In most organizations, sales managers are the essential bridge between the company’s sales goals and the realization of those goals.  The gritty day-to-day interactions between the sales people and their customers are frequently filtered through the perspective of the sales manager on their way up the ladder.  The aspirations and strategies of the company’s management must be imprinted by the realism of the sales manager as they come down from above.  Sales managers are the conductors who carefully orchestrate the tentative entanglement of the sales people with their management.

It’s an incredibly important and difficult job.  Unfortunately, it is often the most under-trained job in the entire organization.  Instead of providing information on the best practices and processes of the job, most companies hope their sales managers will have learned enough during their days as a field sales person to provide some roadmap as to how to do this job well.

Alas, only a small percentage of untrained sales managers ever really figure it out, arriving by trial and error and after hours of study at the best practices of an effective sales manager.  The overwhelming majority find themselves caught up in the urgencies of the moment, the tempting details of all the transactions, and the continuing onslaught of crises, and are never able to set in place a systematic blueprint for their success.

The net result? 

Few sales people are effectively managed.  All parties, executive management, sales manager and sales people, bounce from one frustration to another.  Company objectives are met frequently by happenstance, sales people are not developed to their fullest potential and sales managers lurch from one crisis to another.

Certain common mistakes often arise out of this unhealthy situation.  As a long time consultant and educator of sales people and sales managers, I frequently see these three most common maladies suffered by sales managers.

Sales Managers’ Most Common Mistakes — #2

Lack of regular and systematic direction and feedback for the sales people.

The relentless attraction of the urgent, and the demanding shouts of the transaction, like the pleading of a toddler, have a tendency to overwhelm the time and attention of most sales managers.

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

The Consequences:

Most sales people are left directionless and are provided with little feedback on how they are doing.  Of course, we publish sales numbers, but there are lots of reasons why a set of numbers can be up, down or sideways above and beyond the impact of the sales person.

What do you expect of this particular sales person?  And how well is he/she doing?

Direction and Feedback

In most surveys of what sales people really want from their managers, “direction and feedback” are often at the very top of the list.  Its one thing to talk about some account or some deal, it’s quite another to speak to the core issues of “my performance.”

Sales is an isolated job.  It is not unusual for a sales person to spend as much as 70% of the work week by himself.  All that isolation often leads to anxiety and self-doubt which often expresses itself through complaints and finding fault with the company.

All this negative energy can be prevented by providing the sales person with regular direction, specific expectations, and regular feedback.

The old saying, “Out of sight, out of mind,” is too often the operational description of the typical sales manager.  The sales people are out there some where, doing their thing, while the tyranny of the urgent often occupies the manager’s time.

As a result, sales people are not nearly as focused as they could be, they default to unhealthy thoughts, and they spend too much time expressing negative energy.

Sales Managers’ Most Common Mistakes — #1

Sales Managers’ Most Common Mistakes — #3

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 Over 2,033 sales managers have found the solution to this issue.