I’ve been working with a handful of sales managers recently as they onramp new salespeople and I have seen a stumbling block occur more than once.  The issue has to do with the sales manager’s perception of the typical sale.

Sales managers, in most instances, work primarily with large, high-visibility accounts as they should.  The issue that occurs is that the manager starts to view these marquee accounts as the model, or even norm, for all other accounts.  What happens is that the manager loses sight of the history of activities that went into earning that customer’s business.

Rarely do new salespeople fly out of the gate and close a marquee account.  In most cases, they start with “mundane” accounts - typically they are smaller opportunities or smaller companies.  Some will grow into marquee accounts, but most will not.  The advantage is that the salesperson learns about the sale, what objections they will face and how an order moves internally through the company.  These are all valuable experiences for the day they latch on to a large deal.

As sales managers, it is important to realize that the marquee accounts are not the standard for a new salesperson.  This means the salesperson probably does not have an established relationship to leverage.  They do not have familiarity with the customer’s decision-making team.  They are not going to have numerous topics to qualify for many different orders.

Simply put, these salespeople are going to be working less efficiently to earn a smaller deal than the power plays occurring at the marquee account.  I’ve seen sales managers get frustrated over this fact.  Frustration should wait until an adequate period of time has passed.  If the salesperson is still at the same level, then it is time to dig in deeper and attempt to kick-start their efforts.

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This is a tough topic because there isn’t a cookie-cutter sales manager template that fits for all companies.  Our experience has been that smaller-sized companies tend to expect the sales manager to carry a significant quota while larger companies expect the sales manager to manage without carrying a personal quota.  The department quota/goals are a different story.

Nonetheless, ManageSmarter.com offers up a well-constructed guide to sales management titled Executive Guide: Improving Sales from Managers to Salespeople.

A point that often gets overlooked in companies is the essence of strong sales management.  This excerpt sums it up nicely:

4. Track where your management team members are spending their time. As previously stated, good managers let their top people operate and focus on turning their “B” players into “A” players, their “C” players into “B” players or managing them out. There should be signs of steady improvement of sales staffers.

That truly is the gist of sales management, isn’t it?  This area is a pitfall for which we have seen more than one sales manager fall into.  The team is not hitting their numbers and the sales manager is expected to close business himself.  If this manager used to be the top salesperson, he or she often will revert to closing their own deals to protect themselves.  The incredible downside to this approach is that the rest of the team continues to falter and fail.

Most of the time there is a culling of the herd when it comes to the salespeople.  The sales manager is usually insulated through a handful of terminations before the Turk comes for them (to borrow a football phrase).

It is for this reason that we encourage our customers to have the sales manager manage the team.  At the most, they should only have a handful of accounts.  Anything more and they will be dealing with customer items disproportionately to improving their sales team.

One last point from the article:

1. Provide managers with information on their salespeople that is systematic and both objective and subjective. It should give them actionable insight into what areas need to be improved and how to do it.

This is an area in which we can help.

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This ManageSmarter.com article - On-Board Your Sales Hires Faster - hits me where I live.  We ran into a serious issue with one of our customers where a salesperson we placed was terminated after 60 days.  I won’t go into specifics, but this gentleman never had a chance.  One anecdotal point - he never received business cards.  You get the picture.

We are working with our customer this week to establish a formalized onramping program for the next salesperson in this role.  Much, or even all, of the problems that developed were due to this small company not understanding what needs to happen to successfully launch a new salesperson.  Some of these items are rudimentary like having business cards for them on day 1 while others involve the manager-critical setting of expectations.

The truth here is that the first few months are the most formative in establishing future success:

1. Time is Fleeting
There is an opportunity in the first three to six months of a salesperson’s career at the new company to set the tone. And during this timeframe, you need to get your new hires to fully comprehend your desire for their success and that you plan on using process, methodology, coaching and technology to help them.

Exactly.  The third and final point in the article is also most relevant:

3. Belly Up to the Benchmark
Take the time before a salesperson is on board to integrate traditionally independent activities from multiple departments, and agree on the collaboration process. Create a plan that has specific objectives and milestones that pinpoint productivity from day one. Measure and track productivity, but measure in terms of activity rather than financial results. This allows for better tracking, measurement, monitoring and coaching.

We always tell our customers that they need to set activity expectations and then monitor them closely during the first 3 to 6 months.  This is the time period for course correction that sets up a successful employment with clear expectations.  Failure to engage in these management topics leads to early terminations and revolving-door territories.

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Here’s an interesting little article I stumbled across this morning from Seacoastonline.com titled Get the most out of your sales team.  The premise is simple and accurate - nonproductive salespeople are the bane of any small (or large) business.

A nonproductive sales team is among the top common dangers that cause many small businesses to fail.

Analyzed studies reveal that a large percentage of small businesses are unsuccessful because of underperforming sales people who bring in, at a minimum, 50 percent less revenue than top performers, according to researcher Dr. John Sullivan, professor of Economics at San Francisco State University.

…

Studies indicate that a common reason for poor performance in the sales department is a lack of focus and poor time management. It’s vital for struggling small businesses to get their sales team on the right track.

Those first 3 months of a new salesperson’s employment is the most critical time period in their employment.  The pattens for their employment are set during this time - expectations, rules, focus, communication…I could keep going, but you get the point.

