Why developing your Sales Managers is the key to your sales success

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Why developing your Sales Managers is the key to your sales success

August 26, 2009 in Sales Management

It may surprise you to discover that many Sales Managers learn how to be a Manager on their own.

According to the latest international study on Sales Training and Sales Force Effectiveness, many Sales Managers are given very little or no support when it comes to being a competent, effective Sales Manager. In fact, many Sales Managers reported that they were given no formal training in Sales Management practices, either before or during their tenure as a Sales Manager.

The study reported that Sales Management training is the category of sales training that is addressed with the least frequency, in fact it is less than annually or not at all.

The study also reported that if Sales Managers were more frequently and better trained and coached then their sales teams achieved higher performance and results. In no other type of sales training was a more positive correlation found between frequency of training and sales performance. Interestingly, it also revealed that sales training doesn’t need to be delivered in formal classroom settings.

As with many sales people who follow no logical process when selling, so it is true for many Sales Managers who fly by the seat of their pants. When it comes to Sales Managers many are left to their own devices. These international findings further support our 15 years of observations in the Australian market place that Sales Management development and performance is not taken as seriously as it should be.

Would we let a football coach without any experience or formal training in coaching become the head coach an elite football team? Not likely! At the very least, we would expect them to do a coaching apprenticeship. In addition, many of the current crop of elite sporting coaches have also undertaken formal education and training to earn the right to apply for senior coaching roles.

Sales Managers need support if they are to be of best value to your business, your team, and to themselves.

Where do we start? Let’s look at some of the broad core capabilities they need to be competent Sales Managers in the 21st century sales environment:

Strategic Action – Understanding industry and organisation; taking strategic actions
Coaching – role modeling, feedback, trust building
Team Building – designing and managing teams, creating a supportive environment
Self-management – fostering integrity and ethical conduct, managing personal drive, developing self-awareness, decision making and management skills
Global perspective – cultural knowledge and sensitivity, global selling program
Technology – understanding new technology, sales force automation, customer relationship management

As you can see there is a lot to know and apply in the role of Sales Manager. So, how do we support Sales Managers in their development? Formal classroom training on key topics is a great start, however it is important that these are spaced at regular intervals – for example, run over a few months with 1 or 2 sessions and follow-ups rather than squashed into a week with no follow-ups. The formal classroom sessions should also be supported by much more frequent activities which can include local or distance coaching (group and one-on-one), combined with regular access to advice and topics of interest such as talent management, time management, and business trends. This type of support needs to become part of a development regimen for those who are in Sales Management or those that aspire to be Sales Managers.

When formal and informal development is consciously applied and supported in the workplace it can have amazing effects for the Sales Managers themselves and their teams.

For instance, as part of our development work at BARRETT, in addition to classroom sessions, we run regular tele-coaching sessions (monthly 1-hour group sessions with up to 4 Sales Managers) for several companies. In these sessions Sales Managers share and discuss their needs, challenges, ideas, and strategies for effective sales performance in their teams, as well as their own needs and development as leaders. The feedback has been very encouraging. Some feedback we have received from Sales Managers so far includes:

it is a collaborative learning environment
great ideas exchange, learn a lot from each other
peer support – only time we get to really work with each other and share ideas without another agenda crowding the discussions
no hidden agenda – feels safe, supportive, useful
independent view from BARRETT coach keeps ideas fresh and focused on the sales agenda piece while finding ways to integrate with ‘well managed’ piece and other priorities
keeps the concepts and program we are running top of mind and makes sure we do it and don’t lose it
makes sure we are really implementing the tools and content properly

One Sales Manager stated: “BARRETT has supported me by providing a consistent frame of reference for all of us to work around. This has been a program that all the staff has been involved with rather than ‘another message from above’… ‘The best part has been the follow-ups on the phone with the other Sales Managers. Hearing their experiences and applying some of their takes on the principles has been very beneficial, and the re-enforcing of the principles and the increased familiarity and use of them has added measurably to it being embedded in my dialogue with my team.”

