sales management

Increase Sales: Train Sales Managers

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Every year sales superstars are promoted to sales manager and fail. Why do top performing sales people struggle as sales managers? The most common reason is a skills gap. The book: The Sales Managers Guide to Greatness author Kevin Davis helps close those all too common skills gaps and teaches sales managers to lead sales teams strategically with his 10 essential strategies for leading your team to the top.

I have seen this happen for over 34 years now….

Mike was a top performing sales rep for the company years ago. He met his sales growth goals and often exceeded his gross profit metric. His customer satisfaction scores were the best in the company and he executed the top new product placement in the entire sales organization. About 18 months ago Mike was promoted to sales manager and now we need to discuss the poor results of his sales team and develop a corrective action plan.

What happened to Mike? …(the senior leadership team asks)…he was once our best rep and now his region is failing? Is he just not motivated anymore?

From my experience his motivation is not the problem….

Mike was your sales super star and one day someone in management, (probably in a meeting about some other sales topic) says: “ What we need are a team of Mike’s, look at his results! What if we promote Mike and create an entire team if Mike’s?”

Mike’s manager meets with him and shares the exciting news and Mike is promoted to sales manager.

When can I start?… he asks.

His manager shares: Immediately, and we will need you to watch over your accounts until we hire your replacement.

Mike hits the road and starts traveling and meeting his teams’ customers while watching over his customers. His team was recently peers, buddies even, but now they are treating him differently after all he is management now. He assumes this must be one of the prices you pay to be a sales manager and presses on. He feels somewhat alone and misses the relationships he one had.

He finds many of his sales reps have good relationships with customers but lack sales skills training and are not following the companies’ sales process so he jumps in to help close more sales.

Fast forward…18 months pass and now Mike is meeting with someone like me to help turnaround his team’s sales results. Mike is exhausted, he has been traveling and having four legged sales calls with his sales reps five days a week. He is working nights and weekends just to keep up. His team is now at 75% of plan and everyone in senior leadership is concerned and they want his team back on track ASAP.

Eight months ago his VP of sales put Mike on performance improvement plan and part of that plan is a weekly report of activity and results by day. Mike shares how one of the things he loved about being a sales rep was setting his own schedule and now he feels he is being micro managed. He goes on to share he quit his morning workouts, has gained 15 pounds and his relationship with his wife and children is strained since taking this position.

One of few things typically happens with “Mike’s” …

They leave your company and join your competitor’s team and quickly become your competitors’ top performing sales rep.

They stay and move into survival mode, they often fail and are asked to take a sales rep role again but are never as effective as they once were, or they are asked to leave the team.

They find someone who will train, coach and mentor them and over time they develop into the top performing sales manager.

Why does this happen to once top performing sales reps when they enter sales management?

A quick answer as I have shared before is a skills gap.

The skills required to lead a sales team are much different than the skills to be a sales representative.

To be an effective salesperson you need the following skills:

Prospecting
Questioning and Qualifying
Listening
Strong communication skills
Time management
Product knowledge

What skills are required to be an effective sales manager?

Setting goals and objectives
Recruiting and hiring
Coaching
Sales Performance Management
Leadership
Team time management
Industry/Market knowledge

I was very excited to receive a signed copy of Kevin Davis’s new book: The Sales Managers Guide to Greatness. I love to read and learn so I was curious about this new book and would it help the fix sales management problems?

I found this book an excellent tool to give all sales managers to help them better understand how to drive profitable sales results with a sales team. Kevin does an excellent job of discussing the skills gap between being a sales person and a sales manager.

For example the author boldly challenges the myths many believe to be true about what it takes to be a sale manager.

This book shares what it takes to be a top performing sales manager but it also includes specific action plans one can take to improve.

For example the author shares how the role of the sales manager has needed to evolve just as the role of salespeople has evolved based on the changing behaviors of buyers.

One skill that every sales manager must posses is that of a sales coach and rarely is it taught. In this book the author shares how critical sales coaching is to drive team and individual performance.

