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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