Equation Research, in one of their surveys, asked nearly 300 sales managers this question: “How many hours per week do you spend coaching your salespeople?” Survey says…
37% said less than 3 hours
36% said between 3-5 hours
17% said between 5-7 hours
Translation: 90% of sales managers spend less than 1 day per week feeding and caring for salespeople.
Now who, in their right mind, would ever consider adopting a dog or cat with no intention of feeding it, walking it, petting it, or spending quality time with it? And pets aren’t even people!
Reality check…Without new sales revenue and customers your company begins to die. Therefore, what could possibly be a better use of your time than coaching and/or working with the hunters that are out there trying to kill something for you every day?
After spending 40+ years in the selling universe I realize and understand that much of a sales manager’s time is sequestered by upper management in completing useless reports and providing redundant administration. With that as a given, when reality finally dawns on you, you have to just buck up and carve out a reasonable amount of time for your sellers, realizing your job security rests on their success.
OK, now that you get it, who should you work with? Common sense always dictates that you first spend time with the new and the needy. These two groups are your future and are the ones whom you can influence the most, sooner rather than later. In the process, don’t neglect the seasoned workhorses, as these are your veterans that carry the load every month. You will learn tidbits while working with the veterans that you can in-turn share with the new and needy. Since these vets thrive on praise and covet success and status, budget some time for them.
All three groups, the new, the needy, and the veterans tend to react to you the same way. They equate the amount of time you spend with them with how much you care for them. Hmmm. That’s pretty much the same way your kids relate to you, eh? That might be a paradigm shift for you, but it’s a fact.
There are four main purposes for fieldwork:
1. Teach and improve the skills of your sales folks – In order to accomplish this purpose, you need to be able to show them a picture of what it’s supposed to look like. If you’ve never sold for a living, this will be much more difficult.
2. Praise their progress and reward them – Salespeople are so used to getting beat up by management, they will follow you like the Pied Piper if you praise them for something you observe.
3. Catch them doing something right – Managers by nature tend to pick apart everything sales reps do. That’s too easy…Work hard to look closer at their performance and catch them doing something right and then brag about it. You will both be glad you did.
4. Change the score, rather than keep score – Your salespeople are expecting the same ole ranking system they’ve seen in every sales job they’ve ever had. Break that “tradition” by only sighting two of the “worst first” observations you make. When they don’t receive the typical list of “19 things that must be improved before the next full moon” from you, they will begin to see you in a different light.
In Part II of this “care and feeding diatribe”, we will look at the 3 types of field training calls you should be conducting, along with the 2 types of feedback that your reps should be receiving, following your fieldwork sessions.
Before you disappear, how about commenting below in the Speak Your Mind area about your personal experiences while working shoulder to shoulder with your manager/sales rep.
Do you really want to be a better sales manager? Then you should consider providing your sales reps their own personal copy of Sell is NOT a Four Letter Word. You can get a free peek at the 8 chapters, 116 segments, and 274 pages of the book here.
© 2014 Robinson Training Solutions, LLC