My thought is that many small business owners are pulled in many directions and therefore cannot dedicate the needed time for their new salesperson.  Knowing this fact leads the owners to hire salespeople from their industry.  Their thought process is that an industry salesperson will require less training, if any at all.  This approach is what leads to recycling mediocrity within salespeople.

Sales success may be measured simply by results. Managers may have the opportunity to observe their staff in action and identify areas that way. However, sales assessment tools can also be a valuable way to determine what additional training may be needed to boost the success of your sales team.

These tools provide a balanced view of strengths and need-to-improve areas. They take the emotional piece of performance review out of the picture and provide the sales person with a very comprehensive evaluation, along with materials to chart out an improvement plan.

“Objectivity” is the keyword.  We use our assessments to measure a salesperson’s strength areas and weaknesses.  The key is to neutralize the weaknesses and develop the strengths.  Many times managers attempt to turn weaknesses into strength which usually ends up frustrating all parties involved in the training.

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I mentioned a certain manager last week in a post and his desire to be an “observational manager” of a new sales hire instead of a hands-on manager.  The problem is compounding itself this week as he contemplates firing the salesperson who started 1 week ago today.

These are the headaches we have to deal with in the sales hiring arena.  The new salesperson has already had one face-to-face meeting with a small prospect he located and is on the trail of 5 other companies…IN THE FIRST WEEK.  He has even accomplished this using his own computer, cell phone and resources.  He has also been afforded only 1 or 2 phone calls from the manager during this week.  That’s it.  The manager is too busy with a new operations hire while the salesperson is home office-based in another state.

So my analogy for this entire fiasco is this - The salesperson is the player on the football field attempting to score touchdowns to win the game.

The sales manager is supposed to be the coach on the sidelines calling the plays and providing the game plan that leads to victory.  He provides guidance, but he is not actually on the field executing the plays.

However, in this instance, the sales manager is acting like a sports writer sitting in the press box watching the football game down on the field.  He is critiquing the player on the field while offering nothing to assist him, like coaching.  His critique is harsh, anecdotal and detached.

Could there be a worse position than this?

The real issue here is that the manager has not taken ownership of his hire.  I have to confess, this is a first for me.  I have never seen a manager make a hiring decision and then purposely undermine it by staying detached from their managerial responsibilities.

Truth is always stranger than fiction.

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I kid you not, this approach comes from a manager of a small company that recently hired a new salesperson.  The salesperson traveled to the company for a couple days of training before his official start date.  He did this on his own dime so he could accelerate his ramp-up time.

The manager of the company was involved in the training since this salesperson would report directly to him (remember-small company).  During the training days, there was some confusion about when the salesperson should arrive in the morning.  No specific time was set, but a general schedule starting around 9am was the target.  The salesperson arrived around 9:20am.

A stack of forms was given to the salesperson to fill out before his start date, but no more specific time requirement was given.  The salesperson did not fill out all of the paperwork during the training.

A meeting was held in which the price of an integral part (that they manufacture) was going to increase substantially.  The new salesperson did not ask specific questions about the price change.

These are 3 occurrences that upset the manager.  Don’t ask.  But we asked the manager, “What was the salesperson’s response when you discussed these items with him?”

The manager’s response, “I didn’t talk to him about any of them.  I was observing him.”

Now I’ll admit there is an aspect of management that involves observation.  But a new sales hire?  My goodness, this is like the Twilight Zone.  Managers must be engaged with their salespeople including the need to guide the new salesperson through expectations.

This seems obvious to me, but I never cease to be amazed.

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I’ve been talking to numerous prospects and existing customers this week about onramping salespeople.  This topic is germane to every company that employs salespeople.

The discussions I had this week have all involved a common thread - managing the trailing indicators.  Revenue, customers, pipeline, etc.  The sales managers in these discussions were discussing the performance of their new salespeople based on the aforementioned criteria.  But this data is a trailing indicator.  Think of it as trying to drive a car by only using the rear-view mirror.

Some of these companies were frustrated with the new salesperson and skeptical of their future.  Mistake.

Onramping a salesperson is difficult because the trailing indicators are not available.  Typically, the salesperson has only been there less than 3 months so the sales manager doesn’t have a historical pipeline, closed deals or new customers to measure.  In the absence of this data, many sales managers choose to let the new salesperson sink or swim.  This approach now compounds the problem.

Onramping a new salesperson requires extra attention from the sales manager.  I think many sales managers intuitively know this and therefore prefer to hire salespeople from their industry.  Their rationale is that they will not have to invest as much time onramping these industry veterans.

However, any new salesperson needs direction from the sales manager regarding the company’s value proposition, common prospect objections, accounts to target and so forth.  More importantly, the salesperson needs their manager’s frequent feedback to guide them in their efforts.  Are they calling the right companies?  Are they using the best value proposition?  How do they handle this objection?  These are all leading indicators that direct the new salesperson to success.  Withdrawing from this need leads to frustrated salespeople, doubtful sales managers and, eventually, costly turnover.

Don’t get caught in this pitfall.  Have a plan or use us for this critical step.

I’ll close with one of our customers who had some issues a couple years ago with a salesperson we found for him.  She required much initial guidance from him which was wearing him down.  We told him to hang in there and guide her - she will learn the ropes.  Well, he did that.  Yesterday, we met with him regarding another sales position and he mentioned that his salesperson was “one in a million - a true hunter.”  We also found out she just closed a large order for them that was the talk of the company.

Focus on the leading indicators and your onramping program will become a corporate asset of the highest order.

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