In most organizations, sales managers are the essential bridge
between the company's sales goals and the realization of those
goals. The gritty day-to-day interactions between the sales
people and their customers are frequently filtered through the
perspective of the sales manager on their way up the ladder. And
the aspirations and strategies of the company's management must
be imprinted by the realism of the sales manager as they come
down from above. Sales managers are the conductors who carefully
orchestrate the tentative entanglement of the sales people with
their management.
It's an incredibly important and difficult job. Unfortunately, it
is often the most under-trained job in the entire organization.
Instead of providing information on the best practices and
processes of the job, most companies hope that their sales
managers will have learned enough during their days as a field
salesperson to provide some roadmap as to how to do this job
well.
Alas, only a small percentage of untrained sales managers ever
really figure it out, arriving by trial and error and after hours
of study at the best practices of an effective sales manager. The
overwhelming majority find themselves caught up in the urgencies
of the moment, the tempting details of all the transactions, and
the continuing onslaught of crises and are never able to set in
place a systematic blueprint for their success.
The net result? Few salespeople are effectively managed. All
parties: executive management, sales manager and sales people,
bounce from one frustration to another. Company objectives are
met frequently by happenstance, salespeople are not developed to
their fullest potential and sales managers lurch from one crisis
to another.
Certain common mistakes often arise out of this unhealthy
situation. As a long-time consultant and educator of salespeople
and sales managers, I frequently see these three most common
maladies suffered by sales managers.
1. Lack of a focused sales structure.
This is such a foreign concept to many companies that the term
itself is unfamiliar. The structure of a sales force consists of
all the articulated and unspoken rules, policies and procedures
that shape the behavior of the salesperson. It consists of such
things as:
*the way sales territories are defined
*the way salespeople go about their jobs
*the way markets and customers are targeted
*the way salespeople are compensated
*the methods the manager uses to communicate with the salespeople
*the expectations for the sales force
*the training and development system of the company
*the expectation for information collecting by the salespeople
*the frequency and agenda for sales meetings
*the sales tools used by the salespeople
*and countless other such things
A highly focused, well designed sales structure can be one of the
company's greatest assets, as it ultimately shapes the behavior
of the sales force.
Most sales structures, however, haven't come under the critical
review of the company's management. Typically, the structure
slowly takes shape over time. Decisions are often made with heavy
input from the salespeople, almost always in response to a single
event. These decisions slowly become codified into the company's
written and unwritten structure.
As a result, many sales structures are vestiges of years gone by,
the legacy of salespeople who may not even be with the company
today.
Why do you have the sales compensation plan that you have, for
example? Is it because you crafted a strategic plan that directly
compensates the sales force for achieving the company's
objective? Or, is it because... it's the plan you inherited?
Why do some salespeople come into the office every week? Is it
because you have determined that this is the most valuable use of
their time? Or, is it because... that's just the way some of them
like to do it?
Why is it that some of your salespeople are highly organized,
with well designed file systems and effective ways to track their
interactions with their customers, while others continue to get
by with scraps of paper and yellow pads? Is it because you have
invested in a system that helps them become well-organized and
information-savvy? Or, is it because... that's just how it's
worked out?
Can you see the point? Many of these structural issues - spoken
and unspoken rules about how the salesperson does the job - have
evolved by the salespeople in response to their own specific
situations.
And most sales managers are oblivious to the impact of these
decisions on the productivity and effectiveness of the
salesperson.
I recently had lunch with a friend -- an entrepreneur who had
successfully started and run a number of businesses. As we were
discussing the pros and cons of organizing a sales force for his
latest venture, he remarked that he has learned how easy it is to
gradually cede control of the company to the sales force. One
decision at a time, made in response to the passionate plea of an
individual sales person, would form, over time, the structure
that governed the sales side of the business.
I was impressed with his insight. That very observation described
the number one mistake that sales mangers make - they accept the
historically evolved status quo for the structure, and don't
invest time in focusing it to provide the environment for sales
success.
2. Lack of regular and systematic direction and feedback for the
salespeople.