These conversations are not just ‘chats’ they are based on substance and the critical things that Sales Managers need to know and apply. So, if you think you can solve the problem with a simple, unstructured monthly ‘chat’ think again.

Now that we have discussed the importance of developing Sales Managers, let’s also remember to consider the Sales and Sales Management experience and expertise of the people you choose to support your Sales Managers through training, coaching, and mentoring. A deep subject matter expert will be able to provide both the practical and theoretical support Sales Managers need for them and their teams to succeed.

While a monthly coaching or training session may not seem like much, many Sales Managers are in need of support and help, especially now in these tough markets. You can make a big difference to your sales results if you take a little time out to develop your Sales Managers.

Happy selling.

Author: Sue Barrett is Managing Director of BARRETT.

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The cost of poor sales selection

May 14, 2009 in Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Management, Sales Talent

Have you ever done the math on how much sales recruitment costs you, especially when you get it wrong?

If you are like most managers then chances are you haven’t. So let’s consider the costs, overt and covert, involved in sales recruitment.

If you don’t know it already, sales recruitment is one of the toughest assignments around. I know this firsthand, as I was in this role for over 8 years with a leading consultancy and recruitment company. During this time, I interviewed about 8,000 sales people face-to-face in the technical, industrial, medical, and scientific industries. Remember, this is not counting all the resumes I screened manually as my experience was pre the internet and we had to do everything manually – no ‘word search’.

My time in sales recruitment gave me a great grounding and honed the skills to select good sales performers but not everyone has had the chance to practice. It was a fascinating social study on what makes a great sales performer. Upon reflection, it was a catalyst for my research into illuminating and defining the elusive qualities that make for highly successful sales people and the development of IP specifically in the Australian Sales Competency space.

It also led me to map out and demystify the sales recruitment process by putting in place relevant content and a structure people can follow. What this structure and the right selection content do is place control back into the hands of the managers who are responsible for recruiting sales people for their businesses. It also made me plainly aware of the costs involved.

The problem is that, for most managers or business owners, sales recruitment happens sporadically and too many managers still use unstructured recruitment practices that are the least predictive of sales performance. Most are just winging it, relying on gut feel, and never getting enough experience to give them something to fall back on when they need it.

It’s recruitment by hope, recruitment by chance.

Taking this ad hoc approach adds to the cost of sales recruitment because even if you get it right you don’t know why you got it right, therefore making it difficult to repeat the process.

With everyone being so focused on cost management its also important we do the math on the cost of sales recruitment and the cost of getting it wrong. We do this so that when you look at your sales recruitment you can make sure your actions will give you a better return on investment and that you hire the right sales people.

Any action we do has a cost (monetary, energy, time, etc.) associated with it. Whether that action propels us to profit from it or costs us more than we intended is the issue at hand. Getting sales selection wrong can cost you more than you have probably imagined.

What are the OVERT and COVERT costs associated with these issues?

Keeping a poor sales performer on too long who is not producing and not having a better performer to replace them (Note to self : you should always be on the look out for top sales performers, keep a list)
Sales territory vacant for too long
Poor fit: Not selecting the right type of person for your business culture, strategy and task
Taking too long to make selection decisions thus losing good potential recruits
Little or no structure to your sales selection process
Using the wrong recruiters to get you the right people (sadly too many recruiters do not know what a ‘good’ sales person looks like)

All these equal lost revenue, lost profits, lost market share, lost customers relationships, customers business drying up, loss of reputation, internal disharmony, team issues, etc.

