Sales Management Diagnosis

One of the consulting services we provide is a diagnosis of broken or under performing sales organizations. We employ a rather eclectic model that we have developed to guide our investigation. It is one that sales managers can use anytime they are scratching their heads and wondering, "Now, why isn't this sales team delivering like it should?" We organize our approach around the following six management considerations: Expectations, Rewards, Consequences, Tools, Skills & Knowledge, & Assignment.

1) Expectations The sales manager was wondering why his team was not making the expected number of weekly sales calls. We asked the sales reps. Their answer: "Nobody told us how many calls we were supposed to make. Yeah, we can do that."

We always start our investigation of what's broke by checking to see if expectations are clear. Often, they are not. Step One in effective sales force management is to be absolutely clear on what you expect. This is an instance where both oral and written communications are appropriate. It is Step One because it should start as early as recruitment and selection.

2) Rewards She was a young star. Six figure income performer. Despite her success, she left her organization. " I almost begged them for recognition. They thought dollars did everything. It didn't."

SST^® Seller Profiles will guide you in how to deliver those crucial rewards when expectations are met, and especially when they are exceeded. Recognizing that the "Feelings" preferred star described above wanted recognition would have saved her, and all the costs associated with replacing her. Retaining talent is always cheaper than recruiting it.

Incidentally, I agree with Steven Covey on the damaging effects of ranking members of a sales team. Research reported in The Hay Group's People, Pay & Performance (see P.3 "Dangling Carrots") shows that these contests actually have an adverse impact on performance. As Covey points out, we want more than one winner on a sales team.

3) Consequences The son of the owner, who made it clear that he didn't like sales anyway, routinely arrived at the weekly sales meeting late and unprepared. Predictably, others began to show-up late and under prepared for the meeting as well.

Rendering consequences for failing to meet expectations can be tricky. Human nature is such that we postpone unpleasant tasks. However, if you don't confront a team member who falls short on expectations others are satisfying, your consequence will be an under performing team. If it goes unchecked, undesirable behavior will spread like a virus.

Nobody likes being reprimanded in public, even when they deserve it. Always praise in public and criticize in private.

4) Tools We differentiate between "Tools" and "Skills". A carpenter applies his "skills" when using the "tools" in his box: hammers, saws, screwdrivers, squares, etc.

What we sometimes find is that management invests heavily in the latest selling "tool" but neglects to provide selling "skills". The biggest culprits of this phenomenon have been brought to us by the marvels of technology.

"Let's get everyone a neat new notebook computer, load it with the latest whiz bang contact management system, sit back and watch sales zoom."

While we have never seen this approach work, we have seen clients and potential clients pour princely sums into technology tools. By the time they have determined that their tools have not delivered the desired results, something new is on the market with shinier bells and louder whistles. Like to guess what happens next? Sadly, you are right.

I am not suggesting that tools are unimportant. They are, however, never a substitute for skills and knowledge.

5) Skills Some will break this category into "product knowledge" and "selling skills". Many who are under performing provide only the former. It is neat, clean and nearly every manufacturer offers training for its resellers, sometimes free.

Many managers cling to anachronistic views of selling believing balderdash like good sales people are born and not made. Others blindly trust numbers believing that, no matter what happens with those soft skills like consultative or relationship selling, making the requisite numbers of calls and reciting prepared scripts will produce the desired results. Even more devastating are organizations trusting that all experienced sales people already know how to sell.

Every time a sales person gets in front of a prospective or current client and does the wrong things an opportunity is lost. A common list of "wrong things" includes: a superficial investigation, prolonged preliminaries, handling objections, memorized closing scripts or asking questions that can only be answered "yes".

Investment in developing selling skills and knowledge will show returns many times over. Not only has SST^® demonstrated bottom line impact from a 500% increase with one client or a 200% jump with another, it plays a meaningful role in retention of sales talent. Helping those you manage learn and grow professionally are the surest ways to improve performance and to reduce attrition of high performers.

6) Assignment This is more than a euphemism for termination. Understanding personality types can be an essential management tool for arranging team selling. For example, "Thinkers" and "Feelers" have different natural antennae that can complement one another in team selling. Another application is to assign people to industry fields where their natural communication style is prevalent.

Summary You don't have to wait to get sick to benefit from this model. It can be helpful to stay well by performing regular assessments of how effective your management is in each of the six categories. AJT