further develop my own selling and sales management skills. It has been time well spent. My companies’ results have always spoken for themselves.
This is how I originally came across Jonathan Whistman and his Sales Boss framework. Based on the results we achieved, Jonathan has trained several of our teams, and his company evaluates all of our employees before they are hired. So I was delighted to read this book, as it provides readers with a framework to recognize all of the key variables that I’ve identified over the years as being “the difference that makes a difference.”
It offers great potential to progressive organizations and individuals who are listeners and learners, not sandbaggers. I have used its concepts at every one of my companies, and they work. Most importantly, however, the framework elegantly highlights the fact that selling is not a stand-alone process. To borrow from Churchill, it only represents the end of the beginning. I encourage you to read with an open mind and be ready for the transformation into a Sales Boss.
Introduction
If you have ever been on the inside of a top-performing sales team, you know it can look like magic to an outsider. The revenue piles up, in what seems like an effortless process. Everyone – vendors, suppliers, marketing prospects, customers, management, and the sales team – is entwined in an elegant dance, the result of which is increasing revenue. The truth is, it only looks magical.
It is the result of a carefully orchestrated plan. My belief is that at the center of that successful plan is the sales manager. If the company is underperforming, it is always the sales manager. Unfortunately, the opposite isn’t always the truth. If a company is performing well, it is not always the result of the sales manager! I know this seems like a harsh view.
If you are the sales manager, you get the blame when things go wrong and only partial credit when things go well. I’d suggest you get used to it, as that’s the reality in every company and if you are to succeed you must be up to this challenge. You must believe that if things are not going right, you and only you are to blame.
● If the marketing department isn’t getting the message out correctly in the right places or with the right tone, it’s your fault.
● If the customer service department is failing to deliver great service and your company’s reputation is suffering as a result, it’s your fault.
● If your company’s product is out of date and not meeting the current needs of the market, it’s your fault.
● If your company doesn’t pay enough to be competitive, it’s your fault.
● If your company isn’t [insert anything here], it’s your fault.
The power of taking full responsibility for your company’s results cannot be understated. It is critical. If you can’t adopt this mindset, save everyone a bit of trouble and get out while you still can. You will never deliver results at the highest level. There are much easier ways to make a living than managing a sales team. The rewards are great, but so is the task at hand. In fact, I call the sales manager operating at the highest level the Sales Boss. The Boss isn’t content to manage. The Boss gets results. In this book you will find the real secrets to hiring, managing, and training a sales team.
CHAPTER 1
The Work of a Sales Boss
A Sales Boss’s job is to deliver revenue that sufficiently and meaningfully exceeds the cost of delivering that revenue. If you want to be a Sales Boss, you must learn the art of getting the best results through other people. Sometimes these people will be directly on your team, but in many cases they will exist in other areas of the company, such as marketing, customer service, finance, and product development. Your success hinges on the ability to control and influence all of these spheres, as all of them impact the results of the sales team. A Sales Boss will never say, “That’s not my job.” Sales Bosses always ask themselves: “How do I influence this area that is impacting my team?”
Arguably, no other job is more critical in the success of a company than that of the Sales Boss. When a company is smaller, the salesperson is of central critical importance, but as a company grows, the importance of the individual salesperson diminishes and having a skilled manager in the role of Sales Boss becomes central and of critical importance.
In any business, nothing happens until somebody sells something. Nobody pays his or her mortgage, no kids get sent to college, and no retirements are funded until the salesperson is able to close business and get revenue coming in the door. In a company with a sales manager, the hiring, training, and success of the salespeople lie directly at the feet of the manager. The importance and significance of this role can be illustrated by a recent study that shows that 95 percent of the CEOs in mid-size companies have at some point in their careers filled the role of sales manager. Clearly, this job matters. The hopes and dreams of the entire company depend on the Sales Boss doing the job well.
In this book, we’ll start by looking at some key truths that apply to managing people. It will be critical that you dedicate yourself to becoming a student of human nature, because no sales forecast, plan, or report will ever actually result in something being sold. Selling is done by people, and people are messy. I remember an early business mentor telling me: “Business would be easy if it wasn’t for the people.”
Next, we will walk through the process of building a world-class sales organization: what to do in your first 30 days on the job, how to write a sales job advertisement, best practices for interviewing, and how to select superstar salespeople. We’ll discuss the specifics of coaching and mentoring your team as well as how to think about systems, reports, compensation, and the other moving pieces you’ll need to master in the role of Sales Boss. We will largely focus on the team directly under your control, the sales team, but the best sales leader will always remember the need to have influence throughout the company. Remember that if it needs fixing, you must find a way to fix it, even if it falls outside the official boundaries of your team. This book will prove invaluable to someone who wants to improve as a manager of the sales team, but will also serve the head of the company who wants to evaluate the performance of the company’s sales manager or who might want to add a sales management position to the company.
If you are looking for a quick checklist to evaluate how great you are as a Sales Boss or you need to evaluate the manager of your sales team, then understand that you might be oversimplifying what it takes. Read through the pages of this book and spend thoughtful and honest time asking yourself whether the portions related to being a Sales Boss describe the person you are or the person you currently have in the role. We have included a Sales Boss Scorecard on page 243 that you can use both to preview and later review each of the areas that are included in being a Sales Boss.
While I recommend reading the entire book for a full overview on all of the key components to being a great Sales Boss, you might also choose to move directly to the chapters on topics that you know you currently need help with as you build your team. Realize though that best results come from an application of all of the concepts presented in this book working in concert together. This is the secret. Why should you heed the advice in this book? Primarily, because it works. I’ve built, operated, and sold a number of companies that all depended on the ability to sell and build a sales team. I’ve “eaten my own dog food,” to borrow a phrase. I’ve kept a sales journal and recorded my personal sales metrics daily for the last 20 years.
I am writing this book after having worked directly with sales teams as a sales consultant for the last 15 years, working with some of the top brands in each niche. I have personally observed over 2,500 individual sales calls and participated in the coaching and training of these salespeople. I’ve attended many hundreds of sales meetings and observed the skills and abilities of the managers running these meetings and also helped them develop their coaching and management skills.
I can tell you that I have seen some of the best coaching and selling in the world, and I’ve also had a front-row seat to some of the worst. I’ll be able to give you real-world examples of both and share the impact that each has on the performance of a team. This knowledge