10 Biggest Mistakes 2012

8/13/2019 10 Biggest Mistakes 2012

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A S p e c i a l R e p o r t

Overcoming the

10 Biggest Mistakes

Sales Managers Make

KEVIN DAVIS


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Copyright 20062012 by TopLine Leadership, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be

reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,

photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without written permission from TopLine Leadership, Inc.

Dear Executive:

Now is the time to invest in sales management leadership. Improving the skills of one salesmanager is the best way to improve the skills of an entire sales team. Our Sales Management

Leadership development programs give sales managers the skills and tools they need to managetheir time and priorities more effectively, and to become better sales coaches.

To discuss your sales management development needs directly with me, please contact

[email protected] schedule a 20-minute conversation.

Regards,Kevin Davis

President, TopLine Leadership


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Copyright 20062012 by TopLine Leadership, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be

reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,

photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without written permission from TopLine Leadership, Inc.

About the Author

Kevin Davis is president of TopLine Leadership, Inc., a leading

sales and sales management training company serving clients from

diverse sectors. He has 30+ years of experience as a salesperson,

sales manager, sales trainer, and consultant. He is the author of two

books on sales effectiveness: Slow Down, Sell Faster! (Amacom,

January 2011) and Getting Into Your Customers Head (Random

House, 1996) Contact him at [email protected]


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20062012 TopLine Leadership, Inc. 4 10 Biggest Mistakes Sales Managers Make

The 10 Biggest Mistakes Sales Managers Make

#1: Fail to shift from super salesperson mode to managerial mindset

Solution: Learn what it takes to be an excellent sales manager

#2: Continually fight fires

Solution: Firefighting comes from a lack of priorities and failing to look for theunderlying causes of recurring problems

#3: Leave staff to sink or swim on their own

Solution: The #1 priority of a sales manager is to coach the skill and will of the sales team

#4: Ignore the importance of performance standards/get blindsided by poor performance

Solution: Observe your best salespeople to define what they do specifically to achieve

sales excellence

#5: Fail to leverage the strengths and resources of your teams top producers

Solution: Help your bell cows become role models

#6: Spend too much time working with the bottom 20%

Solution: Focus on middle performers as emerging contributorsimproving theirperformance will have a bigger impact on the bottom line than trying to bring

underperformers up to minimum standards

#7: Allow senior salespeople to get stuck in a demotivational rut

Solution: Help re-energize experienced but complacent reps; get them to step up

#8: Be inconsistent in recruiting and hiring

Solution: Develop a rigorous hiring processyour next new hire is the future of yourteam

#9: Assume your sales reps will figure things out the same way you did

Solution: Avoid the temptation to leave people on their own; provide regular feedbackand coaching to your reps

#10: Hang on to low producing salespeople for far too long.

Solution: Set minimum standards, then enforce standards by managing poor performerseither up, or out the door.


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Overcoming the 10 Biggest Mistakes SalesManagers Make

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As a sales manager, you make dozens of decisions every day that affect your customers,stakeholders and, of course, yourself. So, from what mindset are you currently making yourdecisions? From the mindset of a salesperson, or the mindset of a manager-leader?

You might be quick to answer manager-leader. But are you sure? Have you ever made a

decision that felt right at the time you made it, but didnt turn out the way you expected it to?Sure, we all have.

In 500 BC the Chinese military strategist, Sun Tzu, wrote in The Art of Waryour strengths will

eventually become a weakness. The competencies we developed as a salespeople, and thatworked so well, can suddenly become a liability for a sales manager. For example:

Salespersons Competencies Effective Manager-Leader Behaviors

Develop accounts Develop people

Team-Focus

Focus on your own production Focus on building a teamLove your independence Kiss independence goodbye!

Do it yourself Delegate to your staffBe popular Be respected

Confrontation skillsAvoid friction Cause friction, when necessary(handle objections) (use positive confrontation)

Rewards

Love instant gratification Long-term gratification, patience

If you are to achieve your full potential as a sales manager, many of the decision-making habitsand mindsets that served you well as a peak performing salesperson must be un-learnedand

replaced by a new, managerial mindset. You need a comprehensive managerial game plan,complete with the tools necessary to implement it. Were experts at helping new sales managers

complete this transition.

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Many sales managers focus on managing the issues of the day, only to see the same issues flare-up again the following day. These managers dont prioritize, never seem to get caught up, are

stressed, frequently bad tempered, overworked, and often make important decisions simply byshooting from the hip.


