Sales Management Guidebook: Leading Teams to Success, Lecture notes of Sales Management

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SIMPLIFIED.

VIDEO COACHING SERIES

GUIDEBOOK

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My passion is helping sales teams win more New Sales, but seventeen years ago when I started consulting and coaching sales leaders and salespeople, I was naïve in thinking that I could transform sales organizations and create lasting performance improvement simply by coaching the sales force. I learned (the hard way) that unless you deal with sales team leadership, culture, accountability, talent, and the sales manager and/or sales executive’s role, focus, and priorities, it is just about impossible to effect long-term change and create a sustainable healthy, high-performance sales culture and a team that consistently delivers the desired results.

Let me borrow from the Introduction to Sales Management. Simplified ., to further set the stage and your expectations for this series:

I love sales and helping salespeople excel at developing new business. But what I love even more is experiencing a high-performance, results focused, winning sales team with solid leadership, smart talent management, a strong sales culture, and a sound sales process. My primary goals in writing Sales Management. Simplified. (and creating this video coaching series) were to bluntly share the reasons so few sales organizations today exhibit these characteristics, and to offer a simple, actionable framework that sales managers and senior executives can adopt to create dramatic and lasting sales performance improvement.

I was compelled to write this book (and produce this series) because of what I’m observing in companies where I consult, coach, and speak. Everywhere I turn, sales managers are overwhelmed and often confused, and executives are frustrated. Managers are working harder and longer than ever, yet accomplishing less. The noise from supposed sales experts” is deafening. We have more sales tools, toys, gimmicks, and processes than any human being could possibly digest, and we are constantly being told that “everything has changed.” Instead of returning to the tried-and-true basics of sales management, sales leaders live daily searching for new answers.

That is exactly why I’ve spent the past decade working to better understand sales leadership and sales culture and have shifted much of my consulting and speaking toward helping increase sales management effectiveness. And…it’s working! Sales leaders who

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

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There are 12 modules in this series and you may review the modules in any order you wish; feel free to skip around. Although I would encourage you to begin with Module 1 to get acquainted with the panelists, their situations, sales management highlights and frustrations before jumping around to other modules. And it would benefit you to read the Introduction and Chapter 1 in Sales Management. Simplified. before beginning the videos.

USE THIS GUIDEBOOK AND THE HARDCOPY

OF SALES MANAGEMENT. SIMPLIFIED.

I strongly encourage you to keep a printed copy of this guidebook with you as you review the modules. Because we recorded a live, unscripted discussion, the conversations take twists and turns, just like most workshop sessions. Use the guidebook questions and exercises to ensure you maximize your takeaways from the course, and I encourage you to read the corresponding chapters from the actual book as you progress through the videos. The book nicely supplements the series and will provide detail on topics where the panelists and I may not have gone as deep as the book.

I’m truly excited to hear your takeaways from the Sales Management. Simplified. Video Coaching Series. Here’s to increased sales leadership effectiveness, tons of success, and to you and your team winning many, many New Sales!

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

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MODULE 1 | MEET THE PANELISTS & A LOOK IN THE MIRROR

MODULE 1.1 | COMP ENSATION & COMP LACENCY

MODULE 1.2 | YOU CAN’T LEAD A SALES TEAM WHEN YOU’RE

BURIED IN CRAP

MODULE 1.3 | THE FALLACY OF THE “SELLING” SALES MANAGER &

THE PLAYER-COACH MODEL

MODULE 1.4 | THE PERILS FROM HAVING A VISIONARY, CHARISMATIC,

GIFTED SENIOR EXECUTIVE WHO CAN REALLY SELL

MODULE 1.5 | AN ANTI-SALES CULTURE WILL DESTROY RESULTS & RUN-

OFF THE BEST SALESPEOPLE

MODULE 2 | THE 1:1 MANAGER - SALESPERSON ACCOUNTABILITY MEETING

MODULE 3 | WORKING WITH YOUR PEOPLE - FIELDWORK AND COACHING

MODULE 4 | SALES TEAM MEETINGS

MODULE 5 | RIGHT PEOPLE IN THE RIGHT ROLES

MODULE 6 | RETAINING AND MAXIMIZING THE PRODUCTION

OF TOP PRODUCERS

MODULE 7 | REMEDIATE OR REPLACE UNDERPERFORMERS (QUICKLY)

MODULE 8 | RECRUIT

MODULE 9 | THE MANAGER’S ROLE TO “POINT THE TEAM”

