Tag Archives: sales management

Sales 101 – Stop “Venting” and Start Selling!

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Are You Venting or Just Making Excuses?

A colleague recently posted a rant about the quality of the leads she was handling on an automotive industry social network. As a part of her diatribe on her most recent batch of Internet sales leads, she gave some great examples of just how bad the leads really were. Her examples proved that some of the leads (certainly her examples) were indeed crap with a capital C.

In case you’re feeling like you should be the next one to go online and rant, read on…

Venting can be cathartic, and for those of us in your shoes, we know your vent will probably be warranted. After you’re finished venting, however, be sure you’re factoring in the percentages. Once you do this, you’ll likely find that things are much better than you imagined.

Like my colleague’s, yours will probably be a rhetorical venting, but I can’t help but provide a little advice. I’m hopeful you take this in the right light, as the following is the same advice I would give to any sales manager who expresses similar dissatisfaction in the quality of their leads:

“Failures” in the Sports World

  • You should know that the most successful hitter in Major League Baseball history was Ted Williams. In 1941, Williams maintained a .406 batting average. Since then, no MLB hitter has been able to break .400. This means that in the last 68 years, every batter in baseball has failed more than 60% of the time. Are they all failures? Of course not.

  • More recently, Derek Jeter of the Yankees won the Silver Slugger award in 2008 and was an All Star for the 9th time in his career. Should Jeter waste time venting about the 70% of the at-bats he had last year where he failed to get a hit? Of course not.

  • Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time, yet his NBA career shooting percentage is just .497. He missed more shots than he made! Is MJ a failure? Of course not.


A traditional team in my industry handling Internet customers closes about 10% of their leads, a very good Internet sales team can consistently close above 18%, while a great team generally closes above 25% of all leads. This means that even the great teams fail to close 7.5 out of every 10 leads they receive. Wow, those guys are either complete failures or those leads must really stink!

Do the Leads Stink or Does the Team?

Of course, neither statement is true. A team closing 25% of their leads consistently is on the top of their game… and the leads they’re working are of the same quality you’re working.

The truth is that with proper lead counts, a great process and a dedication to that process, any team can be successful closing sales leads.

I’ve always believed you can vent about the bad leads or you can sell the good ones.

Stop Whining and Start Selling

While I’m not sure how my colleague took the advice above, it could be worse. I could have simply recited Blake’s words from Glengarry Glen Ross: “The leads are weak. F***ing leads are weak? You’re weak.”

…

We can always find reasons we cannot succeed… they’re called excuses. It’s time to stop whining and start selling.

Salespeople Need More Leadership, Not More Technology

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Too Much Technology…

When working to help an underperforming business unit (in my real job) grow their revenues, I always discover instances where the unit has purchased some widget, gadget or other magic bullet designed to help them sell more.

Although well-meaning, the manager who made this purchase generally believed against all his or her own better judgment and experience that this solution would enjoy high adoption and utilization, and would deliver the desired results with little or no work required. Given a warm welcome by the sales team, this manager was certain that the worm would soon turn, and that the good times were just around the corner.

… Not Enough Reality

Usually between six hours and six months of the initial purchase, the manager believes they were taken. The widget does not perform as demonstrated. Their team is not selling any more (and maybe selling less) as a result of adding this technology and expense. What gives?

The truth is that while there are certainly technologies that have made a salesman’s job easier; sales still requires people to do work. Products that still involve salesmanship – cars, real estate, personal services, home repair – also require that those gifted with salesmanship work to leverage technology to their advantage.

Generally, these overbought and underutilized tools are CRM-related. CRM, it seems, is the greatest underutilized business technology “in use” today. In fact, we once discovered that one of our business units was paying for eight different, yet overlapping, CRM tools… and none of them was helping drive any incremental business.

CRM Does Not Mean What You Think

Twenty years ago, great salesmen used 3X5 cards and small plastic boxes as their CRM tools. They organized their prospects and were tenacious at follow up. They used these boxes and their day-timers to remind them to send letters and birthday cards, and to remember the names of a customer’s wife and children. Today, we expect technology to take the place of this tenacity – we expect that technology can replace people and process.

While a great CRM tool might help an organized person stay organized, it offers nothing for the disorganized. Likewise, CRM falls well short of getting lazy salespeople to care, or the sales laggards to do something (anything!). More often than not, bad salespeople spend an inordinate amount of time trying to game the system. (If they just used this time for good, rather than evil, they’d be superstars.)

