{"id":2177,"date":"2009-11-24T14:45:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-24T19:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/11\/the-most-dangerous-sales-manager\/"},"modified":"2009-11-24T14:36:31","modified_gmt":"2009-11-24T19:36:31","slug":"the-most-dangerous-sales-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/11\/the-most-dangerous-sales-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Dangerous Sales Manager"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have had the opportunity to work for many different sales managers over my career.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen many styles, but I think <a href=\"http:\/\/saleshq.monster.com\/training\/articles\/3203-4-leadership-styles-to-avoid?page=2&amp;utm_content=shq_c1_20091124_lead&amp;utm_source=nlet\" target=\"_blank\">this article in SalesHQ.com<\/a> hits upon the most dangerous style:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Good Buddy is everyone\u2019s friend. Managing is a popularity contest that he intends to win. He\u2019ll be a great drinking buddy, a top notch shoulder to cry on, a guy you can trust to cover for you. He\u2019ll make sure the office atmosphere is loose, that everyone feels welcome, that the office is a fun place to be.<\/p>\n<p>Discipline? Well, that\u2019s not something you\u2019ll find in his office. An insistence on hitting quota? Something else that isn\u2019t a priority. Coaching? Nope. Lots of back slapping and high fiving, but no coaching. Decisions? Don\u2019t expect The Good Buddy to make the hard decisions because he might hurt someone\u2019s feelings.<\/p>\n<p>The Good Buddy is weak and lets his team members run the office. Ultimately, most everyone in his office ends up unhappy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The reason this style is so dangerous is that the first order of sales management is holding salespeople accountable.\u00a0 Accountable to their forecasts, their activities, their communication, their sales, etc.\u00a0 It is the ultimate coaching position that requires the leader to have earned the respect of his or her team.<\/p>\n<p>The Good Buddy I worked for used to hold court in his office for most of the day.\u00a0 It was always stories, jokes, happy hour plans, etc.\u00a0 Lunches were 2 hour investments.\u00a0 Sales discussions were minimal.\u00a0 Strategy discussions were non-existent.\u00a0 We were simply expected to do our job, make our numbers and don\u2019t bother him.\u00a0 It was completely dysfunctional and ineffective.<\/p>\n<p>The sales manager was eventually fired, but the damage was done to the company.\u00a0 It eventually folded in the mid-1990\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>This style is one of the reasons why <a href=\"http:\/\/www.selectmetrix.com\/Assessing_Main.html\" target=\"_blank\">objective assessments<\/a> are a critical piece to any successful sales manager hiring process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have had the opportunity to work for many different sales managers over my career.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen many styles, but I think this article in SalesHQ.com hits upon the most dangerous style: The Good Buddy is everyone\u2019s friend. Managing is a popularity contest that he intends to win. He\u2019ll be a great drinking buddy, a top notch shoulder to cry on, a guy you can trust to cover for you. He\u2019ll make sure the office atmosphere is loose, that everyone feels welcome, that the office is a fun place to be. Discipline? Well, that\u2019s not something you\u2019ll find in his office. An insistence on hitting quota? Something else that isn\u2019t&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/11\/the-most-dangerous-sales-manager\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31,4],"tags":[1449,1363,213,1450],"class_list":["post-2177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-sales-management","tag-hiring-sales-manager","tag-sales-leader","tag-sales-manager","tag-weak-sales-manager"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-z7","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":617,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/01\/the-selling-sales-manager-paradox\/","url_meta":{"origin":2177,"position":0},"title":"The Selling Sales Manager Paradox","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We here at The Hire Sense are diehard hockey fans so pardon my analogy. Jacques Lemaire is the head coach of our Minnesota Wild. As head coach, he is obviously in charge of running practices, developing players, coaching during the game and, ultimately, winning games. He does all this without\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1370,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/01\/press-box-management\/","url_meta":{"origin":2177,"position":1},"title":"Press Box Management","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"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.\u00a0 The problem is compounding itself this week as he contemplates firing the salesperson who started 1 week ago today. These are the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Onramping&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Onramping","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/onramping\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1634,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/06\/subtle-hiring-tells\/","url_meta":{"origin":2177,"position":2},"title":"Subtle Hiring Tells","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm thinking of the poker colloquialism \"tell.\"\u00a0 From Wikipedia: A tell in poker is a detectable change in a player's behavior or demeanor that gives clues to that player's assessment of his hand. A player gains an advantage if he observes and understands the meaning of another player's tell, particularly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":80,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/06\/managing-a-sales-team\/","url_meta":{"origin":2177,"position":3},"title":"Managing a Sales Team","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Keys to Managing a Sales Team is a quick read from the abcnews.com career center. The article has hands-on advice (which we like) that cut to quick of effective sales management - at least in a limited scope. One item I want to pull from the article: Do you adapt\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":591,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/01\/coaching-salespeople-with-focus\/","url_meta":{"origin":2177,"position":4},"title":"Coaching Salespeople With Focus","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"All sales managers must coach their salespeople. Many do so in a cursory manner, but that is typically not the most effective solution. I'm catching up on Selling Power articles today and kicked up this one - Coach Early and O.F.T.E.N. I'm typically not a fan of acrostics, but anything\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Communication&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1632,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/06\/fatal-assumptions-of-sales-managers\/","url_meta":{"origin":2177,"position":5},"title":"Fatal Assumptions Of Sales Managers","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Good article here from ManageSmarter.com titled Can Training Fix Manager Transition Troubles?\u00a0 The primary topic is transitioning sales managers from sales rep roles.\u00a0 This is now small task and we have seen many crash and burn.\u00a0 The author provides some insightful commentary into this common problem. This section truly stands\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Leadership&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Leadership","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/leadership\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2177"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2178,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177\/revisions\/2178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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