In chapter three the author shares his very specific coaching model:

C – Commitment

O – Observe

A – Assess

C- Consult

H– Help

He walks you through each step and how to apply them.

If you were recently promoted to sales manager I highly recommend you buy this book and read it.

If you are a leader in your company and recently promoted a top performing sales super star into sales manager, please buy them this book.

If your team has a few “mikes” struggling as sales managers, buy them this book and coach them.

Sales manager skills gap

How about your team….

Have you recently promoted a top performing sales person to sales manager? (How’s that working?)

Does your company train recently promoted salespeople? What training program do you use?

Can your team afford to have one or more of your sales territories performing at 75% to plan?

Top performing sales reps can become market leading sales managers if trained. The Sales Manager’s Guide to Greatness helps close the skills gaps for sales people wanting to be strong sales managers. In The Sales Manager’s Guide to Greatness, sales management consultant Kevin F. Davis offers 10 proven and distinctly practical strategies, skills, and tools for overcoming the most challenging obstacles sales managers face

Improve Sales; How do you improve sick sales before they become terminal? Not a sales management issue

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In my last post I shared that sales teams have received their new sales goals and often the results first quarter are sick and not close to plan. This time of year in particular, sick sales is an epidemic. Unfortunately their leaders misdiagnose the symptoms and the sales flu lingers and sick sales can become terminal if not properly treated. One common mistake teams make is assuming they can just manage their sales teams to better performance.

As I shared in a post some time ago; “you can not manage fruit ripe”. Curing sick sales is not about taking a quick pill and driving your sales team to work harder. However if you ask CEO’s a number 32% of them believe they just need to make their salespeople work harder. That’s one of the reasons why I often share with companies that sales should not report directly to the CEO?

As we discussed symptoms of your team having the sales flu include;

new product sales missing plan by 30% or more
key sales performers leaving after last year’s bonus’s are paid
gross profit decrease of 3% or greater in the last 30 days
loss of a key account
40% or more of your sales team missing sales goals
Your competitor launched a new product that took the market by storm

If you misdiagnose the sales flu as a sales management problem you are likely to start popping some quick pills to remedy the symptoms like; launch a CRM system, increase the frequency of sales meetings, add new sales reports, and possibly start interviewing new potential team members to upgrade your talent.

CRM solution

I am not saying adding a CRM system or upgrading the one you have will not add value. However if you do not clearly understand the process buyers are using to buy , and mirror your repeatable sales process to the way buyers want to buy, even the best CRM system will not help your teams results.

Increase the frequency of sales meetings

I see teams go from quarterly and month sales meetings to weekly sales meetings when sales results need to improve. Managers who use this tactic believe the problem they are having is an accountability problem and subscribe to the old adage “ the beatings will stop when the moral improves” and we know that is not the case. They believe if the salespeople have to report poor results, frequently enough, the sales results will improve. From my experience this will not motivate your top sales performers and actually result in their leaving your team and joining a competitor.

Add new sales reports

The assumption with this tactic is the salespeople do not know their sales results are sick so adding a few more reports will somehow improve their sales results. This tactic, like more meetings, results in your salespeople spending more time not selling and actually hurts your teams sales performance.

Hire new salespeople

Leaders who immediately start interviewing new salespeople when their sales performance is sick are looking for a quick fix and often fail to consider they may be introducing a new disease to their current team. This tactic believes the reason for your poor sales performance has to be your people and its time to upgrade your talent. If a sales manager on your team recommends this tactic I guarantee its because they have not spent enough time in the market with their current salespeople. In my experience the biggest reason why sales performance suffers is poor marketing and not understanding the sales opportunity, and not inexperienced sales people.

Is your team considering the purchase of a new CRM to improve sales?

Have you already announce more frequent sales meetings to fix sales?

Are you asking your salespeople to spend more time writing reports and less time in front of buyers?

Have you started looking for new sales talent to upgrade your team’s skills?