Because of this, CRM tools are the biggest rip-off in business today. Too many business owners and business leaders have spent too much to equip their teams with expensive tools to manage customer databases, only to have the great procrastinators (salespeople) destroy real progress by failing to complete even very simple steps. I am convinced that you could take away any underperforming business unit’s CRM tools and provide that same sales team with index cards and pens, with the end result being better sales numbers than are realized today.

While the acronym CRM (which stands for Customer Relationship Management) is meant to describe the means a company or salesperson uses to manage their customer relationships, the onslaught of underutilized tools led us to coin the memorable (if not a bit hokey) phrase “Crutches Require Muscle” so those purchasing new CRM software would understand that assembly is required and magic bullets are not included.


As sales leaders, our goal has to be to make certain that everyone and anyone on the sales side understands that you cannot successfully manage customer relationships without work – hard, sometimes tedious work.

Crutches Require Muscle: Two Real Life Examples

Next week, my family will have an invisible fence installed in our home. We own a couple of small dogs, and these little buggers have figured out how to burrow under our traditional fence. After coming home too many times to notes on our door that read “Your dogs got out again. We have them at our house,” we’ve decided to spend a few bucks on shock collars and electric barriers to keep our pets (and neighbors) safe.

Because this is the first time we’ve ever had to purchase something like this, we sent price quote requests (via email) to seven local invisible fence companies who operated websites. These seven are using technology (the Internet, email and CRM) to their advantage, we figured, so we expected quick and complete responses.

Long story short, we received three automatic responses (43%) to our inquiries and only one of the original seven (14%) bothered to personally follow up with a price. We heard nothing from four companies (57%). This is pathetic, of course, because these seven companies are spending thousands each year on technology designed to capture more business, yet only one of the seven bothered to add people and process to the mix in an attempt to gain our business. The other six likely believe that their websites and CRM tools are magic bullets designed to deliver millions into their bank accounts with little or no work.

Can you guess which of the seven companies is installing our invisible fence next week?

Sylvan Learning Centers Need to Learn Something Themselves

CRM real life example number two: On a recent Thursday afternoon, one of our sons (we have three) brought home a mid-term “D” in English. We were shocked, scared and mortified for two reasons: 1) none of our sons has ever delivered anything below a B+; and 2) the boy speaks English, doesn’t he?

In our momentary horror, we were convinced that the best thing for this likely slacker was for him to get professional help (clearly his teachers, and especially his parents, were doing a poor job). We immediately sought an afterschool tutoring program that could release this young man from the dark side and make him our son once again.

A quick Google search yielded a sponsored link to Sylvan Learning Centers – hey, I’ve heard of them – so I submitted an online request to have my local Sylvan office contact me with pricing and other information. I was clearly desperate in my initial plea. Not surprisingly, the CRM tool used by Sylvan immediately fired off an automatic response that gave me confidence: My boy will read again, I cried. Here is the reassuring auto-response I received:

Thank you for your spending time with Sylvan’s website today. Whether your child needs to improve a report card, get ahead in math, end homework struggles or prepare for college, Sylvan can help.

Please keep this e-mail for your records; below is the contact information for your local Sylvan Learning Center:

Your local Sylvan is located at: (followed by the local center’s various contact info)

Visit your local Sylvan’s website often; you’ll find information about news and events, hours of operation and if they offer live, online tutoring from the comfort of home. You may want to even bookmark it!

Thank you again for visiting Sylvan’s website. We look forward to serving your family in the near future.

Your friends at Sylvan Learning®.

Awkward first sentence aside, I was convinced that my son was not going to have to ride the short bus after all.

Sylvan is on the Case

I heard nothing from my local Sylvan center the next day (Friday), though I was not concerned. Surely, they are so busy turning around the lives of so many children that they’re just a little behind in checking their emails.

At exactly 1:29 AM Saturday morning I received the following email (names and locations changed to protect the guilty):

I’m John Doe, Center Director from your Anytown center. Thank you for contacting us regarding your child’s learning needs. Your recent inquiry has been marked for our immediate attention, and one of my staff members will be contacting you shortly. If you have a preferred method for contacting you, please reply to this email with your preferred contact information. We look forward to talking with you soon.

