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I’ve observed something important over time about sales managers. I’ve seen that a sales manager is in a unique position to help us if we have a good relationship with them. The ways they can help us are frequently not readily apparent. Their position allows them to improve our sales skills and assist us in how to sell for our company.

“The ways they can help us are frequently not readily apparent.”

It doesn’t matter whether we think our sales manager is the best thing since cell phones or if we dislike them more than filling out call reports. They can provide real sales help if we’ve built a relationship with them. Here are some of the benefits this relationship provides:

• Territories are always being changed and/or being reassigned (once a year in many companies). The sales manager is the person who decides who gets assigned to specific territories. We all know that all territories are not created equal.

• Sales rep’s leave companies and frequently they’ll have some cherry accounts that need to be reassigned. Who do you think makes those assignments?

• They have the combination to the safe that holds the best sales leads. Do you think they give them out fairly? Of course not. They give them out to sales rep’s they like and think will best handle them.

• Who do you think is the primary influencer of budgets or quotas? There is nothing more loosey-goosey then setting sales budgets. They are very subjective. A good relationship with your sales manager will only help you here.

Sales managers are in a position to help us in many behind-the-scenes ways. The password to this sales help is relationship.

Related links: Sales Manager and Sales Representative, Working Together, Do you think your sales manager is competent?

To receive this sales blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

There have been many studies researching the main reason that some sales reps are extremely successful and some are less so. Virtually all of the research comes to the same conclusion and it is surprising in its simplicity.

Sales managers want to know this predictor because it can help them hire the right people and provide focused sales tips in order to teach them how to sell. Sales reps want to know in order to improve their sales skills in an area that will have the biggest impact. This quest for the magic pill is one of the reasons that there’s a new sales blog around every corner.

“This predictor of success is not one that you have any control over…but in a way you do.”

What is it? Time in territory. That’s right, the longer a sales rep is in his or her territory the more likely he or she is to be successful. In the math world they call this a positive correlation. As the length of time increases, so does sales volume.

I think the implications for this are significant:

• If you’re a sales rep and thinking about changing jobs, remember that you’ll have to start the clock over again. Be careful about throwing away the time in territory that you’ve already earned with your current employer.
• Sales managers, do you have a long term sales rep that is not performing like you think they could? Then get out there and encourage and nurture them. You don’t want to lose his or her time in territory.
• Changing jobs frequently can hurt a sales rep’s career and a high sales rep turnover in a company can hurt an employer.

The bottom line sales tip is that hanging in there with our sales job or, if you’re a sales manager, hanging in there with a struggling long term sales rep might be the best thing you can do for your sales volume.

To receive this sales blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

What follows is some sales advice about asking for special discounts from your sales manager for that prospect with lots of potential.

The not so effective request:

Salesperson to Sales Manager: “I have this great prospect who is going to yield us tons of future business if we can just get the first order. To be competitive they said we’ll have to discount our normal price by 38%.”
Sales Manager to Salesperson: “That’s below our cost! What do you know about them?”
Salesperson to Sales Manager: “All I know is that they need the stuff really badly and they promised us lots of future business. Oh, about our costs, they want 10,000 so we’ll cover the loss with volume. I know how to sell this prospect.”
Sales Manager to Salesperson: ???

The productive request:

Salesperson to Sales Manager: “The XYZ Company says they will buy from us if we can come off our price by 38%. Here is what I know about the decision makers, budget, competition and account potential [realistic and well prepared information provided here]. This is how I plan to demonstrate our added value in order to increase our odds of getting future higher margin business [more good information]. A realistic price quote would be 20% off our normal price. I need your approval for that discount.
Sales Manager to Salesperson: “Approved!”

When you go to your sales manager with reasonable and researched requests you’re much more likely to get a thumbs up. It will also allow you to show off your sales skills and a make for a happier sales manager. Your fellow sales pro’s are frequently going to your sales manager with a continuing chorus of “I need a big discount to get into this prospect that has tremendous future potential.” When asking for a big discount on a prospect, the sales manager needs to feel reasonably confident that the prospect will actually buy in the future and at higher margins. The key is information.

