What are the 10 things sales managers should be most worried about in maximizing performance?

10 more ideas for items a sales manager should think about. While they may not be the ten ‘most worrisome’ items hopefully they contribute to the conversation.

1. Do the reps have a sales process? Which one may be irrelevant but for now do they have one?
2. Are they qualifying towards a sweet spot? I’m concerned if they’re chasing anything that moves. This implies qualifying skills, knowing the sweet spot and knowing how to qualify in or out relatively efficiently. Failing fast is an underrated skill.
3. Rep turnover- if it’s high, even by design, there’s some leaks in the foundation
4. How to shorten the sales cycle
5. Win %- factoring in losses to ‘business as usual’ into the equation
6. Do my team and I know why we are winning and losing
7. How much sales coaching is my team getting? Am I coaching effectively?
8. Is my team engaged? Professionally and personally
9. The customer! How do our customers perceive us? Are they satisfied? Are we addressing their needs? Are there additional needs we could be addressing?
10. Have I built an effective machine? In other words do I know the right kinds of behaviors/activities and the metrics attached to those behaviors to get the results that my team needs to produce and do I have a dashboard or investigative means that gives me a pretty quick, accurate assessment of where the team stands at any point in times towards getting those results.

Dave, I’m interested in hearing your thoughts as well as those of the other posters here after reviewing these different lists. What stands out? Where are we be missing the mark?

Great question, Dave:

1. Hunters, farmers and beaters: Hunters kill, beaters beat the bushes for opportunities, and farmers farm the fields for up-sell and add-on opportunities. Hunters don’t like to farm or beat. Beaters can’t hunt. Farmers don’t beat or hunt—although many think they can hunt, and that is a real problem. Do you know what type of salespeople you’re hiring?

2. Sales methodology: Most of the salespeople you hire to hunt today really do not know how to hunt. Methodologies such as B-to-B Selling®, Solution Selling®, Miller Heiman®, and The Complex Sale® can all be effective. The key is to integrate your selling methodology with reporting systems and to follow through and follow up. Event training simply does not work. If your sales managers tell you that it is not important to train because they “only hire experienced salespeople,” you better worry.

3. Sales motivation: Do you want to know why there is never any movement in the forecast? Why is it that there does not appear to be any progress until an account is either
won or lost? The first and main reason, as I often say, is that salespeople do what you pay them to do, not what you want them to do. Sales executives are driven by control, credit and compensation. All three of these elements are strong motivators that can quickly turn into de-motivators. Sales executives will often hide the steps in the sales process between lead acceptance and close. They fear accountability and being blamed for a loss, so they provide little visibility (except for wins) unless they are forced to do so.

4. Hire: The first of three "science of selling elements", about which volumes have been written. The keys here are W-2's and testing. I would not hire again with looking at proof of performance and I would not hire again without intelligence and "fit" testing.

5. Compensate: The second "science of selling elements", and again there is lots of material written about this. The key here is to compensate BELOW the comfort zone. Many managers do not understand what the comfort zone is and how to use it to motivate (it mostly demotivates).

6. Train: The last "science of selling element), and covered in part under #2 above. The key here is actually managing to a process. I don't think the sales methodology is as important as living it every day. As my book states, if you put someone through methodology training and then default to traditional, seat-of-the-pants management - you are going to lose.

7. Deploy: The first of the "art of selling elements". While there is not room to go into this in detail here, putting the best resource in front of the best prospect at the best time is ideal deployment. Most of deployment today is geographic and/or vertical focused. This generally does not work.

8. Monitor and Manage: The second "art". The most misunderstood. The key here is to monitor, manage and measure each sales rep on the basis of a certain number of accounts. Sure, they can add during the quarter if they want, but your evaluation of them (in more complex selling situations) is movement in the core target prospect list. Whatever you get on that number of accounts in three months is what you can expect on any similar list of prospects in the next three months.

9. Coach and Counsel: Coach those who can do it but don't know how. Counsel (eventually this ends up translated into "can") those who could get the job done but won't. Coaching and counseling are NOT the same thing. I can't tell you how many times I have heard sales managers say that they were going to "coach and counsel" a rep.