Wishing you and your student success,

John Doe

Center Director

I was starting to get concerned, because they certainly must think we are all a family of morons if they believe they can fool us into thinking someone is sitting at our local Sylvan center sending out emails just after the bars close.

Although I responded to this email with very specific needs, no one on Mr. Doe’s staff ever bothered to respond, though I did receive the following automatic email on the following Monday afternoon:

I hope one of my staff members from Anytown Sylvan center was able to resolve your questions or concerns. Please reply to this email if you still have outstanding items you would like to discuss, and we will contact you as soon as possible. Thank you for your interest in Sylvan.

Wishing you and your student success,

John Doe

Center Director

I responded to this email immediately, and have yet to hear anything from them. It’s now been over a month.

As frustrating as this process was, it forced me to help my son with his English, and he is now back to a solid B – not great, but also not summer school material.

How to Guarantee Utilization

How much revenue could Sylvan have realized from my family over the next 10 years? If they were successful in helping this son with his English grades, would we not use them to help our other sons improve something? In my estimation, this local Sylvan center lost a minimum of $10,000. If you multiply that by the hundreds of other potential customers with similar experiences you begin to get into some real money.

The issues in these two real life examples are not caused by bad CRM tools, rather these instances point to a sales leadership void within these organizations. Without leadership, these organizations have too much technology. Case in point: if none of these businesses attempted to employ CRM tools, I would have been forced to call them, and chances are they might have answered the phone.

What can a leader do to guarantee utilization of tools designed to help an organization close more sales and drive more revenue? Accountability.

It’s a cliché, but your team will truly respect what you inspect. (By the way, we generally hate sayings like this, because people assume they’re true simply because they rhyme. “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” could have just as easily been “if you killed your ex-wife, you’re gonna do life.”) Inspecting the daily inputs and outputs of your salespeople, and then holding them accountable for employing the designated processes for prospecting and managing customer relationships, can change everything virtually overnight.

The truth is that most salespeople are lazy. They expend more energy avoiding work than they would have to use if they just completed tasks as designed.

Salespeople need more leadership, not more technology.

 

Sales – Why Do Some Salespeople Take It Personally When They Lose An Account?

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Sales: It’s Nothing Personal

A salesperson who works for one of my company’s primary vendors – someone who happens to be a former coworker and a person I considered to be a friend – just lost a bid with my company. The vendor had held this business for the past several years and we were nearing the end of the latest multi-year agreement.

While the successful bidder’s price was a 20% discount to what we were paying (and a 35% discount to the incumbent’s best and final offer for the proposed agreement), the primary reason we decided to make a change was the deteriorating level of support and innovation the incumbent has been providing over the course of this latest contract.

It’s nothing personal. It’s just business.

By rejecting the incumbent’s bid, we were not rejecting the salesperson (we’ll call him Rich). Interestingly, Rich is taking it personally. In fact, he’s become an invisible man since the day we made our decision. Why is he taking it so personally? I ran into Rich a couple of days ago (we live in the same town) and even though it’s been a month since we chose his competitor, Rich was short and cold with me. What happened to the warm friendship we had as coworkers and as buyer/seller?

Why I Became a Sales Manager

When I was a commissioned salesperson, I rocked. Not to brag, but I routinely sold double what the second best salesperson at my company sold. I sold like crazy and I made a whole bunch of money… and I was miserable. I was miserable, because even if I had a 50% closing ratio, which I generally did not, half of all my prospects told me “no.”




I took it personally. I’ve always believed in my product so much that when someone rejected it, it must mean that I had done a lousy job of explaining it to them. “How could anyone not buy this?” I would wonder. I decided that if I was going to stay in sales, I would have to move to management.

It takes a special kind of person to be a happy and successful salesperson. You have to be smart, quick-witted (not the same as smart), ballsy, lack a certain amount of pride and be willing to taste defeat more often than victory. Most importantly, you cannot take it personally when someone tells you “no.”

I assume it will take a few months, but eventually this former friend will become a friend again. I’ll have to set a reminder in my calendar to be sure and tell Rich what an ass he was back when he lost our business, and how he shouldn’t take it personally – it’s just business.

 

Sales Training 101 – Reciprocity is Childsplay

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Reciprocity – Sales Training 101

From a very early age, we all learn about reciprocation. That is, when someone does something nice for us, we tend to do something nice for them. As humans, most of us don’t want to be indebted to someone else – especially someone we barely know.