To receive this blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

Fact: As sales professionals, we are ultimately in control of our sales career. This isn’t a good thing, this is a great thing! But it also requires us to take on certain responsibilities if we want to maximize this control.

The following are five truths about our sales career:

1. We are our own best sales career counselor. No one cares as much about our career as we do, not our
employer, our manager or anyone else.
2. We are responsible for our own development and training. This may mean getting our employer to train us or for us to seek training on our own.
3. We must think beyond our current sales job; we are in a career, not a job. As I’ve written in another post, Sales Staff Turnover, few sales jobs are permanent.
4. We are ultimately our own best motivators; no one else can motivate us over the long haul.
5. The most successful sales professionals are those that stick with it. I’ve never met a number one salesperson that got to that position in 3 months - it took years and usually spanned over several employers.

Do we have 100% control of our sales career at all times? Hardly. The “Divine Director of Sales” in His heavenly office can grab the wheel from time to time, but our individual actions, and inactions, will have a huge impact on our sales career.

If you’re not already a subscriber, <click here> to receive Sales Vitamins™ by email or <click here> to subscribe to the RSS feed. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

We all know the Pareto Principle, which broadly states that 80% of the effects comes from 20% of the causes. Countless sales organizations have gotten themselves into deep trouble by mindlessly applying this principle to their sales organizations. I call it the Pareto Protocol.

Sales management thinks something like the following, “We’ve done an analysis and find that 80% of our sales comes from only 20% of our sales force. We need to fire 80% of our salesforce, which will lower our overhead and increase our profits!”

They think that if they can increase the sales of the 20%-super-producers by just 25% they won’t see any decline in revenues, while simultaneously realizing an 80% reduction in their base sales payroll. It sounds too good to be true, because it is.

I’ve seen the results when the Pareto Protocol is applied to sales organizations and it is consistently a disaster. I am fully aware that every sales organization has salespersons that need to find another career, or at the least be encouraged to work for a competitor.

I am also fully aware that every sales organization has its high producing heavy lifters, but to think that they can and will do even more lifting, all the time, is an ill-advised sales strategy.

Before your sales organization is tempted to partially or fully implement the Pareto Protocol, please consider the following:

1. Your top producers are in that position because they are already working at high capacity. Do they really have an additional 25%+ of bandwidth to give you?
2. You have salespeople at differing levels of development. Firing 80% of the sales force will undoubtedly nip many future super stars in the bud.
3. After applying the Pareto Protocol your sales force is now theoretically comprised exclusively of superstars; you’ve unintentionally created headhunter heaven. Be prepared for your superstars to be rapidly and easily gobbled up by your competitors.
4. Sometimes sales management tends to put their heads in the sand and pretend that everyone on the sales force has exactly the same opportunities. Not true. Accounts, products, geography, experience, sales management, etc. are variables that have to be accounted for and leveraged for each salesperson.

There is a normal distribution of sales capabilities within all sales organizations. Please see Sales Managers, Invest in Your Average Performers.

Sales management needs to focus on improving/removing the bottom 15%, improving the middle 70% and rewarding the top 15%. Sales management also has to look at its own skill levels at managing the sales force most effectively, but that’s for another post.

If you’re not already a subscriber, <click here> to receive Sales Vitamins™ by email or <click here> to subscribe to the RSS feed. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

“It’s not about you.” That’s the first sentence in Rick Warren’s 2002 book, The Purpose Driven Life.

While that comment has profound implications for our lives in general, it is also a necessary frame of mind for a successful sales career. We can get so obsessed with earnings, sales budgets, reports, internal meetings, schedules, etc. that we sometimes take our eyes off the elements that are most important, our customers and support team members.

The need to be respected and elevated by others is a primary human need. If we focus on ourselves we can’t effectively meet this need and it will penalize us in the long run.

All of us have unfortunately seen salespeople that treat home office support employees like trash. These salespeople believe that they are the axis of their company. Without them, everyone starves.

When salespeople have an “it’s all about me” attitude with fellow team members they are guaranteeing themselves future problems. For starters, the home office people who support them will consciously or unconsciously put the needs of these prima donnas on the back burner.