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The key question to determine if you suffer from a reactive management style is this:Are the issues you face today similar to the issues you faced last week, last month, last year? A

reactive managers solutions to todays problems return as yet more problems tomorrow. This iscalled the boomerang effect, which merely adds to the to-do list, causes more stress, and forces

an even more reactive style. For many sales managers, it becomes a vicious treadmill.

There are two common reasons why we arent more proactive. First, its easy to be affected bysome influence or event, drop what were doing and go along. And if others around us are

reactive, we may be too. As Ronald Reagan once said: Its easier to ride a horse in the directionits going. Second, we may be reactive because weve always achieved success by quickly

completing a task, and moving on. It is this bias for fast action that may cause us to think tooquickly. The result is we fail to look beneath the surface and see all that may be going on with

what appears to be a simple situation topside.

Is there a difference between reacting and responding? You bet there is. When you respondto a fire, your goal is either to a) ensure that it doesnt flare up again, or, b) if it does flare up,

ensure that next time your staff is more capable of extinguishing it before it ever gets to you.Sure, it may take you a little more time in the short run, but the long-term benefits are well worth

it.

When you take a close look, however, many fire drills really arent a true crisis. One of ourassociates, Gary Connor, provides a good example. Years ago, while director of sales training for

a Fortune 100 company, Gary took a vacation overseas. He left a voice mail announcement thatsaid, Ill be overseas for two weeks and unable to respond to either voice mail or e-mail. If this

is important, please speak to my assistant.. When he returned from vacation he discovered hehad 93 voice mails! One of the first messages, from Joe in Hartford, came in two days after he

left on vacation:Gary, this is Joe. Weve got an URGENT crisis here. I need to speak to you right NOW!

Heres my phone #, cell #, pager #, home phone #, wifes cell #. Call me right NOW!A few messages later, Joe left Gary another urgent message. The following day, Joe

called a third time. Gary, were making some progress here, but Id still like to talk to you.The following day, the fourth message from Joe, Ahhh, Gary, I think weve got it under

control. Call me when you get back. Have a nice vacation.

The point is that many problems can be resolved without your involvement. Anotherpoint is that if Gary had gotten involved in Joes crisis, he would have invested a lot of time,

energy, cost, etc. And Gary would have been no closer to Garysgoals.

Ask members of your staff the following two questions to begin developing their ability to solvethese problems without bringing them to you:

What have you done about it so far?

What do you think ought to be done?

These two questions will gradually train your people to understand that if they bring you a fire,

they must also bring a possible solution. Pretty soon theyll get the idea that they can resolvemany of these issues themselves, without your input.


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With todays rapid-fire pace of business on the front lines, its easy for sales managers to spend amajority of their time reacting to the myriad incoming demands for their attention, and little or

no time coaching and teaching their salespeople. Tasks such as crises, pressing problems,deadline-driven projects, interruptions and many meetings have a sense of urgency attached to

them. But once the urgency is resolved, how much better is the team as a result?

Its all a matter of priorities. When a sales manager sets coaching as the #1 priority, he or sheshould allocate time use in accordance with priorities. And if the sales manager is out working

with salespeople, and less available to others, thats a good thing.

Coaching is the face-to-face process that helps you analyze and improve the production of yourstaff. Simply put, Ive found that the most successful sales managers are the best teachers. They

have analyzed what it takes to perform, and broken the process down into its component parts.Sales coaches show and tell salespeople specific ways to improve.

To achieve maximum success, heres a key question you need to ask yourself every week: Is

my sales team 1% better today than they were last week? If the answer is no, your goalshould be 2% next week. To develop a preeminent sales team you must be willing to do things

that most of your peers wont do and thats coach and teach every day.

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Most sales managers are effective at identifying the sales results expectations, and many are

effective at identifying the activities expected (such as number of prospecting calls, demos,proposals, etc.). Very few sales managers, in my experience, are effective at translating their

behavioral expectations into measurable and observable performance standards. What do I meanby behavioral expectations?

Think of your top sales performer. What characteristics does that individual possess which

separates him/her from most other salespeople? Chances are, a few characteristics are:

self-starters

goal-oriented

have high activity levels

always thinking about their sales opportunities in process

work long hours

always looking for better ways to get things done continually learn and develop their skills

support fellow team-members

and many more.

Now, pull out a copy of your companys sales rep job description. How many of the above

behaviors are listed there? If your company is like others Ive come in contact with, not many.There is a disconnect between how your company defines the salespersons job and how your

bestsales people have re-defined it.