In sales, we often forget the power of the lessons we learned when we were five; and we fail to use these simple techniques and other great manipulative gestures to get our way with a client.

As bad as that last sentence sounded, this really is what commissioned sales is all about. If you cannot manipulate someone to buy what you’re selling, then why do we need you to sell for us? We would be better off firing our sales team and putting everything we offer on a table and letting the customer choose what is best for them. Of course, companies whose products require salespeople would be out of business in a week if they chose this path.

If you can get past the whole “manipulative gestures” of sales, then you might just have a career as a sales manager – and you can begin teaching your sales team some basic lessons on gaining a “yes.”

Tit for Tat – How a Coke Will Make All the Difference

One way to use reciprocity to your advantage (if you’re an inside salesperson) is to offer (with no strings attached) every prospect who walks into your store a can of ice cold soda or bottle of water.

This little gesture is so manipulative that it should be outlawed. When you give someone a true freebie, they cannot help but be open to your pitch – they owe you.

Studies have shown that the simple act of unilaterally offering something for nothing can increase sales by 25-50%. Wow! We spend hours on sales training to gain a 5% incremental advantage; it’s hard to imagine that a bottle of Dasani or can of Coke can do so much more.

It can, and it does. The bottle of water accompanied by a sincere “it’s a hot day, thought you might enjoy this” or “you looked thirsty, hope this helps” will go a long way to improving your closing percentage.

If you’re an outside salesperson, it might be necessary for you to learn something about your prospect and then show up with something cheap that you’re sure they’ll value. If they have kids, bring a few pieces of company-logoed chachki that appeal to children, for example.




Think Small and be Careful to Keep the Strings Unattached

Earlier this year, one of my company’s vendors took a colleague and me to the Super Bowl in the Phoenix area. It was a great game; and it came with an all-expenses paid trip that probably cost the vendor $5,000-$7,000 per person.

I enjoyed the game, and I appreciated being asked. I did not, however, increase my company’s use of their product. In fact, less than seven months later, I was actually advocating to others that we needed to reduce our spending with this vendor.

Why did this once-in-a-lifetime trip not sway me to become this vendor’s advocate? Why do they now feel they wasted their money on me and my colleague? Is there anything they could have done to get more value from this gift?

Forget for a moment that one of their salespeople once used the line “yeah, but we took you to the Super Bowl” to gain more business from me – big mistake – primarily there were two reasons their gift failed to drive the desire results.

Allowing myself to enjoy such a huge gift was difficult. I felt guilty and was worried there would be strings attached to such a great trip. My conscience bothered me, and a trip this big caused me to reexamine the vendor relationship to be absolutely certain there was no indication of impropriety on my part.

In effect, I began to “over-police” myself. When in doubt, I selected the choice against this vendor for fear that a decision in their favor would seem tied to their gift. The exact opposite effect they sought with the Super Bowl trip.

Secondly, the trip was nice, but it wasn’t very personal. We received free airfare, a free hotel stay, and free tickets to the game and other events. A packaged deal that cost thousands, to be sure.

Personalize the Manipulation

Where this vendor went wrong with both my colleague and me was that they didn’t bother to personalize anything about the trip. Everything they provided us was part of some package they had purchased. It was money and it was things; it was devoid of thought and showed no personal sacrifice or commitment on their part (save for the money they spent).

Had they spent an additional $50 per person and given us a commemorative Super Bowl football, for example, they would probably have us more in their debt; and we would have something to remember the gesture.

Additionally, both my colleague and I have children. Providing us with something we could take home to our kids (we’re talking about less than $100 here) would have made the weekend away from our families more worthwhile. As it is, I have a great memory of a great game and little else.

What Should You Do as a Sales Manager?

If you plan to add a little “manipulation by giving” to your sales team’s routine, it’s important to remember a few simple rules.

  • Rule number one is to keep it simple. Never try to “over think” your prospect or the role your company plays.
  • Rule number two is to consider the recipient. What drives them, and what would make them think you really care?
  • Rule number three is to make sure the gestures are personal and come with no strings attached. That is, walk away after you give the prospect the bottle of water. Let them know you’re here for them if they need you, but that you intend to let them browse on their own – and mean it.

Making a Sale Today is Tough

No one can disagree that we live in scary times. Whether you sell cars, furniture or cell phones, your walk-in traffic and your sales are down. In this economy, it is imperative for sales managers to find that little “something” that can separate them from the competition.

