Trust is the Key to Sales Managers' Success
By Max Cates, Author of new sales management book: Serve, Lead Succeed! https://booklocker.com/11051?
? Do your people trust you??No matter how charismatic and talented you are, your people won’t follow you if they don’t trust you. The three components of trust are Care, Character, and Competence.
Care is a Vital Part of Trust
Do you care about your people? They know if you do or don’t. You simply can’t fake it. If most of your efforts are tied to your own best interests, your devotees will be scarce. On the other hand, if you exhibit a modicum of selflessness, if you are willing to occasionally fall on your sword for your people, you’ll have loyal followers. Do you care about what they care about? Sales reps’ main interests are (in this order) security, respect and pay. Are you aligned with your sales people in these areas? Do your decisions take into account the interests of your people as well as yourself and the organization? Are you even aware of your people’s interests?
Successful leaders fight for their employees. When it comes to pay, promotions and working conditions, a leader is the sales rep’s champion, even when it’s not popular with colleagues or even bosses. Every time a sales leader goes to bat for a subordinate, it sends a resounding message to the team. Oddly enough, even when it means clashing with the boss, the boss will most likely respect your intentions and your principles.
Research shows that employees want a personal touch from their manager. They want you to know them as people and know about their lives. But they do not necessarily want you to be their friend or confidant. It’s likely they don’t rely on you for emotional support. They rely on co-workers and friends for that.
The litmus test for caring is a single word: Sacrifice. It’s easy to hand out spiffs and gift cards to your people. Those types of gifts don’t really require anything from you. The real gifts of caring are those that demand you take the time to go the extra mile, for example, to help a rep get a promotion. Or take a chance of failure to support an initiative from your sales team. Your people know you care when you have some skin in the game, when you’re willing to take a risk for them, fight for them, and protect them. That requires getting a little bruised occasionally and perhaps irritating your colleagues or boss.
Sales leaders who really care for their people are likely to be confident and self-assured. These are the leaders who know they are good enough to take risks, to take chances of offending people.?They know they can recover from failure and overcome difficulties in the quest to support their people. And they know the payoff – trust – is greater than the risk.
Character Provides the Foundation for Trust
??????In The Little Book of Coaching, Ken Blanchard and Don Shula said, “Champion coaches operate out of unquestionable integrity.?They call it the way they see it.?They do not have hidden agendas. They do not say one thing but mean another. They do not manipulate people.?They are genuine and sincere.”
?????From a practical perspective, irrespective of your moral or religious beliefs, honesty makes sense because few of us have a good enough memory to lie successfully, and your sales people are pretty good at sensing untruths and manipulation.?It’s just too easy to get caught, and the potential gain is never worth the damage to one’s reputation.
Research at Bowling Green State University included a study of 193 sales people from ten U.S. companies suggesting a strong, positive relationship between the integrity of a manager and sales force productivity/job satisfaction. In effect, the study supports the concept that trusted managers create better relationships with their sales team which leads to job satisfaction and, ultimately better sales results. The element of trust was measured by such statements as: “My manager would never try to gain an advantage by deceiving workers.” “I have complete faith in the integrity of my manager.” and “I feel quite confident that my manager will always treat me fairly.” Results showed that managers who were role models of integrity, ethics and fairness created a trusting relationship with subordinates “which subsequently results in greater job satisfaction and overall job performance by sales people.”
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Competency Fortifies Trusting Relationships
Do you know everything your reps are required to know such as pricing, product details, procedures, and paperwork??We all know managers who won’t waste time on the “details” as if it were beneath their lofty station as manager.?Actually, it’s oftentimes a throwback to their sales days when it was more important to persuade a customer than inform them. These managers are the ones who expertly avoid and deflect questions on new products and pricing, for instance, referring reps to the appropriate web site or binder. What they don’t realize is that everyone – their boss and their subordinates – notice their lack of knowledge.
?An ill-prepared manager is viewed as incompetent and rarely commands the credibility needed to be effective. Managers need to know everything reps are expected to know. And it helps to know even more. For example, are you keeping up with the latest trends in selling techniques and technology? Do you know your industry and your competitors’ pricing and products??Here’s a key competency question: Could you lead a training session on any of your sales team’s major issues including pricing, products, competition, and sales techniques?
?????Taking it one step further, are you going beyond basic competency and finding creative ways to apply your knowledge that your reps may not have considered? For example, look for ways to combine your product knowledge to develop creative sales applications for specific industries or types of customers. Use your acumen of competitors’ market positioning to develop selling strategies for your people. Another example: If your major competitor is emphasizing product affordability, you can differentiate your selling strategy with a focus on product quality and durability.
??Be the go-to person for your reps and you become the go-to person for your boss – a surefire way to advance one’s career. And, more importantly, it creates the foundation of trusting relationships.
What’s the Most Important Trust Factor?
??????Very simply, it is Care. That’s the single most important factor in establishing trust.?You can make mistakes in judgment. You can make factual errors. You can even have an integrity slip-up.?But as long as your people know you care about their welfare, they’ll stay aligned with you.?Your people don’t expect you to be perfect all the time.?They know you will occasionally be forgetful, inattentive or preoccupied.?They know you will take your eye off the ball at times.?But knowing that your heart is in the right place – that you will protect and support them – makes the biggest screw-ups bearable.
???????On the other hand, if they see as you as self-absorbed and oblivious to their best interests, your team will continuously add your every mistake to their list of items that make you a bad manager. In fact, even the good things that you do will be marginalized and ignored by your people; they won’t want you to be successful because you don’t care about their success. ?Essentially, if your sales people think you don’t care about them, there’s no amount of competency or character that matters.
???????All in all, the element of trust allows your team to be innovative and aggressively seek new ways of doing things and tackling problems. It allows your team to reach peak performance by being “In the zone.” Athletes describe it as moments when they play their best, free of distractions and self-consciousness while feeling confident and in-control. Effective sales leaders enable peak performance through support and encouragement, letting team members know that the manager “has their back.” The reps know that management isn’t laying in wait for a Gotcha moment.?Without the distractions of fear or intimidation – but being held accountable – reps can relax and do their jobs productively.
For more on successful sales management, see the book Serve, Lead, Succeed! at ?
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