10. See what is there, not what you want to see: Managers do two things that kill them. They see what they want to see and they manage from the top. Make sure you see what is there (not allow yourself to see what you want to see) and that you manage from the bottom, not the top.

Thank you!

Hi Dave,

In no specific order, they include

1. Lead from the front, not the rear
2. Understand that they have a duel role 1) Managing - setting expectations; 2) Coach - with the expectations set, coaching their team member is attaining them. Greater emphasis on the latter
3. Make sure that they have a coaching plan mapped to the specific needs of each rep
4. Establish a clearly defined sales process or clearly articulate the corporate sales process.
5. Manage the process not the individual, don't get personal
6. Use metrics to maintain an objective slant
7. Be an advocate for their teams to the rest of the organization
8. Invest time and money in their own education and skills development (industry/managing/selling)
9. Not fear a vacant territory - hire slow - fire fast
10. Call it like it is you are not running a day care centre for adults.

Ten things? If I redefined the question as "what are the 10 things sales managers need most, from and for their teams, to maximize performance", here's how I'd answer (in no particular order):

1. Customer insights & understanding
2. Consultative sales skills
3. Qualified leads
4. Ongoing training
5. World-class CRM systems & metrics
6. Well-defined sales processes
7. Recognition
8. Mentors & best practices
9. Great products (that solve customer problems)
10. Passion

Great question Dave and you have already received solid feedback from everyone above. Rather than pile on I will just add those that I did not see mentioned directly:

1) How are you (your company) viewed by your prospect/customer pool?
2) Are you a "push" or "pull" sales organization? Have you adjusted to reflect the social web?
3) Are you enabling your salesmakers with advanced, proven tools that allow them to maximize their efforts?
4) Does your leadership and executive teams understand the new environment, or are they asking you to block LinkedIn and Twitter on company PC's?

and one that I have just started to hear about once again...

5) Are your salesmakers susceptible to being recruited away by your significant competitor?
Are you in jeapordy of loosing your top half performers to competitors because you have gone back to the "good old days" of selling, dialing for dollars, etc., rather than enabling them with everything they need to be relevant in the selling environment we are now?

As I wrote this list I realized that, geez there is a lot that sales managers have to worry about!

1. Are we concentrataing on the pre-purchase buying decision process rather than the solution sale?

2. Are we gathering data, understanding need, and presenting solution too early in to the buying decision process?

3. Are we actually helping the Buying Decision Team get collected/recognized?

4. Are we trying to make an 'appointment' too early and thereby wasting time with just a few members of the Buying Decision Team - and how do we know?

5. Do we assume we have a prospect/lead? And how do we know the difference - up front - between one who will close and one who won't (Hint: It's possible to know on the first call if the call is being directed to a change management/decision facilitation process rather than a selling process)and save ourselves vast amounts of time?

6. Are we entering the conversation too early with an introduction to our solution when the Buying Decision Team hasn't collected all of their joint criteria - and do you know when/how they do it?

7. Do you have the skills to enable the Buying Decision Team to recognize and manage all of the behind-the-scenes elements they need to manage before they can make a purchase? or do you sit and wait while they do it themselves, off-line, and you have no influence?

8. Are you presenting in front of 1. too few people 2. data about your solution that you assume they need to hear -- and may be different from what each of them, individually,needs to know in order to choose you?

9. What's the difference between your selling patterns and the buyer's buying patterns?

10. If sellers don't know how to enter the buying decision at the point of the behind-the-scenes buy-in process, you are closing sales largely out of luck. It's very possible to enter even before the Buying Decision Team has been fully chosen and have influence - but it's not possible using just the sales model.

sd

The focus is on maximizing performance. A key job of sales management indeed. Here are 10 things a sales manager should be worried about in my humble opinion:

1. Have I hired the right people with the right attributes?
2. Does the sales team possess the right skill level?
3. Is there an adequate level of experience by sales teams demonstrable to customers?
4. Do we have the right level of sales enablement systems in place?
5. Is our content for customer and sales messaging on target?
6. Do we have quality leads and opportunities being generated?
7. Can we shorten the sales cycle and remove roadblocks?
8. Do we have the right structure for sales to operate within and succeed?
9. Do we have the right compensation plan that motivates performance?
10. Are we providing adequate training in conducting sales conversations and building relationships?