Open your mind, and realize it may very well be a can of Pepsi.

 

Sales Management Blogwatch – November 19, 2008

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The Best of the Sales Management Blogs

A colleague asked me this week about my first commissioned sales job – he, too, started in sales and worked his way up to management. After a few minutes of friendly banter about old school sales managers and the like, we went back to our regular grind.

Reflecting back on my first sales job, I was reminded of the 2’ by 30’ banner that hung over the sales desks. It was my first day, and as I walked into the salesroom I was greeted by grumpy faces of weathered salesmen and that gigantic banner. The banner read “Nothing Happens Until Somebody Sells Something.”

I thought this saying was a little hacky back in the 1980s, and I think it’s a lot hacky today; but it did get me thinking about the current economic situation. With Citibank laying off more than 50,000, Circuit City and other retailers declaring bankruptcy, and about 2 million auto industry-related jobs in jeopardy – it begs the question: Could some of these companies have sold their way out of their problems?

I don’t have a good answer to this, but my gut tells me that great sales leadership could have made a difference. It always does.

Back to the Blogs

Are you struggling to provide great sales leadership for your team? Perhaps some of these “Best of the Best” blog posts and articles hold the key – there are some great entries this time, including some that focus on selling in the down economy. Enjoy!

Sales Management: Differentiating Your Business during This Recession
What you feel is your differentiator and what you believe you customers want and/or should want is not necessarily true – especially during a business slow down. This article will give you some insights on how to separate your company …

Monday Morning Manager-Common Sense Rule # 1
You’ve been waiting a while for this opportunity and it has finally fallen in your lap-sales management. You’ve been with Widget International for 5 years. You have grown your territory every year and you are one of the leaders in the …

What Does Your Client Touch Program Say About You?
For instance, I work obviously in the areas of sales and sales management. Most salespeople and managers know there are a great variety of training methods and theories. Controversy and going against convention isn’t an issue in this …

Maximizing Your Price–The Value/Benefit Equation …
Price increases are currently occurring at a faster rate than we’ve seen in the US economy for nearly 25 years. The driving forces behind these increases seem to be

Sales Management: Avoid Motivational Bankruptcy, 6 Tips for …
The president of an office supply company was recently lamenting that his sales people were not operating to their potential. “Motivationally bankrupt,” he said. This is a very common complaint in any area of business. …




When Should You Walk Away From a Deal?   Now! The second that question begins to form in your head you should be prepared to walk away now. That is not to say that you shouldn’t perform a thorough evaluation of options, examine how the deal can be altered or …

Doggin’ It
Not by design, but this week a number of the discussions I had with prospects/clients had to do with front-line sales managers. This is a good thing since for a long time I have been a firm believer that the biggest bang for the buck in …

Guest Article: “Managers Continue to Teach Their People How to …
Managers Continue to Teach Their People How To Avoid Full Accountability By Keith Rosen. “What is that guy doing now?” It was just an odd maneuver. Something out of the ordinary from what would have typically been an everyday experience …

Sales Management Corner: Common Sense Rule #2
Last week I mentioned that a new sales manager shouldn’t start at this position by making changes. After assuming the role, a manager should have the salespeople assessed. Too many managers want to change their salespeople without …

Sales Coaching Without a Playbook
Sales management has a significant impact on critical sales performance metrics, including turnover rates, sales cycle length, and quota attainment. Recent research by CSO insights indicates that just the ability to proactively identify …

Sales Management in a Down Economy
Our next three posts will focus on Sales Management in a Down Economy. Here’s the first of three things you absolutely must do as sales manager if you want your sales team to continue to thrive and succeed – no matter what the headlines …

Are You a Sales Professional or Semi-skilled Laborer?
We in sales work in what we like to claim is one of the highest paid professions, yet statistics indicate we are, in fact, employed in one of the lowest paying professions. In fact, we are engaged in a business that is unevenly divided …

CanDoGo is Now a Free Site–Get Great Sales Tips from more than 60 …
I have great news to share with you. I am one of the exclusive authors/speakers/trainers/coaches for a company called CanDoGo that delivers concise advice for sales, personal development, leadership and motivation over the Web. …

Avoiding the Price Question Early in the Sale
The price of your goods and services is always a primary concern to your prospects. Whether you like it or not, price is top of mind with the majority, if not all, of your prospects; and you probably find the question of price comes up …

3 Strategies to Help You Meet Revenue Goals Even in a Down Economy
Ludwig says the sales management team, with the involvement of their salespeople, must evaluate each individual’s sales funnel to determine which opportunities he or she should pursue. Come up with a short list by looking at factors …

 

Sales Management Blogwatch – October 31, 2008

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The Best of the Sales Management Blogs

The editors of AskTheManager.com pulled some of the best posts and articles from the past couple of weeks and assembled them here for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!

