I think each of us want to be a great sales manager, however being a great leader is more important. In the world today a title has much meaning and weight especially when it comes to sales doesn’t it? When there’s a problem they want to speak to the manager! Or if things are not going the client’s way, they want to speak to the manager, don’t they? Being a manager carries responsibility, it carries accountability and the right manager drives the right kind of behaviour and ultimately the results?
But what does the perfect sales manager look like? You know in the banks they teach those working behind the counters what a fake note looks like so that when they come across one, they can recognise it. So, let’s start there, what does a bad sales manager look like?
When I started in sales way back when I was a good, I excelled, I achieved, I made commission. Because of my track record I was promoted, sound familiar. I’m sure this is where you were at. Now I find myself leading a team of people, some not happy because of my elevation, some refusing to follow my instructions and others indifferent. Does that sound about right? The thing is whether we like to admit it or not when we are promoted for the first time, we all have a big head of some form. We have arrived! We are the boss! But what I very quickly learned was that getting others to follow you, to heed your instructions was not quite as easy as others made it look or even how I imagined it. This managing thing was tough. I was expected to know everything, to have the solutions to all the problems. I was responsible, I worked longer hours than everyone else and to top it all off the team was just impossible. They didn’t respect me, they did their own thing, their reports were late or incomplete. The did the opposite to what I wanted them to do. To be honest if I reported to me back then I probably would’ve reacted worse than my team did, I was entitling, arrogant and had a bit of a chip on my shoulder. I had this vision that I wanted to transform each person in my team into a mini me, after all I knew how to sell, I hit the lights out and therefore I knew what I was doing. This isn’t a reality; different people work differently don’t they. In a team you will have a variety of personalities and the key to making it work is allowing a person to see who they are. What are their best qualities, what are their strengths, how can they add to the overall process and at the same time bring their contribution to the bottom line?
I wrote a blog about the “Why uncovering your Sales Team’s Why is so important” and how to unlock it, this is key in becoming a great sales manager but there is more. Being a great sales manager isn’t enough, you need to become a great leader and that takes understanding the person, the process, the strategy and ensuring that all these aspects are working together. A bad manager in essence is someone that cares only about themselves. How they look, how they are performing, what results they are getting and of course how they feel about the whole thing.
I like to give the analogy of an orchestra conductor, when he is standing in the front conducting, he knows each person, each instrument. His back is to the audience and he is completely focused on his team of musicians isn’t he. He doesn’t care about what the audience is thinking, their facial expressions all that matters are the team before him and how they sound. He isn’t in the limelight; he just ensures that they look good. At no point does he bark orders, they follow him without question. Each of them has their own instruments, own sheets of music and at the end of the day because the sound is so perfect people pay money to come see them in action. This is a well oiled, functioning team and each sales team should be the same.
A good manager or leader is not in the business of blaming their team or others for failures, they are fully responsible. They take the responsibility. They know what the strategy is for the team and for each individual person in the team based on their strengths, uniqueness and abilities. They focus on directing, coaching and continually unlocking the hidden potential in each person consistently. They stand in the gap protecting the team, buffering all the negativity coming from the top. They however discipline where needed without making it public to everyone in order to protect the name of the person and the team, remember you are responsible. If you tarnish the name of the person reporting to you, you are in essence tarnishing yours, you are responsible for them.
A good sales manager or leader is continuously learning and growing themselves so that those reporting to them can learn and grow too. This could mean that you are learning from those reporting to you and this is great. They are honest, transparent and trustworthy. They never commit anything that they know they cannot make good on. The team know that they are trusted and are able to carry the responsibility with maturity and grace. They will be honest even with the tough things. One lesson I learned was that when tough discussion needed to be had they were done with respect and care, but they were always honest. Sometimes you are going to have to discipline or correct a person in your team and this isn’t the nicest or easiest thing to do. However, when you do it, the message needs to be honest and true. The intention should never to break the person down or demotivate them but to bring a message of honesty with a way forward.