Let’s now look at it in stark terms:

Case study: A sales person who earns a base of $60,000 per annum plus extras stays with a Company for 3 months and doesn’t work out:

Overt Financial Costs
(based on a conservative estimate)

Advertising and Recruitment Agency costs = $10,000+
Candidate travel costs (if applicable) = $500
Induction Training costs = $5,000 (in-house and/or formal/external training)
Salary and benefit costs = $15,000 plus super, work cover, etc.
Additional costs (car/car allowance, phone, travel, etc.) = $3,000
Severance pay (2 weeks notice) = $1,600
Manager’s time to recruit 40hrs @ $60/hr ($100K salary) = $2,400
Administration costs: $2,000
Sales lost due to poor performance (2.5 times salary is the average) = $37,500

Estimation of Overt Cost Total for 3 – 4 months = $67,000

Then add:

Covert Financial Costs

Potential litigation costs = ?
Lost sales opportunities due to vacant territory = ?
Manager’s coaching time = ?
Team morale = ?
Customer loyalty = ?
Impact on Reputation = ?

While I may have missed some things or overestimated others, the math clearly shows that getting sales recruitment wrong is very costly.

I suggest you do an audit and check out where you have made the most of your actions and where you may need to tighten up.

Remember that its all in the preparation and execution of the right activities and make sure you act wisely and in your best interest.

If you want further information how to how to structure your sales recruitment practices go to Getting Sales Recruitment Right

Sincerely, your advocate for selling the right way.

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Creating the right environment

April 30, 2009 in Ethics & Values, Sales Management

I was running a ‘train the sales trainer’ session with some experienced, professional Sales Managers the other day. The session I ran is designed to equip these managers to run mini sales training modules of as part of our sales fitness programs. Many manages are not trained facilitators and so we make sure we give them the information they need to set up an effective learning environment. All was going well until we came across the content entitled “Creating the right learning environment” which is a practical guide about what you need to prepare and take into account when setting up your room environment.

I happened to mention (and wrongly assumed) that this was pretty straight forward and was familiar to most professional people and we could do a quick scan and move on. However, one of the Sales Managers informed us that this was not always the case as the previous sales manager, whom he had recently taken over from, used to run some of his sales meetings and one-on-one performance reviews at a restaurant chain known for its scantily clad, big breasted waitresses. And occasionally he decided to run these sessions at the local strip club as well. Needless to say the sales manager in question did not last very long in his role.

I had thought (and hoped) we had progressed somewhat as professional business people, but clearly some people are still stuck in the 70’s and 80’s where similar stories were more common place. I really didn’t think it happened today but clearly I was wrong. I would be interested to know if this still goes in some industries today (I hope not but may find that it happens more than I had expected).

So rather than assume everyone knows how to set up the right environment I thought it might be prudent to remind us all of the key things we need to consider when setting up:

A training session
A coaching session
A performance review
A sales meeting

For learning, feedback or a meeting to take place effectively you need to create a comfortable and safe environment. For this to occur you need to plan and arrange the environment and resources you will need for your session or meeting.

Whether you are training or coaching on-the-job or in a training room, giving feedback or holding a meeting, there are a number of things you should consider before you start (most, if not all, will be relevant):

How many participants will be involved?
Is the size of the location adequate?
Is the location available?
How will tables and chairs be arranged?
Does the area have adequate lighting?
Is the area quiet enough?
Is the temperature comfortable? Is there adequate ventilation?
Is the location accessible?
Is the location private? (able to be closed to the outside world)
Do you know where all the facilities are, for example, the toilets?
Does the location have enough power points? Do you know where they are?
Are training aids available?
Are there any OH&S requirements you will need to consider?

As a sales manager, even if you are providing coaching advice to a salesperson in the car after a client meeting (which often happens) please consider the advice above. For instance having the radio on while giving feedback or giving very specific feedback on a difficult area for development while the person in question is driving is probably not a good idea.

The manager, coach or trainer who is committed to accelerating the learning process of their people must attend to creating an optimal learning or meeting environment which also includes it being safe on all levels.
Sincerely, your advocate for selling the right way.

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Practice, Practice, Practice then Play

December 12, 2008 in Sales Management, Sales Training

In the sporting world it is expected that athletes make the time to practice, practice, practice and then go and compete or play the game. Through regular practice they hone their skills, behaviours and attitudes to ensure they are ‘match fit’ and ready to compete at the highest standards.