Selling is a Profession to be Proud of
I am a sales trainer and coach; I am a sales management consultant; I am a writer and speaker; and I am a salesperson. As the owner of a sales training and management consulting company, I don’t have the luxury of concentrating on just …

The Seven Myths of Sales Management
Being a sales manager is one of the most difficult jobs on the planet. It requires a thorough knowledge of virtually every aspect of the business. And it suffers from a high turnover because the sales manager is ALWAYS the scapegoat …

Share expert tips with your clients and sell more
Using a video blog like this one below is just so easy to do these days. It does not require sophisticated equipment to create your own video blog. You can shoot a 2 – 5 minute video tip on a very simple camera, upload it to YouTube, …

Ten Tips to Tap the Power of Prospecting 
Many salespeople prospect little, if at all, for two primary reasons: they are so focused on short-term results of their job that they fail to build a career and they become …

Sales Prospecting for Appointments by Email
A salesperson for a silicon valley software company, Sabrina was tasked with calling on CIO’s in Fortune 1000 companies. Her cold calling skills were a bit rusty, and she was under serious pressure from sales management to produce. …

It’s Your Move: Keeping the Sale Moving Forward
One question I hear from salespeople on a regular basis is: “what do I do after the initial meeting with the prospect to maintain contact and increase their interest?” The question from their point of view is, “what do I say when I …

Sales Management Newsletter – Your Sales Funnel: Fiction or Reality?
How much business do you have in your funnel? That’s not a rhetorical question. Look up the number – and then remember it because by the end of this article, it’s going to be a lot smaller. That’s because most sales organizations’ …

How to Connect Better to Increase Your Closing Ratio
Have you ever wanted to increase your closing ratios? The first thing that will improve the number of people most people ever close is to actually have enough contacts. I’m not talking about just more…

Turn Your Client Database into Gold
Right this minute, you are probably sitting on tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of commissions. Most registered reps have a database of current and past clients whose potential referrals are worth several …

Attitude, Expectations, and Reality
“I have to work harder than before, but even so, my sales this month will be better than last October’s.” “My prospects and clients are certainly feeling the pinch of the economy and they’re fearful. But I also closed the biggest sale …

Keeping Sales Associates Motivated
What can sales management do right now to ensure a healthy pipeline down the road? At TBD, we believe that good leadership is key at this juncture. Sales management needs to stay close and committed to two-way communication and coaching …

Applying the Concepts of Continuous Improvement to Sales Leadership
Growth depends on sales and sales depends on your sales management systems. But surprisingly, many companies pay scant attention to managing this critical area. Are your sales management systems as fine-tuned as your other business …

Sales Management Style – The Positive Motivator
Regardless of its implementation, having a Positive Motivator Style in your Sales Management is another foundational key to having a successful Sales Organization. What are your thoughts on this? What are your favorite stories, …




 

New Managers – How Do You Keep From Getting Run Over?

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New Managers – Avoiding the Inevitable Traps

AC from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (that’s in Canada for the geographically challenged leaders out there) wrote us in August for some advice on how to gain respect as a new manager. To read her original concerns and our response, please follow this link.

We were anxious about her situation, because it was so very typical of young managers tasked with leading entry-level sales reps with nothing to lose. It is much easier to lead six-figure salespeople and middle managers with skin in the game than it is to manage an immature group with too many other options.

From the sound of it, AC is doing the right things (and doing them right):

I just wanted to update you… I have taken all your insight straight to the bank. For 5 of the last 6 weeks, our store has been number one of the 58 stores coast to coast. I am constantly trying to reinvent ways of being organized and efficient…

That’s outstanding news, AC. For anyone who doesn’t understand the first rule of business, it is to make money for the owners of the company. AC’s store is clearly performing at the highest level for sales and she is continuing to look for ways to improve. Obviously, there are good things to come for AC in her management career.

