Part of our service to our customers is to help them write an effective offer letter to their top candidate. We adjust some words based on the candidate’s style, motivations and rewards to make the offer talk more directly to their preferences. One thing crossed my mind recently in regards to sales titles. Many times we see some of our smaller-sized customers providing “big” titles for the new salesperson. The obvious goal in some instances is to provide more title and less money. That works in banks but not so much for B2B salespeople. Nonetheless, here is an example of where the title can cause trouble. We have a customer… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series-Understanding Motivational Needs
Another sales management trait this week. Have you ever worked for a tyrant? Someone who had to have it his or her way only? Did you have to adjust completely to them? Understanding Motivational NeedsThe ability to understand the needs and desires of employees enough that this knowledge may be used to motivate them to succeed. The ability to encourage a self-starting, active pursuit of goals and objectives. A strength in this area is indicative of a manager who understands that everyone is unique and motivated by different things. They value individual desires and take the time to get to know an individual’s specific motivators. A manager with a weakness in this trait will tend… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Management – Top-Down or Bottom-Up
Here is a sales management question for you – in terms of coaching and developing your sales team, is it best to focus on your top performers to make them better or your bottom performers to build them up? I have recently read articles that argue from each side of this equation. It’s a good question. My position would be to manage top-down with a focus on your top performers. The main reason I take this position is retention. I would qualify this position by assessing the top salespeople and adjusting my management style slightly to match their preferred communication, motivation and reward pattern. Simply put, some top salespeople are… Read More
Continue ReadingTelecommuting Toolbox
It is difficult to classify telecommuting as a trend – it is more than that today. We encounter telecommuting in almost every position we source, even some where you wouldn’t expect to find it. Managers must have the skills to be effective with their team even though they may not seem them face-to-face on a daily basis. ManageSmarter.com offers up Talking Telecommuting which provides some excellent tool suggestions for a manager faced with a geographically-dispersed sales force. The example company is Cisco which obviously has some powerful tools for keeping remote workers informed. Check out this proprietary tool: Cisco ensures it’s easy for mobile workers to find and use internal… Read More
Continue Reading7 Sales Manager Difference Makers
ManageSmarter.com offers 7 suggestions for sales managers to make them more effective: 1. Do not micromanage people 2. Take time when increasing expenses 3. Take care of your “stars” 4. Be teachable 5. Focus on the things that make a major difference 6. Be sure to understand the ‘hierarchy’ 7. Earn the respect of the people you are leading You will have to read the article to get the details for each point. But here is the take-away from point #5: There is a tendency to get caught up in making changes to areas that are irrelevant to productivity yet have a negative impact on the staff. Let the little… Read More
Continue ReadingTales From The Sales Manager Crypt
We have encountered many moronic sales management moves that lead to a dysfunctional sales team. Needless to say, this ManageSmarter.com article – How to Ruin a Sales Force – caught my attention. The bulleted article is well worth the quick read, but let me call out a couple points I particularly appreciated: Corrupted jobs. Decontaminate jobs that are degraded with non-selling tasks such as “fetch and get” after-the-sale customer service duties. We’re living this one today. We have a new salesperson at one of our logistics customers who is actually doing deliveries himself. The reason is that the operations dept. is not reliable to complete the deliveries. Unbelievable. And a common… Read More
Continue ReadingA Tourniquet For Talent Bleed
Last week, Lee posted about a company that terminated a salesperson via voicemail while he was at home sick. That’s low, but this company is one that has a long-standing problem regarding turnover. We know this salesperson fairly well and we know he has significant sales talent. Yet he is one of many strong salespeople who have left this company or been terminated by them. It is almost part of their culture (that’s not hyperbole). This CareerJournal.com article – Best Way to Save: Analyze Why Talent Is Going Out the Door – addresses this very issue. Rather than deny a talent bleed, executives should carefully analyze why it is happening.… Read More
Continue ReadingTermination By Voicemail
A couple of days ago I put up a post about the rise of email terminations and how inappropriate I thought that practice was. Well I must say I have now learned of one example of a termination that does this one better (or should that be WORSE!). I talked with a salesperson this morning and would like to pass along his story of his termination experience. The President of his division was going to be in town and wanted to meet with him so they scheduled a time to meet in the morning. When the day came the salesperson was in bed with the flu so he called his… Read More
Continue ReadingDefining Experience
Quick hitter – say a candidate has worked at a particular company for 5 years. When phone screening and interviewing them about that experience, it is important to determine if they have 5 years of unique experience or 5 years of the first year over and over. That is a twisted sentence, but I hope you get my point. We’ve run into this issue with salespeople in previous positions. Did the salesperson grow in the position over their tenure or did they simply perform the same tasks repeatedly over their tenure. Don’t underestimate the importance of this distinction. We’ve seen decent salespeople go “stale” over time and, in most instances, it… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Gaining Commitment
Sales managers need to focus their team on specific objectives. This requires the manager to gain commitment from each salesperson…on a regular basis. It is an important aspect of successful coaching and empowering the employee. Gaining CommitmentThis ability develops and invokes a self-starting attitude in employees in their pursuit of goals. It is the capacity to motivate employees to do their best and to provide them with concrete, practical ideas and methods by which they can achieve their goals. A sales manager with a strength in this trait will be able to effectively use empathetic ability, communication skills and leadership ability to create a sense of personal motivation to be successful… Read More
Continue Reading