A sports team needs to make sure that when they are in the thick of the game they can draw upon those skill drills and practice sessions to perform well as a team and perform well under pressure.

When an individual athlete is neck and neck with a competitor racing for the finish line they need to know how to dig deep and draw upon their experiences, skills, and mental and physical reserves to cross the finish line first. This cannot happen without lots of conscious, purposeful practice.

I know this to be true. As a former competitive swimmer we constantly practiced our starts, turns and finishes as well as doing lots of race practice and skills drills to prepare us for competition. This was in addition to doing the km’s of laps to build up our fitness and stamina.

Sadly, today in the business world, and especially in sales, all we seem to do is play, play, play the game and rarely put in the time to regularly review, practice and refine our skills.

What we are left with are salespeople who are given little time to reflect on how they went and what they need to do to build their sales capability. They often lurch from one customer sales meeting to the next.

While they will know whether they won or lost a sale, very few will know ‘why’ or ‘how’ they won or lost sales to how to get fitter and be more effective.

In our experience fewer still take the time out to work on their sales businesses to create viable ‘Go-to-Market’ action plans which keep them focused and on track.

For instance we are in the process of training over 300 sales people in sales planning, prospecting, selling and sales communication process. Many of them have said that this is the first time they have had to really work on themselves and their business.

For instance, as part of the program we run a sales simulation exercise which tests the robustness (or not) of people’s sales skills, behaviours and attitudes. It gives sales people real insight into how they actually perform as sales people. For many people this is the first time they have ever had the chance to reflect on how their skills measure up to what is consider effective sales performance.

Simon Madden, former VFL/AFL Essendon player, qualified teacher, experienced sales person and one of BARRETT’s sales facilitators lamented that businesses are very poor at letting our salespeople take time out to practice and apply the skills, behaviours and attitudes they need to use in the real world. All they do, he says, is play, play, play.

I have to agree. The number of times we meet sales people attending our sales programs who have never had any formal sales training is staggering. And even those who have been on sales training programs before, comment on previously attending ‘training events’ which either did not reflect real life situations and were more ‘rah’rah’ in spirit and as it turns out a waste of time, or had no follow up back in the field which meant much of the training content was lost and not applied. If they have had any form of regular training it was usually product based which is not the same as proper sales training.

Given Selling is such a critical function in any business, even more so now, we cannot leave our sales people’s fitness to chance. If you are going to invest in anything this coming year invest in your sales people’s development.

Please do yourselves and your sales people a favour, and take the time to give your sales people some time to practice their sales skills in proper learning environments. It doesn’t take much time or money to give them the proper processes and training around the essentials such as sales planning, prospecting, selling and sales communication process.

Any sales training you choose should be logical, easy to follow, feel natural and easy to apply for your people and uses a behavioural competency based approach. It should be spaced out over a minimum period of 3 months to allow for behaviour change and growth.

If you are looking for effective sales training I recommend it follows these guiding principles:

Interval Training: When training is implemented over a period of time is facilitates behavioural change and skill development that become habitual and the new ‘ way of life’. This approach progresses in incremental stages and helps to maintain a focus on manageable tasks, ensuring earlier stages are successful before the latter stages are attempted.
Discovery Learning: Results from an interactive environment where information is given, principles are practiced, questions are asked and real-life situations are created to enable people to learn for themselves.
Evidence Based Competency / Behavioural Learning Outcome Approach
Responsibility and ownership for embedding a sales culture is given to the management team: Sales managers should be trained in in-field sales coaching methods and be taught how to run mini sales skill drill sessions they can implement over time to keep their sales people fit and focused.
Relevant content: make sure the program is relevant to your sales team and your customer markets.
Documentation of requirements: sign-offs and quality controls that define objective measures for assessing quality throughout the development process.