These same salespeople who don’t have a clue how to work as a team are on a short leash with sales management too (and usually don’t know it). I’ve seen it a million times. When a sales manager has a problem child like this, he or she thinks, “Mark is really not able to work with the people here at headquarters and quite frankly he’s been a pain in the neck for me too. As long as he keeps his numbers at 100% or better we’ll put up with him, but the second he starts to falter we’ll get rid of him.”

The “it’s all about me” mindset doesn’t work too well with our customers either.

Customers are offended when their salesperson thinks that customers are not the most important person in the customer-salesperson relationship. Customers are never stupid; they pick up on “it’s all about me” cues such as being chronically late to appointments and a general lack of respect.

We honestly have to feel in our heart of hearts that we are subordinate to our fellow team members and our customers. Taking ourselves off the pedestal frees us to meet the needs of our customers and team members, who will then be more open to helping us further our own careers.

A classic win-win.

If you’re not already a subscriber, <click here> to receive Sales Vitamins™ by email or <click here> to subscribe to the RSS feed. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

Summary: We need to use the correct terminology when we are talking to sales management about companies in our sales funnel.

Hardly a day goes by without my overhearing someone use the wrong terminology regarding the status of a company in their sales funnel. It really does drive me crazy. Why? It makes them look unprofessional and makes it difficult for everyone to have a clear picture of their funnel activity, including their sales manager.

There are really only five categories of companies (not “customers”) that you deal with on a daily basis.

Name. This is simply, and literally, the name of a company that you need to look into in order to determine if they should move to the next level. If they don’t meet the basic definition of your company’s business target, then throw them out and move on. An example would be any of the names on a list of leads.

Suspect. This is a company that you have most likely not contacted, but have determined that they meet the basic guidelines of your company’s target market. They are worthy of more research. A customer referral could be an example here.

Prospect. A prospect is a company that you have personally contacted and have verified the information you have about them. They definitely fit in your company’s sweet-spot for business development.

Qualified Prospect. This is a prospect that you have communicated with directly and on more than one occasion. The information you gleaned answered all of the following questions in a way that tells you that there is a high probability of converting them into a customer: Do you have access to the decision maker(s)? Is there a good fit for your products/services? Do they have the budget? Are you coming in at the right time in their buying process? Does competitor presence verify the quality of this prospect, yet not preclude further inroads?

Customer. If they have bought goods or services from you in the not too distant past and paid for them, they are a customer, then and only then.

Are you using the right terminology in your office and with your sales manager? By doing so you can improve the accuracy of information you are sharing, as well as looking like the true sales professional you are.

If you’re not already a subscriber, click here (salesvitamins.com) to subscribe and automatically receive Sales Vitamins™ as new posts become available. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

Summary: Being assertive with customers and your employer is a key to sales success. Be careful how often you use that assertiveness.

As a sales professional you primarily deal with two groups of people on a daily basis, your customers and your employer. At the beginning of the relationship with both of these entities you were handed a six-gun. A six-gun is a revolver that has six bullets in it. You get six shots and then you’re empty.

The six-gun that a customer provides you allows you to both assert yourself with them six times (and no more) while also getting their full attention each time. Once you use these six shots they’ll stop being so receptive to what you have to say. In other words, your customers will listen to your serious issues and problems a limited number of times. If you have serious issues and problems too often they’ll stop giving you an audience and you’ll lose credibility. Don’t bring every little problem you encounter to the attention of your customer; handle almost all of them yourself.

You also have a six-gun with your employer. We know as sales professionals that we must assert ourselves with headquarters or we frequently won’t get the support that we and our customers need. Just as with customers, we must also limit how often we bring problems to our employer. Handle all the everyday problems and issues yourself; only seek help from your employer for the big and important issues you encounter. Don’t go to your sales manager when you find that you’ve lost a small account; just replace them with a bigger one and be done with it. Do go to your sales manager when you need additional resources brought in to help you close a very large deal.

Remember that “assertive” means self-assured and positive. Assertiveness is a necessary trait for sales professionals to use both with their customers and their employer. However, don’t overuse the assertiveness six-gun or those you need the most (customers and employer) will stop listening to you.

Have you taken inventory lately of where you stand with your customers and your employer? Do you still have some bullets left?