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Partly because they lack performance standards too many sales managers review theperformance of their team members sporadically at best. That opens them up to another mistake:

Getting blindsided by poor performance of individual team members, nowhere near

forecast. Come the end of the fiscal period, they are surprised when the teams or any

individuals numbers fall well below forecast. Dont live like the proverbial ostrich with its headin the sand. Regularly work with your reps so you know what is going on. Make sure they are

clear about your expectations so you can inspect what you expect.

Seize this opportunity and re-define for your team what constitutes sales excellence. Its morethan a number. High expectations are the key to developing an elite sales team. The best sales

managers are those who expect the best from their people, so why not start asking for thebehaviors exemplified by your top producers above success behaviors from all the players on

your team?

To increase sales, implement a sales performance management system, by:1. Identifying the sales results you expect.2. Identifying the behaviors and activities necessary to achieve those results.3. Measuring each salesperson against these objectives, and coach them accordingly.

For each salesperson, develop a corrective action plan to make him or her better.

And yet, it is the success behaviors that, in addition to the necessary activities, that generate salesresults. If you focus on the input-side of the production equation the success behaviors and

activities the results you need will be there.

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51.84H'1#Most sales teams typically consist of a few leaders and lots of followers. So does a ranch, where

a herd of cattle follows along behind the one lead cow with a bell around its neck.

Many salespeople, especially those with less experience, emulate the example of your salesteams bell cow. Savvy sales managers know how to gain maximum leverage from each of

their bell cows, unfortunately far too many managers miss out on this teambuilding opportunity:

They allow their bell cows to set bad examples in certain important aspects of the job. Forexample, a top producer who is extremely effective with external customers, but extremely rude

to internal customers.

They fail to approach the bell cow and persuade him/her to step-up and adopt the role of team

player and share his/her talents, skills and energy with other members of the team.

The example of work ethic and attitude that your bell cow displays for the team is, perhaps, even

more important than the example the sales manager sets for them. Its important for salesmanagers to study their team and identify who is the bell cow (informal leader)? Next, whatexample is your bell cow setting? Does he/she display excellent work habits? Or , does he/she

simply sit back and milk the best territory?

If you dont have a Bell Cow on your team now, make one of your first priorities to develop one.Hopefully, you already have a few players capable of stepping up. If so, talk to them about


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performing the role of a mentor to one or more less experienced players. Help them see theimportance of their success example, and ask them to share more of their talents, skills and

energy with less experienced members of the team.

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As a sales manager, the time you have to coach your people is a precious commodity, and oughtto be treated by you as such. Most sales managers spend what little time they have for coaching

on the bottom 20% of producers of their sales team. If you do the same, you are making a bigmistake. Suppose your coaching efforts result in a 10% increase in production amongst your

bottom-producers, how much better off are your team numbers? Not much.

Youre probably familiar with the medical term triage, a concept originally developed on thebattlefield where there are limited medical resources. Field physicians developed triage protocols

so staff could quickly assess the wounded and divide them into three groups: a) those that willsurvive regardless of when they receive medical care, b) those that will succumb with or without

care, and c) those that will survive if they receive immediate attention.

Your sales organization is on a battlefield, too. And youve got limited resources. So steal alesson from the medical profession and triage your sales team. Chances are, your peakperformers and highly experienced/tenured people will survive regardless of how much time you

spend with them. Praise and recognize them continue to motivate them but dont spendprecious hours with them in the field conducting one-on-one coaching sessions. The same is true

in reverse with your bottom performers: chances are they wont make it, so why give them all ofyour time? (Come to think of it, why are theystillon your team?) But you cant ignore them. Its

the middle performers who have potential to become high performers that deserve most of yourattention.

Therefore, the high-payoff strategy is: Spendgroup time with your bottom producers. Spend

most of your precious one-on-one field coaching time with your emerging contributors thosesalespeople who have the best chance to develop into peak performers, if they could learn what

you know.

This strategy of focusing on your emerging contributors can pay you multiple benefits. You maystart to see emerging contributors sprint past your senior salespeople! Another benefit is that

youll have more top producers, so the gap to the bottom producers will widen. The bottomproducers who are committed to survival will fight harder to pull up their production.

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In my seminars Im frequently asked by sales managers how to re-energize senior tenuredsalespeople whose performance has plateaued or declined. Salespeople who have lost the fire

are salespeople who have lost sight of their goals, so you must help them seetheir future moreclearly.