All of the above may make you feel someone better, but you are not taking the time to truly diagnose the reason(s) your sales performance is not meeting goal. The quickest way to truly understand what your salespeople are experiencing is spending time on four legged calls meeting with potential buyers. “Trying to improve sales performance without clearly understanding your market is like taking an antibiotic to make the flu go away.” You may feel you are taking the appropriate action but the sick sales symptoms will linger and often make your entire team miserable.

Two Reasons the CEO Should Not Run Sales

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The role of CEO is hard enough, particularly in this shifting and changing economy. Balancing all the spinning plates you face each day is difficult without trying to lead and manage a sales team.

The quickest way to insure a sales decline is have your sales team report to the CEO.

I have seen sales decline when CEO’s take on the role of driving the sales team for two common reasons;

CEO’s fail to provide the sales team a Value Proposition that resonates with buyers

CEO’s communication preference and style

One of the best parts of my job helping a variety of businesses that have what they call a “sales problems”. I have served a number of CEO’s over the years and as a group (for the most part) they understand their most important role is the keeper of their brand promise and positioning .

To be effective as CEO you need to balance all those spinning plates while also focusing on those initiatives that result in the greatest impact on the business today and in the future. (not a job for the faint of heart) CEO’s are natural at problem solving and driving the execution of key performance indicators. They are process driven and have the tenacity of a pit bull once they lock into a vision.

Most CEO’s should never lead sales for two main reasons;

CEO’s fail to provide the sales team a value proposition that resonates with buyers

Salespeople require a market driven value proposition for the products and services they sell. This should explain the problems you solve for your buyers and not just what you do. It should help your sales team understand who they should target. To insure your value proposition resonates and continues to connect with buyers you must listen and observe the market on a continual basis. Focused CEO’s are flying at 45,000 feet above your market and often become frustrated when sales teams share new roadblocks to achieving their goals. What CEO’s want is sales velocity.

You can tell when your CEO is frustrated when he or she says;

“ just make it happen”,

… or my favorite ” I don’t pay you to tell me problems, I pay you to sell through objections and hit your numbers…” .

CEO’s have so many things already on their plates the last thing they need is to add more “to-do’s” to add to their never-ending list. Often buried deep in sales feedback you will find the need for new sales tools for ajusting the sales process based on a buying process that shifted.

A strong VP of Sales can work with salespeople and the CEO. The VP of sales understands the mission and objectives while also constantly assessing the market, buyer needs, buyer criteria, and equips the sales team with value propositions and sales tools.

CEO’s communication preference and personality style

CEO’s are focused on communicating in short bullet point bursts and salespeople speak in stories. ( can you see the train wreck about to happen?) Market leading salespeople incorporate what I teach that I call “story speak”. As opposed to speaking in feature and benefits, I teach salespeople to listen to the buyer problems and share how our product or service solves that problem in the form of a story. So we teach salespeople to speak in stories to communicate effectively, but we get frustrated when they can’t report results to us in bullet points?

I attended a sales conference once and the CEO brought me in to fix what he called a repeatable sales process problem. He asked his team to individually meet with me to share the common roadblocks they face in achieving their numbers each month. ( so far so good)

But then he said something that still makes me cringe…

And remember Mark is busy like me so…

Be brief…

Be brilliant….

Then Be Gone…

(When he got to this part three of the salespeople in the room also said “be gone”…they obviously have heard this before)

CEO’s often rise up through the accounting, technology, and finance channels and they are very process driven. They do not mange people, they develop and manage processes,systems, and or people to follow processes. If you follow DISC assessments, most CEO’s are high D, moderate to low S and low I and moderate to high C. Most salespeople have (very) high I, high D and low S and C. (Often very low C) So again, just based on how CEO’s and salespeople are naturally wired that light at the end of the tunnel is a train.

An experienced VP of sales is constantly listening for common market roadblocks shared among their sales team. They grew up through the sales ranks.Experienced sales leaders understand you need to lead each salesperson individually. A seasoned sales leader will observe and listen to changing buyer problems and processes to identify sales tools the team needs to help their teams continue conversations to a close. VP’s of sales earned long ago how to use their sales team’s natural styles and they provide back-end support for their shortfalls.