You’ve got to have leadership that’s coaching and developing the managers so they can in turn do that down below,” echoed participant. “Leadership is a key component,” said another participant. “Having people that have good discipline around what you’re asking of them. One question is - how can we get the manager to really stay engaged and work properly with the teams? A lot of sales managers get bogged down removing obstacles, but they can’t get so bogged down they forget to be a leader. And they need to be a leader, a coach, they need to drive toward initiatives. They need to step back regularly and understand what time they’re spending in which areas. It’s easy to provide value to the bottom performing third of the sales force, and validate that value. But if there’s a one-percent improvement across the board, it’s better to have the top-performers improve. Talk through how [sales managers] are working, then they can take the things they learn and work on them so they don’t get lost in the minutia that takes them out of their focus.”
There is a lot of expectation placed on front-line sales managers. One participant noted that, in some cases, his organization gives regional managers complete autonomy as long as they’re performing at an operative profit line. He also mentioned that the expectation of delivering on high performance is not always there, commenting that the question, “how many high performers are being created and how are you doing that,” isn’t asked. For organizations looking to coax more productivity from the sales force, look beyond the quota. Measuring the sales managers on their performance as a coach is a better practice.
One attendee recalled an example for the group. “We do a quarterly review, stack ranking people above and below the line. You can talk to a front-line manager, and they can politely complain, but they’re actually willing to live with average performers. Recently, one manager took the advice and let [underperformers] go.
Bob Miller, founder of Miller Heiman, commented that sometimes we go along with mediocre performance. “It’s symptomatic,” he said. “Every one of us does that. Sales managers want the excuse of corporate control; that HR’s impossible to work with. When that’s cleared away, they say ‘uh oh, now I’ve got to do it.’”
Key Observations:
- Sales managers need to stay on top of accounts or they’ll lose credibility – making selling a priority even though coaching is imperative.
- Great sales reps do not make great sales managers. It’s hard for them to give up the “high” of closing big deals.
- Give sales managers the tools they need to drive focus and allocate resources.
Would You Like To Have A FREE BUSINESS COACHING SESSION?
Having your FREE evaluation with a Business oach is a value of $500.
Just Fill Out The Form Below:
PDF
0 comments:
Post a Comment