Three Greatest Traits Of A Sales Manager

Three Greatest Traits Of A Sales Manager

Today’s Sales Manager is part trainer, part motivator and part communicator. Managers are under constant pressure to bring in the sales number and develop the sales staff.

I have been under that pressure in my selling career. Whether I developed a new sales staff for a start up company or managed a group of seasoned professionals; training and motivation are the key arrows in my quiver.

Training and motivation are the twin sails that launch sales numbers and sales careers. Without these sails, the manager is faced with a rudderless ship or worse, a sales team than does not produce, has no direction, and is faced with constant turn over.

Sales Manager as Trainer

The key elements in training a sales force are creativity and repetition. We all learn in various ways. The three most effective methods of learning are:

Visual – Learning that involves the eyes.

Auditory – Learning that involves the ears.

Kinesthetic – Learning that involves the feelings and emotions.

Sales managers who are good at training will know the learning styles of their team. They will use a creative process along with their team’s learning method to introduce new selling techniques. Phone based selling requires a high degree of auditory expertise. One sales manager recorded his teams phone conversations and used them in training sessions. As his team heard themselves, they began to understand tone, inflection, and how their message sounded as part of the selling process.

Another sales manager videotaped sessions where sales people interacted with other reps as prospects and customers. Areas such as initial contact, value presentation and closing were played out. This was a strong visual training tool to show where improvements could be made with the ultimate goal of increased sales.

The creative process is unlimited. Audio and video recording are two examples. Outside consultants, surveys, personality profiles, and on-line communication tests such as www.straight-talk-now.com are additional tools that sales managers can use to assist them in training. Why not enlist the help of the sales team and have them develop part of the training program? This adds another level of creative thought and brings increased credibility based on them successful selling techniques already in use by your team.

Along with creativity comes repetition. I have found that presenting a training concept once does not have the lasting impact that I desire. I will present techniques and selling methods at least 5 times before they become part of the team’s tools. The reason repetition is required is that sales professionals are on information overload. We get information from television, Email, Voicemail, the Internet, other departments in the company, competitive data, features and benefits comparisons, and documentation from Marketing. With all this demand on our time and our minds, the only way for a sales manager to produce long term results in their training sessions is with repetition. Again, I appeal to the creative process. Once you get a great new training idea, use different ways to deliver the message so that your sales team does not get frustrated with "the same old thing."

Sales Manager as Motivator

The sales manager as motivator is a blend of cheerleader, counselor, and coach. As a motivator, you can be on the sidelines of the deal, cheering your sales professional on as they close that key deal. You can be the one listening as they tell you how the "big deal" was lost. And, as the coach, you are the one providing guidance and direction when you see your star sales professional stray off course. Your perspective on the selling process allows you a higher vantage point so your coaching leads them back to the basics within the process to win the next deal.

One of my biggest challenges as a sales manager is knowing how to motivate the veteran sales professional differently than the new recruit, fresh with enthusiasm yet limited experience. This challenge grows in proportion to the size of your sales team. Susan Larkin, Human Resources Manager at Unilearn gave me a great analogy. When motivating sales professionals, you have to figure out the combination that unlocks their potential. This brings to mind the old movies where someone was trying to crack a safe. Once the right combination to numbers were dialed into the lock, the operator would place their hand on the lever, hold their breath, and turn. When the sales manager finds the right combination, the lock opens and you have insight as to what motivates that individual sales pro. Note, not all people are motivated by the same thing, it takes the discovery process to find each individuals combination.

What about new recruits vs. the seasoned professional? What about the plateau syndrome where sales reps are not growing and the moral inside your team begins to deteriorate? What really motivates a team of sales professionals? As I said before, this challenge grows in proportion to size of your sales team.

First, let me say there are no easy answers and each team is different. Second, let me provide you some suggestions that I’ve used that have proven successful. These suggestions come from years of both direct selling and sales management. People new in sales bring energy and enthusiasm to your sales team. They are willing to try all of your suggestions because there is no negative history or point of reference where these suggestions did not work.

As the sales manager for Unilearn, an Oregon based start up, I hired four new sales reps and created a network of (50) independent "knowledge agents." Since we were launching a fresh new approach to developing educational courseware, we started from a clean slate. The key motivator was the sharing of information that was accumulated from introducing this new product into the market. I shared both wins and losses and the prospect feedback (good and bad.) We celebrated the wins, the positive press Unilearn got, and the comments from Fortune 200 companies we focused on. This gave the sales team and knowledge agents the "big picture" of being part of the winning team. My point: new sales reps need to celebrate wins early and often in the sales process. As the sales manager you are responsible for these victory points in the development of their career.

As the VP of Sales for a computer integration company, the sales team was more mixed, with a strong blend of sales professionals who I respected as experts. Motivating them took more than celebrating the wins and positive customer feedback. After spending time with these people, both on sales calls and away from the office I began to see they were motivated by giving back to the sales process what they’ve learned along the way. So, I empowered them to become mentors to the junior sales reps on the team. The seasoned professionals began teaching their craft to others. When the less experienced sales reps won, the celebration was due to the training from the mentors. The whole team won, and I, as the manager, just facilitated that process to that it ran smoothly and the sales numbers were still hit.

Sales Manager as Communicator

Every sales manager has faced something called a plateau syndrome where sales are off and there seems to be no energy inside the team. What can we do as managers to break this? Some managers resort to shouting, lashing out with threats, or even firing some of the sales reps to drive the point home and raise the energy. Personally, that method might bring short-term results, yet leaves the root cause untouched.

I’ve faced this syndrome several times. It takes everyone on the team to help break out of this downward spiral. Recently I took a survey asking the two questions:

What are the Top 2 things that motivate you as part of the selling team?

What are the Top 2 things that de-motivate you as part of the selling team?

Although my survey was limited to 25 sales professionals, the results have proven true across other selling organizations. The top two motivators were identical to the top two de-motivators.

Motivators


De-motivators
Well Defined Goals Ambiguous / unrealistic goals
Clear / constant communication Inconsistent communication

Setting well-defined goals takes creativity and repetition. Similar to the sales manager as trainer, the goals you set need to be well defined and understood by each member’s learning methodology. At Jones Business Systems, we needed to have a month bigger than any month in the history of the company. To drive the point home visually, I had a 6-foot thermometer made where we could post our daily numbers. Everyone in the company knew the goal. It was well defined, visual, and attracted a great deal of attention. We went on to have the greatest month in the company’s 5-year history. If your goals are set too high or so clouded nobody can understand them, think of the frustration that is causing your sales team. Perhaps that is why they’ve hit a plateau.

The sales manager as a communicator is a critical component to their success. Training and motivating requires communication. As it relates to a team’s motivational success, communication must make its desired mark on the team. Communication must be clear, no hidden agendas, no playing favorites or sending a message that means one thing to one person and something different to another. Your team will stagnate trying to determine what the message means. Constant communication can take the form of visual media, audio tapes or exercises that the team participates in. Make sure the message has repetition via sight, sound and feeling to attack all the learning styles.

Part trainer, part motivator, and part communicator, the sales manager’s role is both necessary and complex. By striving for better training, we get the byproduct of increased motivation. By concentrating on better communication we stand a greater chance our sales team will not hit many plateaus. And by finding the combinations that unlock our selling professional’s potential, our teams will be ready for anything.

Curt Tueffert is the president of Brick Wall Motivation. His web site is www.tueffert.com. He can be contacted for speaking engagements and sales seminars at tueffert@aol.com or 281-798-8973.