MODULE 10 | THE MANAGER’S ROLE TO “ARM THE TEAM”

MODULE 1 0. 5 | SHARPENING YOUR “SALES STORY”

MODULE 11 | RANDOM RAPID FIRE ROUND TABLE

Page #

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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NOTES FROM THE PANELISTS’ SALES MANAGEMENT FRUSTRATIONS:

What are your current biggest frustrations and disappointments:

MODULE 1

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MODULE 1

8 UGLY LEADERSHIP REASONS SALES TEAMS UNDERPERFORM:

1. Lack of Focus on Goals & Results, Poor Accountability.
2. Sales Managers Buried in Non-Sales Leadership Activity.
3. Salespeople Getting Outsold – Coming Across as Amateurs, “Vendors” and Commodity Sellers.
4. Salespeople Living in Reactive Mode = Chasing Not Creating Opportunities.
5. COMPensation Plan Creating COMPlacency.
6. Painful, Unproductive Sales Team Meetings.
7. Sales Leader Playing “Hero” – Doing Instead of Coaching or Leading.
8. Wrong People in the Wrong Roles (talent mismanagement).

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 Having the same person head-up sales and operations and default to addressing urgent operational issues instead of pushing hard for sales growth.

 A one-size-fits-all approach to talent management; poor role definition.

 Asking farmer and engineer-wired sellers to be pick up a weapon and become sales hunters.

 Leadership turning a blind eye to perennial underperformers hoping that underperformance will fix itself.

 Silly, counterproductive compensation plans.

 An anti-sales culture – arbitrary commission deductions, lack of appreciation for sellers, and constant complaining about and demeaning salespeople.

 High-ego senior executives that deflate the sales team by pontificating, micromanaging, or behaving inappropriately in front of customers.

 Entrepreneurial, charismatic leaders who don’t realize their teams require more direction, clarity, and support to sell than they do.

 Sales managers not mentoring and coaching on selling skills, or working in the field with salespeople.

 Salespeople being perceived as nothing more than vendors or commodity sellers who get outsold because they:  Live in reactive mode and are not proactively pursuing prospective customers, and therefore arriving late to opportunities.  Lead with their product instead of the customer’s issues.  Conduct amateurish and ineffective sales calls.  Do whatever customers request, including delivering premature presentations and proposals.

 Sales managers or sales execs ignoring fundamentals while perpetually chasing shiny new toys in search of the shortcut or magic sales bullet.

MODULE 1

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As I mentioned in the opening to Mini-Module 1.1, there are six common sales

leadership issues (very damaging and very prevalent issues), that I felt did not get

covered sufficiently during the roundtable with the panelists and deserve more

attention. These topics are significant enough that each warranted its own chapter in

the book, and I deemed it important to create a “mini-module” for five of the six. Item

#1 on the list, (the sales manager playing hero instead of hero-maker) gets covered later

on in Module 3.

MODULE 1.1 | COMP ENSATION & COMP LACENCY MODULE 1.2 | YOU CAN’T LEAD A SALES TEAM WHEN YOU’RE BURIED IN CRAP MODULE 1.3 | THE FALLACY OF THE “SELLING” SALES MANAGER

& THE PLAYER-COACH MODEL

MODULE 1.4 | THE PERILS FROM HAVING A VISIONARY, CHARISMATIC, GIFTED

SENIOR EXECUTIVE WHO CAN REALLY SELL

MODULE 1.5 | AN ANTI-SALES CULTURE WILL DESTROY RESULTS & RUN-OFF THE

BEST SALESPEOPLE

MODULES 1.1 – 1.

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COMPENSATION CHALLENGE QUESTIONS:

Is it possible that your underperforming salespeople are too “comfortable” and not experiencing enough pain to cause them to change their behavior, up their effort, or consider deselecting themselves from your team?

Have you lost top-producing sellers because they felt they were being “cheated,” and they left for an opportunity with a richer, possibly more leveraged, comp. plan?

Is the commission (or bonus) your typical salesperson “earns” actually earned based on the results he/she produces, or is it “variable” compensation in name only?

If your sales team is not bringing in new business at the desired rate, is it possible that is partly because acquiring new business is not being rewarded sufficiently? Does your plan possibly over-compensate for servicing existing business (accounts) so there is no hunger or motivation to hunt for New Sales?

MODULE 1.

