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Marketing
selves) but don’t pose a threat to them. They if you aren’t sick to your stomach yet, just wait
Sales Management
hire because a salesperson looks good on until you read the next couple of paragraphs!
paper and sells themselves well at interview.
Some don’t even take up references! Stupid!
20. Your priorities are wrong.
Stupid! Stupid! One client of ours complained
15. You’re managing the wrong
after he’d hired a salesperson that ‘the best Ask your managers what their teams’ 90-day
end of the problem ******* sale he ever made was his interview. He plans look like. You’re probably going to be
never sold a ******* thing after he came on my disappointed. Which accounts have a ‘protect
payroll!’ Your candidates have the skills, ex- and grow’ strategy and which have a ‘pursue
Managing your revenue is as pointless as the perience and track record on paper, but if and plunder’ strategy? Of your A-list accounts,
police managing crime figures instead of you’re judging them on this you’re driving your which also show A-growth potential? Are your
catching criminals. You can only manage what Bentley by only looking in the rear-view mirror. salespeople babysitting accounts that have C
you can control and we customers control the Skills, experience and results tell you about a potential instead of concentrating on C-list
cheque book. As the seller you should control candidate’s history, not their future perfor- accounts with A-growth potential? Salespeo-
the sales process. Sadly, the majority of sales mance. Are they burnt out? Do they have the ple are generally a lazy bunch and often prefer
managers have been made managers because right attitudes? What are the habits you should to talk to their friends (who aren’t spending
they were good salespeople, not because recruit for? What do you want to buy in and money on your products) instead of talking to
they’re good managers. what can they learn on the job? The received the difficult ones who offer the richest pickings.
wisdom says it costs you 25 times salary to Top performers know their wallet-share and
16. You have a small carrot
make a bad hire. This is a fraction of the real uncover the potential. Do you know yours? Or
cost. even how to find out how much your cus-
Companies will naturally promote good sales- tomers are spending with your competitors?
people into management roles. Management
18. Recruitment is a chore and
Are your highly paid salespeople leaving
talent is assumed to follow. You lose a good
only happens as a reflex when a
money behind because they’d rather talk to
salesperson and gain a bad manager. In the
vacancy appears
their mates than engage with tough prospects
same way domestic violence can be traced who might say ‘no’ and reject them?
back through the generations, sales manage- Great managers recruit constantly. They re-
ment abuse can be traced back through place their weak salespeople with stronger
21. You try to manage your people
generation after generation of abused, hires. They don’t tolerate persistent under-per-
harassed and panic-stricken managers. Few formance and always have better people wait- Bad managers manage. Good managers train,
sales managers are groomed into the role; they ing in the wings for a vacancy to appear. coach and mentor. Managing salespeople is
get no training in managing people, they do to Don’t treat interviews as an inconvenience indicative of bad recruitment, bad manage-
their people what was done to them - small and prepare them on the walk from your office ment behaviours, bad systems, bad culture
carrot, big stick – and they encourage their to the interview room. If someone is running and ignorance. Yes, that’s right - ignorance! If
people to do the things that they didn’t do around with your profits and dividends in their you’re paying a salesperson the equivalent of
when they were successful in sales. In fact, mouth, and they could either secure or ruin a third world nation’s debt and giving them the
they were successful precisely because they dozens of customer relationships which may toys and the freedom to squander your scarce,
didn’t do what everyone else does. Oh, and last for years, and refer you to other cus- expensive technical resources, then it serves
consider this. In our experience, the average tomers, doesn’t it make sense to protect your you right if they see fit to mess you around. Did
‘professional salesperson’ spends only about investment? One that is potentially worth mil- you know that writing proposals for non-
6% of his or her time in front of customers and lions of pounds to your bottom line? prospects and free consulting are two of your
prospects and is only effective in their role for highest hidden costs? A £25m client of ours
between 25-35% of the time you’re paying
19. You tolerate mediocrity
lost £1m in profit to the cost of writing point-
them. Feeling good? There’s more bad news! less proposals last year. We fixed the problem
Fear of confrontation is normal. Some man- with eight simple questions. That £1m equated
17. You’re
agers prefer to be liked than to be successful. to the CEO’s entire profit target for 2006/7. By
recruiting in
If managers tolerate mediocrity they get the selectively doing nothing this year, he’s already
your own
chance to play the superhero and save the day got that in the bag. Good managers identify
when their team is behind target. If you are the behaviours that matter and help their peo-
image…
constantly firefighting, you can’t develop your ple to motivate and manage themselves.
but
people. Your salespeople aren’t held account-
weaker able until they get their P45s. Unless account- Marcus Cauchi is a specialist sales trainer with
Sales managers ability and consequences go hand in hand, Sandler. If you want to find out how your sales-
tend to recruit in salespeople end up managing their managers people and sales managers may be hurting your
their own and avoid being fired. Honest reporting and profits and slowing down your exit plan, ask us
image… only accurate forecasting are urban myths for most for our sales & sales management audit
weaker. They hire sales managers. Mediocre salespeople (SalesMgmtAudit@SALTeurope.com).
people they like (be- perform inconsistently. Mediocre managers Contact him on: 0845 458 1237 or
cause they are like them- can’t eliminate rollercoaster performance. And MCauchi@SALTeurope.com
42 • issue 164 Business Matters
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