There were many times that I needed to let staff go that though they were good at sales and ended up not being. I would give them facts along the way but at the end of the day the letting them go was the only way. I would have the discussion and give them areas of strength that I saw they had and give them a new career option to follow. This way they new that I tried, I knew who they were, and what they were capable of doing.
When a team member asks your opinion, I would always have a standard answer “do you want the truth or the sugar-coated version?” This would give them the choice whether they wanted my truth which could be hard. Honesty is so important in order to foster a relationship of trust. I over the years have done my fair share of counselling and coaching and the key attribute that I needed to master was the art of listening. As a salesperson we are taught to sell, and you do this by speaking do you not? So, I’m sure that you will understand that keeping quiet is a very difficult thing for someone that has been moulded to speak. In society I have noticed more and more how people have either forgotten or lost the ability to really listen. We are conditioned to listen for a period until something triggers and then we begin constructing our response in our minds do we not? The problem is that while we are constructing the response, we shut off from what is being said. The next time you have a conversation with someone take note of that, it’s really scary, we all do it and I will admit I still do.
What I can say is the day I learnt to master this listening thing I began to hear things in a totally different way. I began to see things from a totally different perspective, and this was absolutely amazing. Have you ever wondered how much we actually miss out on when we are in our own heads, it crazy? The next tool I learnt was giving the person that was speaking back what they just said. This is called mirroring. By doing this the person on the other side knows that they have been heard, and I find it very funny when I get that confused look when they realise that I had listened to everything they said. People have become so accustomed to repeating things in order to be heard that when it happens the first time it boggles brains.
My point here is be engaged with your team and the people around you! You can use these skills with your team, your clients, your co-workers and yes with your family! I promise it really works. Start listening, really listening and see the difference in the response you get with those you interact with. Today we always have a laptop open, and phone in our faces or we are zoned out in front of a TV. Next time someone comes to chat to you put your phone down, close your laptop and switch off the TV and really listen it makes a massive difference!
The next area of a great manager or leader is the ability to see potential, to unlock the inherent gold deep inside the person regardless of what they look, or sound like on the outside. Hmmm sometimes a difficult one isn’t it. When you practice this, you could find some gems out there when you are recruiting. When I recruited and still today when helping my clients recruit, I ask many questions and most not related to their work experience, why because uncovering who the person really is, is the key. A CV is learnt, the work-related responses are coached but the real-life stuff is who they are isn’t it?
I have often recruited people that didn’t fit the mould and I was laughed at, judged and watched. I give an example in the notes you will read so let give you another. I’m sure you would’ve heard or know that a salesperson needs to be a certain type of person. They need to be well spoken, right but what about the way they look? Well I smashed that theory. I on 3 occasions employed ladies that didn’t fit that mould. They had tenacity, they had drive, they knew what they wanted but were declined time after time because what they looked like didn’t fit. I gave them a chance and boy did they give the others a run for their money. The one lady I remember was totally excommunicated from the team, but she continued to push her sales. On a specific day I had a resignation in an area in the Free state. I was running a National sales team then. She worked in a Joburg area. I was stuck, the person that resigned gave me a weeks’ notice due to unforeseen circumstances, but the Free state area still need to run. I asked the guys in the closer areas and in Joburg to assist me in the Free state area for a period of a month. Not 1 stood up, my lady that didn’t fit the mould did, however. She ran her area, made target there and in the Free state area she grew by an additional 35% in 1 week. I stand by the quote “Never judge a book by its cover” get to know the person, get to know their heart, unlock their why and stand with them and they will surprise you. That is a good leader! It’s easy to follow the norm, it’s easy to colour in the lines, but a great leader breaks new ground, they don’t follow the norm and they draw new lines.
This brings me to the next point, leading from the front. This is so important. If you are going to be just like the next manager your team is going to be just like the next team. You need to be different; you need to stretch yourself, take calculated risks, and lead by example. If you are doing the status quo so will your team. Leading from the front from another perspective means that what you do they do. If you do not respect time, neither will they. What do I mean by that, if you are always late for meetings expect your team to be late to your meetings? You cannot then discipline them because you have set the example, haven’t you? When you implement something be prepared to do it yourself, don’t ever expect those you are leading to do anything that you wouldn’t do yourself. I’m very sorry to burst your bubble but if you are wanting to be a great leader it doesn’t mean barking orders from your throne, it means getting into the trenches with them and often showing them how.