Undoubtedly, there are more "worries" for a sales manager as this role faces more and more challenges than ever before. Making a sales manager role one of the most demanding in business today.

There is a lot for us to be worried about. But my top 10 would be:

1. Finding the right people. (Recruitment is difficult).
2. Giving them the right sales training.
3. Creating the right incentives to keep them motivated.
4. A CRM-system that helps them be as efficient as possible.
5. How to handle ongoing coaching and being able to take care of the best salesmen and not just focusing on the worst.
6. Creating an efficient sales process.
7. Teaching salesmen to follow up and nurture customers into repeat customers.
8. Getting your sales staff over their fears.
9. Producing results every month.
10. How to constantly keep the activity level high.

Dave
Heavy topic with some great insights above. Let me try and offer a couple fresh ideas (may not be 10 of them, but I'll offer my best of catalog):

One
Are your sales reps selling? Most world class companies remove obstacles from their reps, meaning the sales reps aren't prospectors, aren't collections agents. Top talent sells versus doing low/no value jobs.

Two
Cadence. Whether it's a methodology, playbook, repeatable story, or just mojo, make sure you reps have the tools to repeat a winning mission.

Three
Execution. Can reps go get a deal done and do the right thing for the company? Or do they require layers of approvals, overlays, and influencers who slow down the deal?

Four
Balance. You can only suit up so may times for a game. Is marketing delivering on its end of the funnel, is the pre/post-sales team carrying its weight? Hire people who are really good at what they do.

Five
Is there a market for what I sell? There are a lot of companies pretending to be SaaS that have a 9 month sales cycle for a $15K deal. That's called a niche -- find a product that solves customer problems and has broad appeal.

Six
Love to win or hate to lose? People who love to win are okay, but they take the highs (wins) with the lows (losses). Those few, the proud who hate to lose have an expectation of winning every-time, and when they lose it burns in their stomach, they lose sleep, and they remember. Remember for the next round...

Those jump out at me, but am interested to hear what others add to the convo.

So many excellent responses led me to offer a different slant. Attitudes were always a concern for me. Bad attitudes destroy individual and team performance that great process cannot overcome. When attitudes are positive, team alignment, process education and execution, and performance follow, IMHO.

1. Confidence perpetuates success. Lack of confidence breeds insecurity, anxiety, and uncertainty.

2. Passion. If a sales pro is passionless about their offering, how will the buyer react?

3. Optimism drives salespeople. Keeping over optimism in check is easier than creating it.

4. Enthusiasm is powerful, invigorating, and contagious.

5. Determination, the solid, purposeful ambition to achieve goals.

6. Persistence. The lack of which leads to quitting. Salespeople need stick-to-itiveness.
"Determination and persistence alone are omnipotent" - Calvin Coolidge

7. Humility. Know-it-alls cannot learn and present faulty info. The hunger for knowledge builds experts that deliver valuable, trust building information.

8. Comfortableness. A relaxed sales pro eliminates tensions and breeds confidence and trust.

9. Humor. Not a joke teller, but a personality that can thin out the thick air.

10. Compassion & empathy are building blocks for customer and internal team relationships.

I am late to the game here, and there are already plenty of thoughtful responses here without me piling on. But pile on I must!

1. I am worth following?: Am I personally someone that my salespeople should follow and allow to lead them? Am I the example and embodiment of our belief system, our culture, and what it means to be who we are? Do my salespeople know that I care deeply about them and their success in a way that makes returning that deep caring for our company and clients inevitable? Am I developing my own skills in sales, management, and leadership, or am I simply doing my job?

Am I someone I would want leading me?

2. Beliefs, Culture, and Meaning: Have I provided a culture and belief system about what it means to be part of this organization and what it means to sell here? Have I identified the actions that we take as a result of what it means to be who we are? Have I clearly demonstrated how the results we generate our directly tied to the actions we take because we believe what we believe?

3. Process: Are we using a process that helps us to predictably repeat what we do that allows us to compete and win? Do we have a model that leads to successfully winning deals? Does our process encourage our salespeople to exercise their resourcefulness and their initiative to move opportunities forward when the process offers no guidance?

