“Let’s be clear, I’m not going to take the assessments.” That was part of a conversation I had with a sales manager recently. It is surprising how often I have this discussion – either overtly or indirectly.
Sales managers are not fans of taking our assessments even though the assessments provide strategic insight into growing themselves and their team. One cannot successfully look at a team – any team – without the context of the team’s leader. In order to understand the sales team, we must understand the sales manager.
This disdain for our sales management assessment begs the question, why do they dislike the assessments? My thought is simply this – the sales manager, at one time, was promoted or hired into the position. Either way, the new sales manager was expected to bring extensive management skills that would be a perfect fit to this particular sales team.
But how many salespeople know how to succeed in sales management?
Take the top-performing salesperson who is promoted into the sales manager role. They succeeded in the sales role so the assumption is they will “teach” the other salespeople through their own personal success. That model is expected to lead to team-wide success. But this approach is not sales management, it only works if you have a team of clones selling in exactly the same markets. Surely you don’t. Each salesperson is different in many facets, not the least of which are skills and aptitudes. How does this new sales manager positively affect change in a salesperson who is not “wired” the same way as him?
I believe this is the crux of the problem. Salespeople are placed in management positions without knowing how to manage their people. If the sales manager candidate reveals this fact, they know they will not be considered for the position.
That fear brings us back to the assessments. Woody Hayes was the legendary football coach at Ohio State University years ago. Hayes was renowned for running the football almost exclusively (and ignoring the pass). When asked about his run-always philosophy, he said something to the effect , “Only 3 things can happen when you pass the football and two of them are bad.”
I think sales managers take a similar approach. The assessments will reveal that the sales manager is strong, weak or has deficiencies that the company did not know they had.
This approach is misguided. Sales managers are typically the people in which the company has the most invested. Sales managers are also the people who can have the greatest impact improving the sales team’s performance. Even if a sales manager could be stronger, it is in the company’s best interest to invest in the sales manager’s ongoing development. We will be releasing more information on a new program shortly in regards to this business-critical topic – please look for it soon.