I often get called into organisations where the sales teams are not performing, or the team is demotivated, and this is often the reason why. The manager expects them to do things that are impossible or something that is unreasonable, and they are not being heard. If you believe it cannot be done, don’t expect your team to achieve it, lead by example! Thinking out the box, being creative, seeing the big picture is something that has been stunted over the past centaury in many organisations. The reason for this is that processes are often rigid, or the hierarchy is very rigid. You need to stay within your tracks and do what is expected of you without rocking the boat. Not a healthy environment in some cases but there is hope, this can be changed. Seeing the big picture and creating a strategy to support the picture is something that a great leader needs to cultivate and practice. If you don’t you will find yourself and your team stagnating fast. Keeping up with the way the world is going, what the needs are and what you are offering is absolutely one of the greatest elements of keeping a sales team on top.
Let’s look at Blackberry. They had a great idea, they marketed it right, they took the cellular world by storm, definitely knocked the big names namely Nokia and iPhone off their thrones at the time. However, they didn’t evolve with the times, they became stagnant in developing their handsets and their offering. They became greedy with their BBM technology which created their name but didn’t see in time that by creating a strategy to share the tech that they would be knocked off their perch. I can guarantee you if they had a big picture mindset, if they saw this coming, they would’ve had a plan and they would still be at the top. They also didn’t spend money on their handsets which meant that they became outdated, big problem. So, don’t be like Blackberry, know your strengths, know the market that you play in, understand what the needs are and forge a strategy that works towards what the client wants and not what is important to the company at the time. The company’s needs are important, but this will not sustain you when the times change.
One of the most frequent questions I get asked when I coach, and train is “How do I get my team to do what they are supposed to do?” Nice question and a very important one. Most of the times when I asked what they have done their answers are that they have given them instructions, the plan, the strategy and even put a lucrative com structure or incentive behind it but still it fails. You ask why?
My question to them is “did the team buy into the strategy, the plan and the incentive?” most of the time the answers I get are “I don’t know” why because the question was never asked. The team was never a part of the planning process. They were not asked what their opinion was nor were they give the opportunity to give their views.
This is very important. Remember the sales team are the face of the company. The face the clients daily, they see what’s happening at ground level and they are the ones that can direct you to the perfect solution, don’t leave them out of this process.
So, the million-dollar question from a manager’s perspective is, how do I meet expectations but at the same time maintain the trust that has been built or develop trust from those that I manage? It is quite simple really, buy in develops and maintains trust. When the team is a part of the decision-making process, it is seen as their idea, their commitments, their implementation and ultimately their strategy. Therefore, it becomes their responsibility doesn’t it? When its theirs they will own it, which creates ownership. When the idea fails it means that their idea failed, and they need to be accountable.
Many organizations come up with great ideas and then communicate the idea down, just imagine if you made them a part of the process. I’m not saying give them cart blanch, I’m also not saying that they need to head up strategy. There is a way of doing it. Have the strategy in mind and let them come up with a strategy, see if it is the same, if it’s different is theirs possibly better? If so use theirs, there is no shame in changing it if everybody wins. Management can begin the process, get the team involved in the middle and then do the finishing touches that follow the company’s guidelines and capabilities. However ultimately the end result will have a portion of their DNA present which makes all the difference. I do understand that you cannot do this in all cases, however if you have created an environment of trust and buy in in the past, when this scenario presents itself the team will still follow you and trust that you have fought the good fight to get the outcome which is for their best interest. When you are in a leadership role, trust is at the core, if this is missing your team will not follow you, they will not follow simple instructions and they definitely will not go the extra mile to ensure that something is a success. Think of yourself, when your manager asks you to do something that you know is for their sole benefit and at the end of the day will not add any value to you, will you go out of your way to do it? I didn’t think so; it is exactly the same to your team.
