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A great start to the new year starts with your sales managers, tuning your sales engine for optimal performance and reliability.
Are great sales managers/leaders born or made?
I say “manufacturing” based on my personal experience since 1993. Yes, I know, ancient history. But it’s still true.
I was a very good senior national account manager at ADT, and I was promoted to lead a team that was lagging behind the curve. Piece of cake, right? Incorrect! After four months, I realized that my sales approach was not a good fit for the 14 National Account Managers (NAMs) I led.
I swallowed my pride and went back to school to learn the job.
After some tough moments, it worked, the team reached its true potential and sales doubled. Success lies with them. My success lies in learning new leadership roles and letting go of my ego. This is the lesson I learned.
Tune your sales engine
A great start to the new year is to tune your sales engine for optimal performance and reliability. Your sales manager is the logical starting point. Sales managers need more training than anyone in their company. I encourage you to reflect on this idea; I learned it the hard way, but quickly!
Sales management is part art, part science, but mostly professional training and discipline. When done right, it looks easy—delivering consistent sales and revenue to meet forecasts is almost effortless.
Good sales managers respect and work with your operations, resource planning, and logistics teams, all of whom need to plan resource allocations with confidence.
Great sales managers are not born that way; Instead, they are developed by professionals who hone key skills through high-quality training. I’m talking about professionals who have extensive experience in the security industry and have a proven track record of sustainable results.
have your Are sales managers professionally trained? If not, you may recognize some of these scenarios, as I have for the past 26 years as a consultant and security business trainer.
Some familiar sales manager scenarios
- As an owner, you can use your sales manager to act as a buffer between yourself and your sales team. Who needs all that drama, whining, complaining, and excuses taking up your time? “I have a business to run, and frankly, they piss me off!” you might exclaim. Rethink your strategy unless you like drama and erratic sales performance.
- Here are some telltale signs that your sales managers haven’t been trained to perform their jobs at a high level of competence:
- They make poor sales recruiting choices based on subconscious needs rather than the recruiting process.
- Their sales force turnover was high for the wrong reasons.
- You often hear this sentence – “There are no good sales people out there anymore.”
- Operations, service, and management support are always at odds with the sales team.
- Sales forecasts differ significantly from actual sales revenue and do not instill confidence.
- Sales team morale and confidence are low. (You can tell this by their behavior.)
- Sales managers are not responsible for performance or issues. He/she always has excuses but no answers.
- The sales manager complains that his/her employees are not selling like they used to.
- Sales managers keep ineffective salespeople for too long for the wrong reasons.
Avoid the sales manager blame game
Often, with untrained and undisciplined sales managers, the blame game begins immediately with firing the underperforming salesperson. This is his/her admission and deflection of his/her failure to develop and hold salespeople accountable. Salespeople who leave are often vilified for their failure. On to the next victim! Harsh, but often true.
In another scenario, a poor-performing salesperson persists for 9 to 12 months, collecting salary and benefits, but becomes unresponsive to the sales manager’s coaching efforts. “I just can’t get through to them,” the sales manager might say. “I am so sad!”
Well-trained sales managers rarely make recruiting mistakes. Sales managers are well-trained to onboard and communicate effectively and set expectations. A raw talent who works hard and takes coaching seriously can spend many productive years on your team.
What can you do to liven up the new year?Buy and read happy sales manager By Gretchen Gordon (Available on Amazon). This is an excellent book that provides an in-depth look at the management/leadership profile of a sales manager.
I’ve worked with Gretchen for many years; she’s a true “A” player. Quick reminder: Don’t bet with her while golfing! The odds are not in your favor!
Revisit your sales manager. Gain insights, identify training gaps and address them to improve their performance and motivation.
I often say that sales managers are the most overlooked and undertrained leaders in most companies. They are the engineers that drive your income train, loaded with money. So, train them!
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