CORPORATE OVERVIEW SERVICES INSIGHT OPPORTUNITIES SPEAKING CONTACT US HOME Top Performers are Made™ CLIENT LOGIN You Can Determine What You Value by Where You Spend Your Time Monday 30th November 2015 by Linda Peterson · Permalink Posted: 11/24/2015 7:15 am “ Knowing you need to make a change isn’t enough. You’ve got to find the guts to do it.” – Robert Kiyosaki Poor sales management is at epidemic proportions in today’s business environment. Sales reps don’t quit a company; they quit the manager. Recently, I had been prepping for a sales manager reinforcement training session with a client. This company’s sales leadership and I had been imploring its sales managers to step up and coach their teams. Most sales managers, however, found themselves too busy with internal administrative tasks to spend time in the field with their individual contributors who were underperforming. Even though all of the sales managers would state that their most important job was to coach their people, only a few actually demonstrated that behavior. So when we look at sales managers, we bucket them into three categories regarding the perception of value they bring their sales reps. On the low end of the value chain, we have the Problem Solver/Administrator. This is the sales manager who is too busy with internal meetings and internal reports to spend time coaching his or her team. Some characteristics of Problem Solver/Administrator sales managers are: They spend a lot of time fixing commissions. They love dealing with HQ issues. They monitor performance/pipeline activity but are not solution oriented. They are no help in executing sales process because they do not actually coach. They are not adding value regarding diagnosing either sales effectiveness or sales productivity issues for their individual contributors. The next level of sales managers’ value is that of a Business Resource. These types of managers bring significantly more value to their team members. Their perception of value is increased as they understand the importance of their role in bringing out the best in their individual contributors. Some characteristics of Business Resource sales managers are: They help with customer acquisition (they are actually in the field with their team). They help a rep to be more productive. They hold their team accountable not only for results but to do the right activities. Expertise: They are up to speed with what works and what doesn’t. They diagnose problems (sales productivity or sales effectiveness) and offer solutions to correct the behaviors. They leverage resources and know where to find them internally and externally. Lastly, let’s talk about the Strategic Coach. You can see the value and the impact of this manager by looking at the team’s low attrition ratio, the career path of team members (more of Strategic Coach’s people are promoted into higher levels), and the high employee engagement numbers. Some characteristics of Strategic Coach sales managers are: They understand reps’ motivation/purpose for what they are doing. They have a vision for the team and help reps find their own vision. They make work meaningful for the reps. They take the time to understand the personal and business “lives” of the people who work for them. You could even say there is a sense of professional intimacy in the relationship. They understand the value of pushing their people out of their comfort zone as a way of enhancing enjoyment of their work and life. If you are a sales manager reading this, I would ask you to look at your calendar for the last two months and determine where you are spending most of your time? Problem Solver/Administrator % time Business Resource % time Strategic Coach % time How much time have you blocked off for one-to-one coaching with your lower performers based on your calendar? Back to the client I introduced in the beginning. Regardless of our recommendations, the company’s sales managers were still only spending approximately 20 to 25 percent of their time in the field coaching as a Business Resource. During a training session in which I was trying to encourage them to spend more time in the field coaching their teams, I wrote down the following statement: “You can determine what you value by where you spend your time.” If you think about it, it really is a truism! If I believe in coaching my sales team, I will spend time coaching. If I believe in staying healthy and in good shape, I will spend time exercising. If I believe in continuous improvement, I will spend time learning and reading up on new insights. But the most important key I learned from writing that down was how impactful it was for me personally. You see, at the time of that reinforcement session, I was on a business trip, like I had been most of this year. My wife jokes that I have been home less than 25 percent of the time. Part of that is planned (I lived in Minnesota and preferred to be away as much in the winter as possible) and part of it was by necessity (numerous new clients needed my help). In conclusion, just like my realization that I needed to spend more time at home, my hope is that somehow sales managers realize that their teams need them to step up. They need to spend more quality time coaching their teams to performance improvement. At a minimum, be that Business Resource. Question: Are you spending your time on what your value most? Provide an example. Scott Anderson is a founding principal at Diamond Performance Solutions LLC and RevenueForce LLC. He is co-author of the book Reignite- How to Rekindle Your Passion for Selling. Scott spent his entire career-more than twenty-five years selling, managing salespeople, and providing sales consulting, training, and coaching to some of the biggest and best sales organizations in the world. He has worked with leading organizations including 3M, IBM, Cargill, UnitedHealth Group, Carlson Companies, Andersen Windows, Wells Fargo and The Hartford. He has authored numerous articles on sales effectiveness. He resides in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul. Office Number 612-961-1778 email: sanderson@diamondpg.com « What Does ‘Good’ Look Like? Have You Created an Opt-In Culture? » Search: HUFFINGTON POST BLOGS Can You Improve the Business Results of Your Under-Performers? Lost and Found I Have A Seasoned Sales Team Is Top Performance Effort or Skill? I Love Selling to the Executive-Level—Not! Shut Up and Listen “Oh, I Lied” Are You Sleepwalking Through Life? Have You Created an Opt-In Culture? You Can Determine What You Value by Where You Spend Your Time SALES LEADERS Managing for Top Performance – “Moving the Curve” Targeting Real Performance Problems / Sales Effectiveness TOP SALES PERFORMERS Where Do You Rank? View Top Performers’ DNA™ CLICK HERE FOR A COMPREHENSIVE TEAM ASSESSMENT. Copyright © Diamond Performance Solutions™ 2021. All Rights Reserved. Contact Us Notice of Privacy Practices