The Three Most Common Mistakes Sales Managers Make

The Three Most Common Mistakes Sales Managers Make

In most organizations, sales managers are the essential bridge between the company’s sales goals and the realization of those goals. The acrimonious day-to-day interactions between sales people and their customers are often filtered through the sales manager’s perspective on their rise. And the aspirations and strategies of the company’s management must be imprinted by the realism of the sales manager as they descend from the top. Sales managers are the drivers who carefully orchestrate salespeople’s attempted entanglement with their management.

It is incredibly important and difficult work. Unfortunately, it is often the least skilled job in the entire organization. Rather than provide information on best practices and processes for the job, most companies hope that their sales managers have learned enough during their days as field salespeople to provide a road map on how to do this job well.

Unfortunately, only a small percentage of untrained sales managers actually make it, arriving by trial and error and after hours of study at the best practices of an effective sales manager. The vast majority find themselves caught up in the urgencies of the moment, the tantalizing details of every transaction, and the continual onslaught of crises, never able to establish a systematic plan for their success.

The net result? Few vendors are effectively managed. All parties—executive management, sales manager, and sales people—jump from one frustration to another. Company objectives are often met by accident, salespeople fail to develop to their full potential, and sales managers stagger from one crisis to another.

Certain common mistakes often arise from this unhealthy situation. As a long-term consultant and educator of salespeople and sales managers, I frequently see these three most common illnesses that sales managers suffer from.

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 salesperson behavior. It consists of things such as:

-the way sales territories are defined

-the way salespeople do their job

-the way markets and customers are targeted

-the way salespeople are compensated

-the methods the manager uses to communicate with vendors

-expectations of the sales force

-the company’s training and development system

-the expectation of information gathering by sellers

-the frequency and agenda of sales meetings

-the sales tools used by sellers

and countless other things like that

A highly focused and well-designed sales structure can be one of the company’s greatest assets, as it ultimately shapes the behavior of the sales force.

However, most sales structures have not been subject to critical review by company management. Usually, the structure takes shape slowly over time. Decisions are often made with a large amount of input from vendors, almost always in response to a single event. These decisions are slowly codified into the written and unwritten structure of the company.

As a result, many sales structures are holdovers from 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 put together a strategic plan that directly compensates the sales force for achieving the company goal? Or is it because… it’s the plan you inherited?

Why do some salespeople come to the office every week? Is it because you have determined that this is the most valuable use of your time? Or is it because… that’s how some of them like to do it?

Why are some of your salespeople highly organized, with well-designed filing systems and effective ways to track their interactions with their customers, while others continue to make do with scraps of paper and yellow notepads? Is it because you have invested in a system that helps them stay well organized and information savvy? Or is it because… that’s how it worked?

Can you see the point? Many of these structural issues—spoken and unspoken rules for how the salesperson does the job—have been developed by salespeople in response to their own specific situations.

And most sales managers are unaware of the impact of these decisions on salesperson productivity and effectiveness.

I recently had lunch with a friend, an entrepreneur who had successfully started and run several businesses. As we discussed the pros and cons of organizing a sales force for his latest company, he commented that he had learned how easy it is to gradually hand over control of the company to the sales force. One decision at a time, made in response to the passionate plea of ​​an individual salesperson, would, over time, form the structure that would govern the sales side of the business.

I was impressed by his insight. That same observation outlined the number one mistake sales managers make: They accept the historically evolved status quo for structure and don’t invest time in focusing on providing the environment for sales success.

2. Lack of regular and systematic guidance and feedback to salespeople.

The relentless pull of the urgent and the demanding cries of the transaction, like the pleas of a small child, tend to overwhelm the time and attention of most sales managers.

Sales managers often have the best intentions. For example, they may need to conduct a series of performance reviews by the end of the year. But there is this great presentation in an account to attend. And another account wants to complain about some problem to the sales manager. Yet another needs the manager’s touch to smooth some feathers etc. And they really need to spend some time in the field with the new vendor. And, and, and… the demands of the urgent once again force regular face-to-face discussions about expectations and results at the bottom of the “to do” list.

As a result, most sellers are left without direction and little feedback on how they’re doing. Sure, we post sales numbers, but there are many reasons why a set of numbers might be up, down, or sideways beyond seller impact.

What do you expect from this particular seller? And how well is he doing? In most surveys of what salespeople really want from their managers, “direction and feedback” is often at the top of the list. It’s one thing to talk about some account or some deal, and quite another to talk about the central themes of “my performance.”

Sales is an isolated job. It’s not uncommon for a salesperson to spend only 70% of the work week. All that isolation often leads to anxiety and self-doubt that is often expressed through complaints and fault-finding in the company.

All of 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. Salespeople are out there somewhere, doing their thing, while the tyranny of the urgent often takes up the manager’s time.

As a result, sellers aren’t as focused as they should be; they resort 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 serious professionals in that profession to find out for themselves. Quite the opposite. Each profession has determined a minimum acceptable course of study and usually has some event signaling entry into that profession. That is why teachers, Emergency Medical Technicians and ministers are licensed; that lawyers must pass the bar exam; accountants must pass their certification exam, etc.
Unfortunately, that rarely happens with sellers. Only in leading companies is some course of study required for entry level salespeople and some event signifying the successful completion of that study and entry into the profession.

Even thinking this way is so unrealistic for most sales managers that I can almost hear half the readers of this article snickering over coffee. “Any standard to allow people access to work?” Incredible thought. But if you don’t insist on it, you’ll continue to work with an unpredictable sales force where every hire is ultimately a shot in the dark.

No profession in the world expects that once someone has qualified to enter the profession, they no longer need to invest in their own development. And every profession has expectations of the regular need for practitioners to systematically improve themselves. Can you imagine a teacher who never attends in-service training? A nurse who never invests in continuous development? A minister who never goes back to school? A doctor who never attends a conference?

Even if those indifferent professionals could keep their jobs, you wouldn’t want them to have anything to do with your family. You would never put your health in the hands of a doctor who hasn’t been up to date since medical school. You don’t want your children to be taught by the teacher who hasn’t learned anything since graduation. He would never put his lawsuit in the hands of a lawyer who had never bothered to keep up.

The examples can go on and on. But you get the idea. The professional who does not regularly invest in their own continuous development is relegated to the dregs of the market.

So why don’t the overwhelming majority of sales managers require regular and systematic participation in continuous development events for their roles? They may not see their salespeople (or themselves) as professionals. Or it may be that they never thought of it that way.

Regardless of the reason, the reality of this disease is that the quality of the sales force is not what it could be, if only sales managers demanded some minimum standard for their entry-level people, and then regular development and continuous of those who were inside. The wise sales manager will put together a system for the education and development of his salespeople.

While there are just as many other management mistakes as sales managers, these three are the most common. Turn to them and you’ll be well on your way to outstanding success in sales management.

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