Sep 17 2008
Salespeople Do Not Fail – But Managers Often Do!
The responsibility for ensuring that every member of a sales team is successful and performing at optimum levels lies entirely with management and when a salesperson gains promotion to management the first thing they have to do is to quickly acquaint themselves with a new set of working relationships - and a new set of rules.
The salesperson’s primary working relationships are with customers: However the sales manager’s is with the sales force i.e. his subordinates. For example:
Essential Attributes Include:
Successful Salesperson:
- Personal drive (Ego).
- Needs to win battles (Individual sales).
- Able to work alone.
- Persuades customers to see his/her point.
- Needs selling skills, personal skills and knowledge.
- Able to work away from the office.
- Works well with people and numbers.
- Good at implementing sales tactics.
Successful Sales Manager:
- Submission of personal needs to the goals of the Company (Corporate drive).
- Needs to win the war (Meet corporate goals).
- Able to work with others.
- Persuades the sales team to see the Company’s point.
- Needs management skills and marketing knowledge.
- Needs to work at the office.
- Works well with people, numbers, paperwork and the corporate hierarchy.
- Good at developing sales and marketing strategies.
The most common danger in having sales managers who are basically super salespeople is that relations with subordinates including the critical tasks of development and supervision may deteriorate.
When I am asked to diagnose why an individual or even an entire team are not performing at optimum levels, I usually ask just four very straightforward questions:
• Are they visiting/talking to enough clients/prospects? In other words are they pro-active and are their activity levels high? I call this CCT as a percentage of TWT (Customer Contact Time as a percentage of Total Working Time)
• Are they talking to the right people within those client/prospect organisations? Are they able to penetrate the formal DMU (Decision Making Unit) and reach the MAN? (The person or people with the Money, Authority and Need)
• Are they saying/doing the right things? This really means - how strong are their selling skills?
• And finally, how is their attitude – that small thing that makes such a big difference.
From these four questions, I usually discover the answer but actually, it can sometimes be a little more complex and I refer to the“Eight Reasons Why Salespeople Fail”
If you really want to discover how healthy your sales organisation is right now, you can complete this FREE Health Check now and receive an immediate score - I will provide you with further information on what your score means on Friday, or if you want to discuss it personally, e-m me at jf@jonathanfarrington.com.
Today’s News: I am travelling home to Paris and as there was a fire in the Tunnel last week, I am having to break my journey with an overnight hotel stay: If I said the internet connection was “flakey” I would be being very generous, so you’ll get a double helping of news tomorrow - I promise.
Tomorrow:Also tomorrow, Lee Salz on The JF Guest Author Spot, so be absolutely certain to join me!
Jonathan brings up a good point - just what are we teaching our Sales managers to do? All too often I’ve seen great sales people rewarded with a job promotion to manager only to witness them failing in their new job. Yes, you can send them to management training classes; however, if you can’t convince them to fundamentally “shift” their view of the world, then they will fail.
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Jonathan touches on it, but didn’t come out and say it: a good sales person is valuable to a company, but a good sales manager is priceless! The reason that the sales manager is MORE valuable is because a good sales manager can motivate multiple sales people and get the most out of them. No longer being an individual contributor is where a sales manager’s true value comes from. Realizing this is the first step to a successful managment career.
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- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting - The Accidental IT Leader Blog