While it can be said that Sales Cures All Ills, issues remain in AC’s store. AC could not get her team to complete a fairly simple task of keeping 12 clientele books updated, so she reduced the workload to a single book, expecting her team to relish in the efficiency and simplicity of the plan. As AC soon learns, no good deed goes unpunished.

My attempt blew up in my face. I can honestly say that it hit the fan that day, and people were up in arms. They had reacted as if I killed their dog. This change has created a catastrophe of tension within the store, and it feels like a junior high clique. I have never used my position to do whatever I want; I have goals and have always lent an ear to those who have an opinion, because I respect the opinion of my associates.

So, sales are good, but small changes create chaos. Moreover, it seems that the team does not appreciate AC.

These associates have taken advantage of the good grace and now feel the need to tell me how to do my job. I would be more than welcome to negative or positive feedback as long as it’s not a complaint session and a positive outcome could be reached. Such is not the case, fingers would rather be pointed than solutions found. These associates only seem to appreciate me as long as I am accommodating their every whim: letting them leave early and paying them for the rest of their time; letting them take coffee breaks and extended lunches; and having all their requested days off met while still trying to accommodate their need for hours. I’ve come to the conclusion that I am a pushover, and perhaps have created a beast that I no longer want to feed. 

AC, you’re not a pushover. You’ve made some great decisions (or your store would not have been number one for 5 of the last 6 weeks), though you have hit some inevitable roadblocks for new managers. I’m hopeful that these past two months have helped you understand that employees are never satisfied.




Employees Want Everything

It’s really a true statement that your employees want everything. An immature workforce, as is typical in a mall clothing store, is never satisfied. Give them an extra ten-minute break, and they’ll want twenty. Let them go home at 4:30, and they’ll want to leave at 4. Give them a $100 raise, and they’ll want $200. They will never be satisfied.

I’ve always said that if you gave an immature workforce the right to sit at home and watch TV and still earn the same amount of pay, they’d complain about when the checks arrived. They will never be satisfied.

Say it with me: They will never be satisfied. No matter what you give, they’ll always want more. They’re too immature to understand the needs of the business. If they could understand this, they’d attempt to balance their wants with the company’s needs – they won’t. Since they will never be satisfied, it’s time to stop giving. You can still reward, but you want to learn the difference between favors that gain nothing for the store and rewards that drive results.

I thought that there was a good work environment and that everyone was getting along, when in fact there was so much two-facedness going on that I was oblivious to. I can’t fix a problem I don’t know about. I’ve always been an honest person and I can own up to my faults. How do I fix this issue and establish myself rather then have people run me over?

Just like with small children, it is important to set the boundaries and limits for your team. Don’t stick anything in the electrical outlets. Don’t cross the street without looking both ways. Don’t touch the stove.

With entry-level workers, you have to expect that all of them will eventually leave for one reason or another, so don’t be afraid to allow some of them to depart right now. Set the limits on what is acceptable behavior, the length of the coffee breaks, quitting time and the schedule. Explain that you will be flexible so long as they are flexible and the store is meeting its goals.

For those who want to grow with the company, they’ll get this right away and they’ll perform. For those who are just too immature to help the company reach its goals, they’ll find something else to do. (Of course, they’ll be unsatisfied at their next job, too.)

Be Fair – Great Leaders Always Are

Let them know that if they need special consideration (e.g., they want to go home early or get a certain day off), that you’re a fair person who’ll work with those who are willing to work with you.

Let them know that your only job is to help them be successful, and that you have a primary goal to make this a fun place to work. Of course, it won’t be fun for anyone if you don’t meet your objectives. They can help you meet those objectives or they can find somewhere else to work.

Explain that while this may sound harsh, the economy we’re faced with today does not reward poor performing groups, although those who like being on the number one team have nothing to worry about.

Find an External Enemy

Sales is a competition and good salespeople are very competitive. Right now, it sounds like the enemy of the salespeople is their manager. You need to turn this around. Give them a new enemy to focus on: the other fifty-seven stores in your company.

Post the sales results of every store, every week. Highlight where your store is on the list and where the five or six geographically closest stores rank. Celebrate (by congratulating and thanking your team) whenever you are ahead of the others, and ask for suggestions (from your team) when you are not. When your team is focused on beating the snot out of the other fifty-seven stores, you’ll be amazed at how the petty issues of the past seem to go away.

