Too Many Sales Managers Aren’t Doing These Three Things

Kevin F. Davis, President of TopLine Leadership

Every sales manager wants to have a high-performing team. Yet too often I’ve seen sales managers who are their own worst enemies when it comes to reaching that goal. Making some simple changes in what they are doing as managers can go a long way toward creating a better sales team with stronger sales results.

Making time for your job

I’m never surprised when sales managers tell me that the number one problem they face is not enough time. What they mean is not enough time to do the job they think they should be doing because they’re spending too much time on doing everyone else’s job. And less support, less coaching, and less attention to developing reps is a surefire recipe for having an underperforming team.

In contrast, sales managers with great teams have conquered their number one problem so they can focus on their number one opportunity: developing more great salespeople. By teaching reps to solve their own problems and being more deliberate about managing interruptions from people not on their team, great sales managers are showing that their priority must be on making the coaching contributions that will have the biggest impact on their team’s future performance.

Coaching your B team

Where do you currently spend most of your one-on-one coaching time? Lots of sales managers tell me that they spend their coaching time on the A players, helping to win the biggest deals, or on the C players because those people need the most help.

Both of those are great strategies if your goal is a mediocre team. The far more effective strategy for improving overall results is to coach one or more of your B players and turn them into stars. Using your coaching time to turn a moderate B player with an eager attitude into an A player pays off in many ways. First of all, you’ll have another rep who produces great results. Second, and perhaps more important, you’ll create competition for your current A players and spur them on to even better results.

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