The relentless attraction of the urgent, and the demanding shouts
of the transaction, like the pleading of a toddler, have a
tendency to overwhelm the time and attention of most sales
managers.
Sales managers often have the best of intentions. For example,
they may need to do a set of performance reviews by the end of
the year. But there is this big presentation in one account to
attend. And another account wants to complain about some issue to
the sales manager. Yet another needs the manager's touch to
smooth some feathers, etc. And they really do need to spend some
time in the field with the new salesperson. And, and, and... the
demands of the urgent once again force regular face-to-face
discussions about expectations and results to the bottom of the
"to do" list.
As a result, most salespeople are left directionless and provided
with little feedback on how they are doing. Of course, we publish
sales numbers, but there are lots of reasons why a set of numbers
can be up, down or sideways above and beyond the impact of the
salesperson.
What do you expect of this particular salesperson? And how well
is he/she doing? In most surveys of what salespeople really want
from their managers, "direction and feedback" are often at the
very top of the list. It's one thing to talk about some account
or some deal, it's quite another to speak to the core issues of
"my performance."
Sales is an isolated job. It is not unusual for a salesperson to
spend as much as 70% of the work week by himself. All that
isolation often leads to anxiety and self-doubt which often
expresses itself through complaints and finding fault with the
company.
All this negative energy can be prevented by providing the
salesperson with regular direction, specific expectations, and
regular feedback.
The old saying, "Out of site, out of mind," is too often the
operational description of the typical sales manager. The
salespeople are out there somewhere, doing their thing, while the
tyranny of the urgent often occupy the manager's time.
As a result, salespeople are not nearly as focused as they could
be; they default to unhealthy thoughts; and they spend too much
time expressing negative energy.
3. Lack of an organized training and development system.
No profession in the world expects the serious practitioners of
that profession to figure it out by themselves. Quite the
contrary. Every profession has determined some minimal acceptable
course of study, and typically has some event which signals the
entry into that profession. It is for this reason that teachers,
Emergency Medical Technicians, and ministers are licensed; that
attorneys must pass the bar exam; accountants must pass their
certification exam, etc. Unfortunately, that is rarely true of
salespeople. In only the leading companies is there some required
course of study for entry-level salespeople, and some event which
signifies the successful completion of that study and their entry
into the profession.
To even think this way is so outside of the reality of most sales
managers that I can almost hear half of the readers of this
article snickering over their coffee. "Some standard for allowing
people into the job?" Incredible thought. But if you don't insist
on it, you'll continue to labor with hit or miss sales force
where every hire is ultimately a shot in the dark.
No profession in the world expects that once someone has become
qualified to enter the profession, they then no longer need to
invest in their own development. And every profession has
expectations of the practitioners' regular need to systematically
improve himself or herself. Can you imagine a teacher who never
attends an in-service training? A nurse who never invests in
continuing development? A minister who never goes back to school?
A doctor who never attends a conference?
Even if such lackadaisical professionals could keep their jobs,
you'd not want them to have anything to do with your family.
You'd never put your health in the hands of doctor who hadn't
updated himself since med school. You'd not want your children
taught by the teacher who hadn't learned anything since
graduation. You'd never put your lawsuit in the hands of an
attorney who had never bothered to keep current.
The examples can go on and on. But you get the idea. The
professional who doesn't regularly invest in his own continuous
development is relegated to the dregs of the market.
So, why is it that overwhelming majority of sales managers do not
require regular and systematic involvement in continuous
development events for their charges? It may be that they don't
see their salespeople (or themselves) as professionals. Or, it
may be that they have never thought about it that way.
Regardless of the reason, the reality of this malady is that the
quality of the sales force is not nearly what it could be, if
only the sales managers required some minimum standard for their
entry-level people, and then regular and continuous development
of those who were on the inside. The wise sales manager will
assemble a system for the education and development of his
salespeople.
While there are as many other management miscues as there are
sales managers, these three are the most common. Address them,
and you'll be well on your way to outstanding success in sales
management.
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