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Many senior executives and companies have lost sight of the sales manager’s primary job and highest-payoff activities. This often results in all types on non-revenue-driving and non- sales leadership tasks being placed on sales managers, and managers continually being invited (or required) to attend meetings that prevent them from focusing on leading the sales team!

Some companies (executives) have a very low view of the sales management role and treat the sales manager’s desk as a garbage dump for various problems that require solving.

The opportunity cost of keeping sales managers from their highest-payoff activities can be devastating.

Which non-revenue driving and non-sales leadership tasks and responsibilities prevent [you/your sales manager(s)] from focusing on the most critical sales management activities that drive results? Do not shortchange this exercise. Make a comprehensive list below:

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MODULE 1.

YOU CAN’T LEAD A SALES TEAM WHEN YOU ARE BURIED IN CRAP

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To whom can you offload these tasks?

Who within your company needs to be re-educated about the sales manager’s primary job? Operations? Customer Service? The CFO? Maybe the CEO? The salespeople?

Who in senior management must buy-in and support freeing you up from these non-sales leadership Draculas that suck your time, energy, and focus? What is your plan for approaching these people? [Feel free to send me their phone number! I am more than happy to call and deliver a dose of blunt truth and reality – and send a copy of Sales Management. Simplified. with Chapter 3 highlighted for them ]

COACH’S COMMENT:

I often see sales leaders propping up other departments to cover for weakness and inadequacies. While I applaud the passion and good corporate citizen mentality – in the long run, this actually hurts the business. When you continually “cover” for other areas, YOU become a crutch to struggling teams and weak managers, and the problem will not get addressed. What would happen if instead of helping other areas, you focused exclusively on your primary job (leading the sales force) and allowed those other weaknesses to be exposed?

MODULE 1.

LEAD A SALES TEAM WHEN YOU ARE BURIED IN CRAP

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The selling manager who carries his/her own quota and is also responsible for leading the team is in an almost untenable position.

Is the selling-manager’s primary concern achieving their own personal sales goals and quota, or their people achieving theirs?

The best salespeople are selfish ; the best sales managers subdue their own ego and are selfless understanding that they win through their people!

NOTES:

COACH’S COMMENT:

If your company (or division) cannot afford, or is not large enough, to deploy a dedicated, full-time sales manager, then appoint someone else to do it on a part-time basis. I believe it is better to have a branch manager, GM, or other senior executive leading the sales team as opposed to having a selling-manager doing it.

MODULE 1.

THE FALLACY OF THE “SELLING” SALES MANAGER

AND PLAYER-COACH MODEL

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“Everything flows from culture.”

• Robert Klein – Founder & CEO of the company highlighted in Chapter 18

"Sales is more about the heart than it is about the head."

• Donnie Williams - Mike’s sales management mentor

“Miserable accountants can do great accounting work. The same does not apply for salespeople and selling.”

• Mike Weinberg

SALES CULTURE CHALLENGE QUESTIONS:

 When things are going well, is credit given to the sales team or salesperson, or stolen from them?

 Is there fairness in financial matters (like commission payments), territory realignments, quota revisions, expense nitpicking?

 Do the salespeople get micromanaged by a control freak?

 Is a high-ego executive or manager disengaging the hearts of sales team members?

 Has it become fashionable to complain about and demean the sales team in your organization?

 Are salespeople misused and seen as “free labor” for other non-sales assignments?

 If polled confidentially, would your salespeople reveal that it feels like company management is against them (or for them)?

MODULE 1.

AN ANTI-SALES CULTURE WILL DESTROY RESULTS AND RUN-OFF THE

BEST SALESPEOPLE

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THE SALES LEADER’S HIGHEST-VALUE ACTIVITIES:

The next three modules address (what I consider) three of the highest-value,

highest-payoff sales management activities:

1. THE 1:1 MANAGER-SALESPERSON ACCOUNTABILITY MEETING (MODULE 2)
2. FIELDWORK AND COACHING (MODULE 3)
3. THE SALES TEAM MEETING (MODULE 4)

Each of these topics is covered in-depth in the book and I encourage you to read

Chapters 20 through Chapters 22 along with these modules.

Sales leaders who master these three highest-value activities transform the culture

and create high-performance teams that drive results for the long-term. Aside from

getting the right people in the right roles, nothing will help you create sales lift faster

than upgrading how you execute accountability, fieldwork & coaching, and team

meetings.

MODULES 2 – 4