If you’re not already a subscriber, click here (salesvitamins.com) to subscribe and automatically receive Sales Vitamins™ as new posts become available. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

Summary: Let’s get real; salespeople really don’t like making customer calls with their sales manager. It doesn’t really have to be that way if both parties follow some guidelines.

Do you hate making customer calls with your sales manager? If you’re a sales manager, do you dread making account calls with your sales team members?

When I was selling I did what most other salespeople do when their sales manager works with them. I would set up my day so that I only called on my best customers and those prospects that were on the precipice of closing. I always had high volume sales days when I worked with my sales manager as a result.

This kind of not-so-productive strategy goes on everyday around the globe with salespeople and their managers. But it makes no sense. I’m going to suggest the following guidelines to sales managers and salespeople when working together:

Sales Managers

1. Focus on one or two things when working with a salesperson. You can’t effectively help them with 18 things at once.

2. Put your money where your mouth is. Actually demonstrate to the salesperson how to prospect, how to demonstrate products and how to handle customer service problems by taking the lead on those types of calls.

3. Tell the salesperson you’re working with that you specifically do not want to go to their best accounts. Let the salesperson know that you want to help them with their problem customers.

4. Let the salesperson know that you want them to be themselves, use their own personality and not try to mirror you.

5. Be open to learning some new things from the salesperson.

Salespeople

1. When you work with your sales manager be sure to be on time and be prepared. Don’t get in the car with your sales manager and say, “So, what do you want to do today?”

2. Don’t take your sales manager to your best customers. Take him or her to your problem customers. When they were a salesperson they had plenty of problem customers too and they understand.

3. When your sales manager makes a suggestion to you, be sure to immediately implement their idea. This shows the sales manager that you are listening and it also gives them a chance to provide you with feedback.

4. Be yourself. You will not do well if you are trying to be a clone of your sales manager. Your sales manager has his or her style and you have yours. Listen to and incorporate what they are teaching you, but do it with your own personality.

Both sales manager and salesperson can benefit by calling on customers together. If you are a salesperson, quit trying to set up the perfect day; let your sales manager help you with your problem customers. If you are a sales manager, see your role as a doctor. As a sales manager you are not there to observe healthy customers; you are there to help the salesperson with their sick ones.

If you’re not already a subscriber, click here (salesvitamins.com) to subscribe and automatically receive Sales Vitamins™ as new posts become available. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

Summary: A recent survey of employees found that the majority of sales and marketing employees question their manager’s leadership abilities.

SkillSoft recently completed a survey that questioned all levels of employees in IT, sales and marketing, customer service, finance, HR, etc. regarding the competency of their boss. This survey is interesting because it is one of the few that includes sales and marketing employees. Below are some of the more interesting findings.

65% of all employees (regardless of department) felt that their boss was a competent leader.

30% of all employees (regardless of department) felt their boss was not qualified for their job.

49% of sales and marketing employees felt their manager was a good leader.

While almost 2/3’s of all employees felt that their boss was a capable leader, less than half of sales and marketing employees gave the thumbs up to their manager’s leadership abilities. How can we explain the lower scores for sales management?

1. A good salesperson does not always translate to a good sales manager. There are many good salespeople that are promoted into management based on their sales budget attainment and not their leadership abilities. This is unfortunate because the employer loses a good salesperson and simultaneously creates management problems when the wrong person is promoted.

2. Sales positions are normally held by employees that are younger than the average age of all the employees at a company. Younger people tend to be more cynical about their manager. As we get older we become more accepting of our manager’s shortcomings and our own.

3. A sales position almost always carries with it a quota or budget. The sales manager has a budget that is the total of those for his or her salespeople. Sales managers frequently find themselves in crunch situations on their sales budget and subsequently apply pressure to individual salespeople.

Sales management can be a tough and thankless job. It looks good from the outside but once you become a sales manager you realize that you are responsible for everyone’s sales budget. Furthermore, the new sales manager quickly finds that they can only indirectly influence individual salespersons’ efforts and abilities. The next time you see your sales manager give ‘em a hug; it’s not as easy as they probably make it look.

If you’re not already a subscriber, click here (salesvitamins.com) to subscribe and automatically receive Sales Vitamins™ as new posts become available. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer