Mastering the nuances of sales management on the job can have its pitfalls. Here are ten things that I wish I’d known before I started managing a sales force.
1. Balance activity and effectiveness
When I first managed sales people, I was laser-focused on activity. Over time I learned that, even though an active rep will bump into deals, you can’t build a high-performing sales organisation on activity alone. That takes a careful balance of both activity and effectiveness. You have to do as much work—or more — on building that effectiveness.
2. Hire for attributes
Even though I worked in staffing, I defaulted to always hiring for experience. That’s always what my clients wanted, too. I believed that by hiring for experience, I wouldn’t have to do so much managing. I believed it would make my job easier. Over time, I found that managing is easier when you hire people with the right attributes and coach, train, and develop them.
3. You live and die by your pipeline
It’s easy to be distracted by all kinds of sales management tasks. But the real action is in the pipeline. I wish I’d known that your future is easily predicted in the pipeline you have right now. If you want to know what the next two quarters look like, your pipeline has the answer. And there is no cramming for sales results.
4. Serve sales people before the organisation
The organisation makes incredible demands of the sales manager. Many of those demands do nothing to help the sales manager or his team produce better results. The more time I spent with sales people, actively helping them with their live deals, the better the results. Even if the organisation has to wait for what it needs, I learned it is better to serve the sales force first.
5. You sell to your organisation
I had no idea how much time I would need to spend selling within my own organisation. Even though we all want the same things, there are all kinds of agreements that need to be negotiated. For clients. For the sales force. For the company’s benefit. Your team needs you to sell on their behalf. And, a lot of the time, you’re the only one that can make the internal sale.
6. You build and manage the process
It was great to find someone that could sell. It was awesome to help someone grow into an effective sales person. But the challenge is in notching the whole sales organisation up. The real key to a high performing sales force is in building and managing a process that improves the performance of the 80% of the sales force that makes the top 20% possible.
7. You have to see for yourself
If you really want to know how a sales person performs in front of your prospective clients, you have to go see for yourself. It’s impossibly difficult to know how to help if you haven’t seen it for yourself. My ability to know how to help sales people was improved by seeing things for myself.
8. There is only one forecast date that matters
It doesn’t matter what the close date in your sales force automation says, if it isn’t a date your ideal client has agreed to, the opportunity isn’t going to close on that date.
9. Show no mercy when cleaning the pipeline
Sales people are happy to work on opportunities. They need opportunities to make their number. But much of what comes into the pipeline aren’t really opportunities. I wish I’d known sooner that you have to protect the sales force from themselves when it comes to disqualifying. Show. No. Mercy.
10. The big lever is caring enough to personally coach
I managed sales people. But, if you want a high performing sales force, you need to care enough about the individuals on your team to coach them directly. It takes time and energy. But that investment is returned many times over in results. •
