Management observation…

In my recent post “Gaming the System” I suggested sales rep quota performance (and ethics) is heading in the wrong direction.  That puts pressure on front line sales managers.  How is your company responding?

My company is rolling out sales manager training.  When I looked into the possibility of participating in the skills side I was told our initial content was “very tactical”.  Tactical is important for sales managers to master.  However, there is so much more.

How does your company define the front line sales manager role?  One option is to have sales managers sell – a combination of manager plus individual contributor.  Bob Croston of the RAIN Group suggested in the Nov/Dec 2019 issue of SMM Connect ©:

Sales Managers shouldn’t sell…

·       Too busy to coach/mentor their reps

·       Decreases respect from subordinates

·       Recruiting is dropped

·       Observation and accountability are compromised

Observation – now there’s a key skill to sales manager success.  I mean, how would you know if your reps are doing the right things, in the right way, on a consistent basis if you don’t regularly observe?

You can observe a lot by just watching. 

                         Yogi Berra

Do your Sales Managers observe?  Or, as one of my sales manager mentees asked me when he was first promoted from rep to manager, “Gary is my job to be the super-sales-closer or an observer?”  My view is Sales Managers must help each of his or her reps become the super-sales-closer.  That is a more scalable approach and it helps prevent reps from gaming the system. 

That led to his next question, “What if my rep can’t be a super-sales-closer?”  I responded he must then replace said under-performing rep.  Ahhh yes… “off-boarding”… there’s a skill-oriented managerial process, true?  Do you think your Sales Managers discharge people fairly and with dignity?

I believe the managers' job is to get the job done through his/her people – current people or future people – which is up to each sales rep’s ability to do the job they are hired for.  Easy for me to write about – hard to execute in the real world.  It’s not unique to sales management:

By Thursday evening of the 1974 Open, that atmosphere was toxic. After the first round at Winged Foot, there was not a single player under par. The best one among them, Jack Nicklaus, had rolled his first putt that day right off the green. With each passing moment, Tatum, the man largely responsible for the course setup, said, "It felt like radiation was spreading."

And so came the line, the one you hear every year at the U.S. Open, and likely will for as long as they play it.

"We're not trying to humiliate the best players in the world," the chairman of the USGA's competition committee declared that day. "We're simply trying to identify who they are."

                         Sandy Tatum

Identifying who to keep (and who to cut) without humiliation.  Or, without avoidance either.  Another negative trend my former manager mentioned to me recently is:

Management by email

Now there’s a tactical-oriented  sales management approach in today’s online world.  Do you have regular, live interactions with your manager?  Or, does your manager consider email, Slack, texts, and team web-meetings, good ‘nuff?

I believe the best way for sales managers to prevent gaming of the system by their reps is live contact, encouragement, observation, and coaching on a regular basis.  Letting their people know “No gaming needed - we are in this together”.

GAP

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.