4. Coaching: Am I taking every opportunity to coach and develop my sales people instead of trying to manage them? Every opportunity?

5. Opportunity Acquisition: Are we focusing enough of our time and attention on prospecting and opening relationships? Are we too focused on closing metrics and not focused enough on opening metrics? Are we mercilessly disqualifying poor opportunities and putting our energy where it counts?

6. Differentiation: Have I armed my team with everything they need to be able to effectively differentiate themselves and our offering in a crowded marketplace? Have we provided them with they need to be able to leverage our differences in a way that makes a difference to our dream clients?

7. Business Acumen: Am I doing all that I can to grow and improve my sales people’s business acumen? Am I working to help my salespeople understand that success in sales today is as much a result of their general business skills and understanding as it their sales skills?

8. Consultative Approach: Have I enabled my team to create value for our dream clients in a way that helps them to shift the conversation from price to cost? Have I given them what they need in the way of tools, training, and technologies to allow them to prove how we provide a return on our client’s investment in the way of reduced costs, increased revenues, and overall improvements in profitability?

9. Accountability: I am holding my salespeople accountable to their results and to their commitments? Am I holding them accountable for being aligned with our beliefs, our culture, and our meaning? Am I holding them accountable for delivering for their clients and dream clients?

10. Selling Inside: Do I remove the internal roadblocks to my salespeople’s success? Am I doing all that I can to sell internally to ensure that the “Sales Prevention Team” and the “Vice President of We Can’t” don’t diminish my salespeople’s efforts?

A lot of terrific, comprehensive responses. I am going to answer this question a bit more from my perspective, which is how can managers using data and insights to improve performance. These are worrisome in the sense that being insidious, if left unmanaged they could lead to real headaches.

10. Consistency: the information that you use and provide to your team should be reliable, predictable and timely. Consistency = Value.
9. Continuity: When you set rules to measure performance, maintain the same definition and metrics over time, so that everyone can see where they are going. Think of this as consistency over time.
8. Confidentiality: Be respectful of what you share to whom. The goal should never be to punish but to motivate.
7. Culture: Both management and sales reps should have an open mind to “test and learn” from insights. Document mistakes and share for others to learn/avoid.
6. Comfort Zone: Are reps and everyone working within an area they are most familiar? When you want to improve performance, you often have to step outside to try something new.
5. Collateral: Are reps using all resources available to them? Have you made aware and consistently promote them? Everything from internal (marketing), to partners, peers and even industry resources.
4. Educate: Have an active outreach program to -- as a primer -- show how to understand data, create reports, detect patterns and learn basic analytic concepts and how to interpret them. (And yes, I didn’t want to confine this point to something starting with a C).
3. CRM System: How well are they using the CRM system? Is it up to date, enriched with analytics and metrics, and easy to use? Are you training, listening to feedback and making it work for them?
2. Cycle: Do the sales people have a good idea of customer buying cycles, and have a consistent process to manage these customer touches?
1. Customer: Let’s put the customer front and center here. How well do they know the customer, both historical as well as expected behavior? If they do not anticipate and use both dimensions to add value to every customer interaction, then this could be the most worrisome aspect of all.

All the above answers are right. My one thing, assuming you've hired people with talent & skills:

1-10: Are they AUTHENTIC? That is, do clients actually trust them?

Nowadays clients sniff out inauthenticity much more easily.

Your salespeople must be SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE (actually have their shit and self-confidence together) before they can be sustainably successful at selling.

Aaron

My own list, in no order, is this:

1. Hire hard - manage easy.
2. Organization - Ensure your company is organized to *sell*.
3. Reputation - You cannot expect your team to 'rehabilitate' a bad reputation.
4. Recognition - Ensure your team is recognized for what they do - it builds morale.
5. Analyze - Lost sales; demand-generation campaigns; yourselves.
6. Plan - Absent this, you're wasting your time.
7. Define - Define the job. Remove anything that's not sales-oriented.
8. Train - Most salespeople are using techniques from the early part of the 20th.
9. Treatment - Treat 'em right; it's the best tool to prevent 'poaching' by others.
10. Nurture - Every lead will buy at some point; nurture them until they do.