Investing in the right sales training can give you much greater returns very quickly:

Sales Manager of a division of a Financial institution comments after targeted 3 month sales fitness training program:

My team sold $55m in the half I arrived as Sales Manager. This half we are on target to sell $150m.

My 2 lowest performers when I arrived finished last half 3rd and 7th in Australia out almost 200.

80% of my Sales People made budget last half when traditionally less than 20% achieved target.

The combined ages of my best 3 performers is 154.

Many people can learn how to lead successful sales careers. Just give them the chance to learn and some time to practice. And while not everyone can be the ‘’Ian Thorpe of Selling’ many can learn to apply successful sales processes, skills and strategies which will keep them sales fit and producing sales results.

For many industries, other than retail, the next few months are a little quieter on the sales front and are the perfect time to do some sales training and practice, practice, practice.
Happy selling.

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Daring to be Different (part 2)

August 6, 2008 in Recruitment, Sales Management

Here is the second of two articles about recruiting top performing sales people and daring to do so from outside of your industry.

Even though I have not worked as a traditional recruitment consultant for more than 14 years many of my long standing clients still talk about those ‘out of the box’ placements we made. Was it just the recruitment approach that made the difference. Well NO. What these savvy mangers is did was make sure the culture and the business could accommodate these ‘new’ types of people.

They took their current team along on the journey to the new as well. Sure it wasn’t all smooth sailing but they knew what they needed to do. As we know when we bring in difference we can often cause the current people to feel uncomfortable and if not addressed they can kill off the ‘new’ way.

So be aware.
If the overall culture of your business is not set up for excellent sales performance, all your efforts could implode. Here is an example of what I mean. A key client came to us saying they didn’t want to hire people from their industry because they just weren’t competitive in the current market. They wanted to refresh the gene pool and bring in fit sales people who were not tarnished by the industry and its way of doing things. They knew that in this over commoditised marketplace that their sales people where their competitive edge. They were on the right track but didn’t know where and how to start. So here is what we did to help them find elite sales performers:

Reviewed sales strategy and path to market
Defined Sales DNA & ‘ideal’ role/person specification
Built a structured sales recruitment process and kit
Targeted the industries the new breed of sales people could come from
Built and implemented the induction company sales training process
Implemented a sales management support system
Mapped & measured sales metrics

The results were fabulous from a sales initiative perspective:

The new breed of elites sales performers achieved a sales closing ratio of 4:3 within 2 months and sold annual sales budget within 5 months.

Now wouldn’t you think everyone would have been jumping for joy? You’d like to think so but sadly the new team was a small part of a very large business that had been operating in an entirely different manner (i.e. slow, internally focused, transaction product selling). Rather than embrace the new ‘fitter’ sales way of life and find more success across the board, the broader business killed off the team because it was too successful just so they didn’t have to change.

Sadly this is not an isolated incident, many a successful competent sales person or sales manager with new ideas, a healthy can-do attitude have been passed over for promotion or eliminated from the team because they were too different and too good. They did not fit the often buttoned down, compliant thinking, follow-the-rules-or-else culture that many larger business can have.

And what I still see, all too often, are senior managers and sales mangers recruiting from within their own industry sector recycling the same old people getting the same old ideas and the same old results. Relying on ‘industry experience’ as a major determining factor in your sales selection process can severely limit your potential to develop a competitive edge in your industry and find elite sales performers. This strategy has left many businesses vulnerable today as they now struggle to transform existing transactional product focused sales teams to savvy business people how can sell.
Which raises key questions:

How we can we find top sales performers to refresh our gene pool and revitalise our culture, our bench strength, our results, etc.?
How does an organisation create and the promote transparent sales performance in the field and at leadership level?
How do we encourage diversity, innovative thinking and outsiders into our thinking, our team and our business?

I encourage you to challenge the prevailing views and attitudes of your business and industry and really examine what your sales strategy needs by way of talent now and into the future and select and develop those people how meet your business needs accordingly.

If you do it can really pay big dividends.

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