The first step to re-energize your senior players is for you to look in the mirror. As the leader,you must show your energy and desire to excel before you can expect others to do the same. The

speed of the leader determines the rate of the pack. (Not only does this apply to you as the leader,


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but also to your senior tenured salespeople, who are looked up to as leaders by developing team-members. An unmotivated senior salesperson can depress your entire team!)

To motivate senior players, get into each salespersons head. Dont use a one-size-fits-all

strategy, because every salesperson is different, with different needs, commitments, motivators,etc. You must build a relationship with each individual. According to a recent study that

appeared in USA Today: the #1 reason why productive employees leave an organization isbecause of their relationship with their immediate supervisor.

You need a motivation improvement plan for each individual salesperson. To create your plan,

ask good questions, and really listen. Ask: Why are you selling for a living? What is it that youwant, that you dont currently have? Where do you want to be in 24-36 months? What motivates

you? Are there any barriers to performance that our organization has created for you? If so, howcan we remove them?

A few more successful strategies include:

Sometimes you can appeal to their competitive instincts by creating a contest againstanother division of the company, and give the salesperson a stretch goal to shoot for.

You can recognize their achievements more frequently.

Delegate the delivery of a few sales meetings on a subject such as prospecting (whichthey, in all likelihood, need a refresher on).

Explain to the salesperson how his role as a senior tenured salesperson fits in to thebig picture and why his job is important.

And, lastly, challenge your senior salespeople to step-up. Let them know that youexpect much more from them, and are counting on them to increase sales.

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We have all hired somebody that didnt work out the way we thought they would, so we allknow the cost of a bad hiring decision..or do we? What about those candidates that we dont

hire? I learned this lesson years ago when I rejected one particular candidate who then continuedto pursue a position with our company, was eventually hired by another region manager, and

within 12 months was ranked in the top 5% of our 1,500-person sales organization. He re-introduced himself at our companys Achievers Club trip with, Hi, remember me? Ouch!!

Here are the most common mistakes sales managers make in the recruiting & selection process:

Fail to try new methods of recruiting to increase applicant flow.

Fail to identify hiring criteria (must-haves and nice-to-haves).

Fail to develop targeted questions that uncover whether or not a candidate possesses the

success characteristics.

Fail to expose the applicant to the realities of the job before a hiring decision is made.

Fail to identify indicators in past behavior that may indicate future success.

Talk too much during the interview.

Fail to poll others in the organization for their opinion on the candidate.

Becoming distracted by daily pressures and short-circuiting the interview process.


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Many sales managers get to their position by virtue of being top sales producers. As such, theywere probably pretty good at figuring things out on their own and working independently. When

promoted to sales manager, they dont appreciate that their sales reps may need more guidanceand coaching than they needed when in a similar position.

Avoid the temptation to leave people alone. Your #1 priority as a sales manager is to coach your

reps to make sure they are achieving the most they can achieve.

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A team is a group of individuals working together in a coordinated effort, and each individual is

responsible for his/her contribution to the teams goal. Individuals either unwilling or unable tofulfill their responsibilities must then encounter the managers method of progressive discipline.

Laggards must be escorted to the intersection of choice without delay, because the longer a poorperformer is allowed to remain on the team the more energy and emotion it takes to resolve the

situation. And the more damage it does to the morale of others on the team who are producing.

In my seminars I often ask sales managers for a show of hands; How many of you haveunderperformers on your team that you have yet to deal with? Most hands in the room go up. I

then ask, How long has this been going on? The answer: many months, and often for yearsunderperformers have been allowed to remain on the team.

It is well past the time for what I call the two roads discussion with the rep: Down this road,

which is the road youve traveled so far, your continued poor performance will lead to separationfrom the company. But down this other road, the path I much prefer, is your renewed

commitment to this sales opportunity and the activities and behaviors that that commitmentrequires. The choice forward is yours. The managers role is to help the rep arrive at the chosen

destination faster. The reps role is to choose which road.


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Help your managers avoid these mistakes!

and many others!

Becoming an exceptional sales manager requires a completely different set of skills

than selling. Without this skill set, sales managers often get mired down in the

reactive firefighting mode.

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Managers Accelerate Team Success, addresses the full range of skills that sales

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! Take control of their time

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! Motivate & energize their team with the 4 motivators that matter

! Create their vision and action plan for sales team performance

Check out our website for more details and a complete agenda.

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our special report, Top 12 Mistakes that Salespeople Make.


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1-775-849-8600 www.TopLineLeadership.com

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10 Biggest Mistakes 2012