Expectations - the Sales Manager Edition

We have discussed some of the expectations of your new company in the last post.? Let’s now review some of the expectations for your new manager.?

This was more difficult for me as I am currently a sales manager.? I had to get up to the 30,000 feet level to re-assess how I am functioning as a sales manager and leader.? This actually helped me to think through what I am doing and expecting.

Ouch.

What expectations should I have? Let's review below.

Desire and Effort

The first two things I really want to see are desire and effort.? Most everything else we can teach.? Technical knowledge and sales knowledge can be taught, coached, and trained over time.? Desire and effort cannot.? The key word here is “time.”? In the industry I serve currently, having solid technical knowledge CAN shorten the time it takes to be successful.? As we all have seen, just knowing how to do something and being proficient (the technical knowledge part) does not equate success in selling that you can actually help another person to succeed.

Desire is your “why” for doing this job.? We discussed this in a previous post.? Desire is one of the intangible qualities that shows up when you have headwinds, you’ve had a bad day, your car hits a tire tread on I-24 causing significant damage to most everything underneath, you’ve heard “no” so many times it almost hurts, and any number of other circumstances that are less than ideal.? Desire keeps you going.

Effort is what connects your desire to succeed with productive activity.? Desire wills you to make another call and effort dials the numbers.?

I know this job is going to test a new salesperson.? I can’t see desire.? I can see effort.? As Admiral McRaven says, “don’t ever, ever ring the bell.”

Honesty and Transparency

These are self-explanatory.? Your manager will most likely NOT live next door to you.? He or she will not come to your house and make sure you are leaving to visit customers.? It is on you and your integrity to do the best job possible, to be trustworthy.? It is a well agreed upon fact that if a sales manager needs to micromanage a salesperson who is three states away, she or he hired the wrong person.?

Your customers will learn this of you as well.? Do what you say and say what you do.? This phrase sounds cliché, but it is accurate.? The people who will be your customers are putting their trust in you to deliver what you agree to deliver.? Always make sure to do that or let them know as soon as you know if there is a hiccup.? I have been involved with special tools for over 20 years.? Some of the solutions are very expensive.? The customers we are working with have put their name on the project.? The inability of the companies to properly support them can damage the customers’ careers.?

Transparency goes hand-in-hand with honesty.? My expectation is a new salesperson to tell me when they do not understand a topic, whatever “it” is.? I can’t help if I don’t know.? This is honesty and transparence in their most raw and clear terms.? A good leader cannot help if they do not know the reality.?

These concepts fit nicely with the Stockdale Paradox.? This concept, introduced by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great, details how Admiral James Stockdale dealt with this time in captivity as the senior ranking POW held at the Hanoi Hilton.? The concept states this:

“Retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties while, at the same time, confronting the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they may be.” ?It’s a paradox because these two concepts rarely reside in the same space.? Read for yourself is my suggestion.

Learning

Be open to learning in whatever form it presents itself.? As we discussed in an earlier post, I will test this by sending over to a new salesperson two books to start.? That is to prime the pump.?

Since I went into sales full time in 2003, I have listened to and read more books than I can remember.? Zig Ziegler, Jim Rohn, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, Napoleon Hill, Jeb Blount, Mike Weinberg, Anthony Iannarino, Jim Collins, Tony Morris, Jocko Willink… and the list goes on.?

I’ve read Good to Great at least 7 times since 2006 and listened to it twice as many times.? I have most of Jeb Blount’s, all of Mike Weinberg’s, all of Anthony Iannarino’s, most of Zig’s, and many other authors’ books.? You can tell what books I find the most value in – I will have them in various formats – eBooks, hard copy, and audiobooks.? This way I can pull them out wherever I am to find the information I need.?

Books.? Podcasts.? Online learning.? Find what works for you and do it.? You are going to be driving a good bit of your time.? Use the time wisely.? I don’t listen to talk radio or news channels.? It’s mostly negative or debating topics I can do nothing about and is designed to raise your blood pressure anyway.? I do listen to music periodically when driving in the evening.? I always listen to books and podcasts.?

“But books cost money.? Shouldn’t the company provide them?”

It depends on if you want to be spoon fed or sit at the table with the adults and feed yourself.?

Your call.

Offer solutions

Here’s a tip – no company is perfect.? I have a theory each company has the same number of problems. It’s just that the problems are in different places.? A great commission plan at one company that is transparent and easy to follow turns into a variable compensation plan that requires advanced degrees in mathematics, accounting, and philosophy to understand at another company.?

Yes, you should have seen this during the interview process.? But think for a second.? When dating your spouse or significant other, did you introduce them to the crazy conspiracy theorist uncle or the aunt who carries on conversations with herself and two others no one can see but her on your first date?? Of course, you didn’t.? You waited until after the wedding to do that.?

You are going to run into problems.? Please do not call your manager with a problem and not have a potential, realistic solution to discuss as well.? If you don’t have a solution, own that and ask for help in developing a solution.? Before taking this step, at least think through the situation and develop what might be a plausible solution even if the conversation is prefaced with, “I’m not sure if this is possible, but….”? Doing this makes the conversation with your manager more about how to handle the potential solution than spending time and energy wading through the emotions of the situation, diagnosing the problem, developing a solution, and then determining how to handle the solution.

Coachability

Allowing your manager to coach you comes with observations, answering questions, and being stretched.? I do not like being watched as I work.? Ask anyone who knows me.? However, the best learning I have had was from someone else seeing my blind spots and pointing them out to me.?

All of us need a coach.?

End of discussion.?

If you want to watch something that will help you understand the importance of coaching, watch a TED Talk delivered by Atul Gawande.? Search on YouTube.? It is 17 minutes long and you will not regret it.

If your manager is unwilling, incapable, or both of coaching you, find someone who will.?

1:1’s

As a manager, my goal is to conduct a 1:1 every month with the salespeople I am responsible to lead and manage.? These are not hours long ordeals where we break out the bright light, strap you to a chair, and conduct an interrogation.? We cover three topics:

1.????? Results from the previous month and year-to-date

2.????? Pipeline health and coverage (think what new opportunities were created, advanced further into the sales process, and closed)

3.????? Activities (if we need to do this)

(Thank you, Mike Weinberg.)

My request is to have your pipeline current and know your results.? If the first two are weak, be prepared because we will look at your calendar.?

As a new salesperson, reviewing your calendar is part of learning your new profession.? This part is meant to be a help.

Hopefully you noticed I did not dwell on getting results. As a new salesperson, you have enough to digest, learn, understand, and apply. The results will follow. All you can control are your actions and reactions. Do what you can and continue to take the next step.

Just keeping taking steps.

The thing that causes me pause is when someone is "getting ready to get ready to get ready." By taking action, you learn much more than by overthinking, err, getting ready to do something.

This should be enough for now.? Go listen to a podcast while driving to you next appointment!