Sales Management Blogwatch – September 28, 2008

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The Best of the Sales Management Blogosphere

As is our custom at AskTheManager.com, we’ve scoured the Sales Management Blogs to bring you the very best posts and articles from the past week.

For the past several months, we’ve paid close attention to the Leadership Development, Management Training, Time Management and Sales Management Blogs, and we have to admit that the very best entries week in and week out come from the superb Sales Management Bloggers out there.

This week is no exception. Check out these great reads for some terrific advice for Sales Managers and Salespeople. Enjoy!

9 Management Philosophies to Develop Teams Into Elite High Performers
I remembered asking my mentor and colleague Alex Nicholas, (the author of Applied Concepts Institutes’ Sales Management Leadership Program), this very question. Here’s his answer – High performance managers have a set of management …




“I Do!” Design An Offer That Commences The Sales Marriage By Lee B …
Salz is a sales management guru who helps companies hire the right sales people, on-board them, and focus their sales activity using his sales architecturer methodology. He is the President of Sales Architects, the CEO of Business …

Training and Sales Management
Finding just the right training material on sales management can be tricky, but well worth the work. Training sales management is one of the best ways to ensure that your company runs efficiently. Training material on sales management …

Management myth
A good leader is needed to control the sales team with a wonderful sales management system, for we know that the sales team is like the soldiers in front of a battle. Without a good commander and management system, the army in front …

Bailout, It’s Just a 7 Letter Word–Or Is It?
Your daughter has grossly overextended herself. Her credit cards, mortgage and car payments alone are three times her monthly take home pay. Up until now she’s been able to rob from one to cover the other, but it’s now caught up with …

Top 3 Common Mistakes in Sales Management
But how will you be able to sustain it The secret is actually effective sales management. The problem is not a lot of business owners do understand the concept of sales management that they end up committing these top 3 common but …

Guest Article, “How to Become a Winning Sales Ace,” by Waldo Waldman
How to Become a Winning Sales ACE By Waldo Waldman. If you want to test the true character of a person, see how they respond to adversity. Watch how they handle the pressure of a lost sale, an angry client, or a difficult boss. …

Our Professionalism May Be Killing Us
He was promoted into sales management and to this day has fortunately not changed his unique personality. He still talks fast, and we love him for it. Further reading: What’s the difference between crazy and genius in sales? Results. …

Now Is The Time to Suit Up for Battle
I’ve received several emails and phone calls from clients wanting to know what they should be doing right now. Should they be battening down the hatches? Shrinking their sales teams? Waiting to see what happens in Washington this week? …

5 Factors Of Consistent Marketing
By creating consistency between your marketing and sales management, these two departments can come together and work together instead of against each other. The primary item to understand is to make sure you are directing your company …

Sales Management Strategy: The Ball of String Approach
How many times have you hired a new sales manager and because he or she was experienced and successful somewhere else, they understand how to be successful in your organization …

Mmmmm. Money…..
So let’s think about money for a moment. I personally love this topic. We all love money right? In fact, it is one of those “things” that we all have experience with – from a very young age at that. So you would think we should all be …

The Fundamentals of Sales Management
The entire gamut of activities listed above and some more tasks form sales management. Selling is the vital activity of a company on which the question of very survival rests. And the entire process of selling involves these tasks that …

Why Decision Makers Hate Cold Calls
The simple answer to why decision makers hate cold calls is cold calls are one of the biggest time wasters for them. Decision makers hate cold calls and have no interest in taking your call because all you do is waste their time. …

Monday Morning Manager-Help! Who Do I Hire?
You walk into a sales management position for the first time and the company needs 5 salespeople ASAP! Let’s make this situation real (because it has happened to people) by saying that you knew prior to taking the job that most of the …

Why Salespeople Fail
Although the title manager provides some internal satisfaction regarding professionalism, the practice of sales management is rarely professional. Insofar as personal responsibility is concerned all sales managers believe that they are …

Guest Article: “Successful Selling and the Theory of Relativity …
Successful Selling and the Theory of Relativity by Lee Salz. Albert Einstein formulated the theory that says that space and time are relative concepts rather than absolute concepts. For example, consider a car speedometer reading at 65 …

Referral Prospecting – The Smart Way To Prospect For New Business
I’ve been training sales people for 29 years now and I have had so many sales people come up to me during a break and tell me…”I’m really good at selling. Just put me in front of a prospect and I’ll get the order. …