you’ll be amazed at the results.
Finally, you’re the head of your department, and you must make decisions as such. The mindset of working for the sales team doesn’t mean you let them run the show. You’re in control, you’re in charge – you just accomplish that by pulling rather than pushing.
Ultimately, you are the person who will answer for the performance, or lack thereof, of the sales team. You have to set and enforce the goals, critique and improve performance and develop your salespeople.
Are you in sales or are you in management? Well, the short answer is both. And it’s not always easy to separate the two. You should never be anything less than authentic and genuine, but there are times where you must wear one of the two hats and do so diplomatically.
For example, the powers that be will make decisions that adversely affect your department. As a member of management, you must fully support what’s best for the company first and foremost. Although you may not agree with all the decisions, you must keep those opinions behind closed doors and never share them with your salespeople. Their attitudes and their opinions are shaped in large part by yours. How you respond and react is how they will respond and react.
While there are things you cannot share with the sale department, understand there will be things senior management doesn’t share with you. It’s not because they don’t trust you, it’s simply not something you need to be involved in. Don’t get upset because you don’t know every single thing going on just because you’re a manager now. One of these days you’ll be glad to be left out of a few.
The value of going to bat for your team
Although agreement with management is a good call, there are also times when you must support your sales team or an individual sales person and go to bat for her. As a young salesperson, the company I worked for was acquiring another. As the lead salesperson on a project, I had made a commitment to a new customer that some members of management disagreed with, and at one point, overrode. My sales manager at the time backed me up and stood his ground basically saying, “If Butch told them we’d do it, we need to do it.” He knew my personal credibility was on the line and knew I felt betrayed by those who sought to overturn the decision.
I could not have been more indebted to him for sticking up for me and having my back. I felt a great need to show him that his confidence in me was not misplaced and though that happened more than 20 years ago, I still remember it to this day.
I always looked for and sought out opportunities to show my salespeople I had their back. I didn’t create situations or orchestrate drama, but if the situation presented itself, I remembered how I felt and wanted them to feel the same.
There are no hard and fast rules as to how to pick your battles – it’s just something you need to get a feel for. You’ll know it when you see it and if you put the customer first, the employee second, you’ll make the right decision the majority of the time.
But, never be afraid to change course. If you make a mistake, admit it and move on. You’re human.
It’s clear that you work for the sales team instead of the team working for you. However, one of the biggest traps to avoid is to not let yourself be drawn into being nothing but a secretary for the sales team. And trust me, it’s easy to get drawn in.
As far as you can according to industry and company policies, provide your salespeople with not only the responsibility but also the ability to make decisions for themselves up to a certain point. Whether it’s pricing, terms, or other considerations, there is no way you can make every decision needed to operate a successful sales team. If you could, you wouldn’t really need all those salespeople.
One of your first orders of business is to provide your sales team with the tools, resources, and other data needed to make decisions. Otherwise you’ll spend your day on phone call after phone call discussing minute pricing details and so forth.
After you give your team members the resources to make their own decisions, you must establish parameters where they have the capacity to make good decisions – decisions that produce profitable results. With that you have two kinds of salespeople:
✔ The doer: This person makes every possible decision. She makes commitments not only on areas you’ve given her authority to, but may well step over that in an effort to not let anyone stand between her and her customer. Your biggest challenge with this salesperson is to keep them reigned in; keep them from becoming a Maverick who is off doing their own thing regardless of company policy.
✔ The thinker: No matter what you do, this person won’t make a decision. She wants your input, feedback, and endorsement on everything she does – before she does it. The thinker overthinks and develops the old paralysis by analysis on even the smallest decisions. Your biggest challenge with this type of salesperson is to have her understand something I heard a long time ago: “Done is better than perfect.”
Here’s where being a manager comes in. You must successfully handle both types – the doer and the thinker. Let the doer have enough room to maneuver but keep her from breaking ranks and encourage or prod the thinker to make a decision.
Let all team members know that if you have an issue with a decision they make you’ll sit down and discuss it in private.
The only way your team learns to make better decisions is by making mistakes and having you tell them and show them how to better handle that situation in the future.
You have to do the same thing with the person making all the decisions. The doer will overstep her bounds at times, and you’ll have to let her know you appreciate her desire to satisfy the customer, but that she must follow proper protocol.
The bottom line is to empower your people to grow their sales and solve customers’ problems. Avoid creating a hierarchy where the simplest solution to a customer problem requires moving heaven and earth.
It pays to solve problems sensibly
A few years ago, I had an issue with my satellite television provider – a provider I’d been with for almost 20 years. For whatever reason, the box atop my television went out and required a service technician to come out and replace it. I got in touch with the company, and the company set the appointment for 11 days later. Eleven days! Needless to say, I wasn’t happy. You can bet if I were ordering its service I would’ve seen someone the next day, and I felt I was being pushed down the priority list.
So, I requested the entire month free (roughly $130) or I would call the competition, who I was sure would gladly accept my business. Believe it or not, I was told my provider could not give me a free month, but it could offer me a one-time $50 retention credit to stay with it and it’d discount my bill $50 a month for a year.
Do the math: I offered a