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So You’re the New Sales Manager – How Are You Going To Get Up To Speed Quickly?

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Taking Over an Existing Team – Part 3 of 3

 

This is the third of three posts detailing a few quick tips I used when I was hired to take over an underperforming sales team ranked last in their region. Within six months, this team became the number one sales team in both volume and volume growth, and they held that position for the next fifty consecutive months…

 

To read the first post in this series, follow this link.

To read the second post in this series, follow this link.

 

The New Manager Questionnaire

 

At the end of the expectations-setting first meeting, I handed out the salesman questionnaire below (it’s really for the manager’s benefit, so we’ll call it the New Manager Questionnaire) and arranged a time to meet with each rep for one-on-one sessions to discuss their answers. Although I had twenty salespeople at the time, I really wanted to get these all done quickly, so I scheduled meetings from 6:30 AM to 9:00 PM the next day. (The salespeople chose their meeting times.)

 

The questionnaire was designed to give me a sense of who they were, provide them an avenue to vent about whatever it was that needed changing, and to deliver a measure of self awareness to this underperforming group.

 

Here are the 20 best questions you can ever ask a new sales team:

 

  1. Where do you see yourself in 1 year? 3 years? 10 years?
  2. What three things do you like most about your job?
  3. What three things do you like least about your job?
  4. If you could change anything about our company, what would it be and how would you change it?
  5. What should we absolutely start doing today that we’re currently not doing?
  6. What should we absolutely stop doing today that we’re currently doing?
  7. What should we absolutely continue doing that we’re currently doing?
  8. How would you describe our company to a close friend?
  9. Describe the quality and quantity of training you feel you’ve received since coming to work here. What gaps exist in the training we’ve provided?
  10. Describe your abilities as they relate to your current position.
  11. Is there a different position within our company that you feel you are better suited for than salesperson? If so, what is that position and why do you feel that way?
  12. What is your total compensation? (Include your base, bonus and any perks like car allowances.)
  13. What should be your total compensation and how can I help you achieve this?
  14. Were there ever any promises made to you by anyone at our company that have not been kept? If so, please detail these.
  15. How many hours per week do you estimate you dedicate to achieving your goals at this company?
  16. In order to become the number one salesperson in the region, how many hours a week do you think you would need to commit to the company?
  17. What must be done to grow revenue and profit in your territory?
  18. What must be done to grow revenue and profit for the whole company?
  19. On a scale of 1-10, rate the selling ability of each of the other salespeople and yourself.
  20. How would you prefer to be managed?




 

Why These 20 Questions?

 

Why are these the 20 best questions to ask your new sales team? With these 20 questions, you’ll learn more about your marketplace and your reps’ ability to execute than you will with months of observations. Each question was designed to elicit a specific response or trigger a specific paradigm shift in the salesperson:

 

  • Questions 1 and 11 tell you if they have ambitions beyond being a salesperson, and how to plan a career path for each sales rep.
  • Questions 2, 3 and 20 tell you how to manage the respective rep. (I put Question 20 last because this one usually provides some great dialogue and an easy transition for a handshake and an “I’ll do my best, please keep me in line” from me.)
  • Question 4 tells you if this person is just a complainer or someone who’s given real thought to the issues at hand and believes they know how to fix them.
  • Questions 5 through 8 tell you how to manage up and across. (That is, what you need to gain for your team from the other department heads and from your supervisor.)
  • Questions 9 and 10 set the stage for the amount and type of sales training and product training that needs to occur quickly.
  • Questions 12 and 13 help you understand how much motivation money provides to a particular salesperson.
  • Question 14 helps you remove all the animosity of previously broken promises (and every sales team is full of broken promises from the company). Of course, that’s only if you honor the broken promises of your predecessor.
  • Questions 15, 16 and 17 are really kind of cool, because they reveal to the salesperson, out loud, that they’re not giving all they can.
  • The aggregated answers to Question 18 will help you create plans to reach the company’s goals. (The salespeople really do have all the answers, you just have to ask them.)
  • Question 19 gives you a sense of how everyone views their teammates, and which ones are the leaders and which ones may need development, retraining or a pink slip.

 

I asked the sales team to come prepared to answer all of these questions during their one-on-one meeting, but that they didn’t need to bring anything written – I would take copious notes (which I did).

 

Hearing a sales rep tell you, out loud, that he’s a 5 on a 1-10 scale is extremely powerful. This is someone eager to learn, and the self-realization that occurs gives them a voracious appetite for direction, development and sales training.

 

Do You Really Mean It?

 

Good salespeople are good because they can read people, and they’ll always know when you’re lying. The key to this questionnaire is sincerity. You have to be sincere about wanting to know the answers to these questions, and you have to be sincere about wanting to change the things that need changing. If all you do is ask the questions and take no action, your team will never trust you and they will never perform.

 

It would take dozen of additional posts to share with you how I used all of these answers to shape this group into the best sales team in the region, though suffice it to say that sharing a vision and then living that vision can do wonders for a rag-tag group like I had inherited.

 

I encourage any leader who is taking over as a new sales manager, or any manager who is simply tired of lackluster sales, to try these questions on their own sales team. As always, I welcome your comments… Good Selling!

 

So You’re the New Sales Manager – How Are You Going To Set The Right Expectations?

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Taking Over an Existing Team – Part 2 of 3

 

This is the second of three posts detailing a few quick tips I used when I was hired to take over a sales team that was ranked last in their region. In six short months, this team became the number one sales team in volume and volume growth, and they held that position for the next fifty consecutive months…

 

To read the first post in this series, follow this link.

 

The First Sales Meeting

 

Like most sales teams, this group held long rah-rah sessions every Monday morning to “fire up the troops.” From what the GM told me, these were often very inspirational, though they never seemed to translate into solid results. Everyone would leave the meeting with great enthusiasm only to come back to the office on Friday reporting sub par sales.

 

This told me the team lacked an understanding of their goals, clear direction and the support necessary to execute. I decided that my first meeting must not be about motivation, but expectations – both my expectations of them and, more importantly, what they could expect from me. Here is a synopsis of what I showed and told them when I stood in front of them for the first time:

 

  • What you can expect from me…
    • I will always be fair, open and honest
    • I will check my ego at the door
    • I will always respect you by being on time to our appointments and meetings
    • I will keep my meetings short and informative
    • I believe that those closest to the customers should make the decisions – you are closest to the customer
    • I will never shoot you for making a bad decision provided you made it with the best intentions
    • I believe that “the way we always did it” is not working and we need to find a new way to do things
    • My primary goal is to help you make this company number one in the country – we are currently last in our region
    • You are the only ones who can guarantee we are successful in that goal
    • This will never be about me, it will always be about you – you are the only people in this company who create revenue.
    • If you are not in sales, then you are in support – I am in support and my only job is to make you the hero
    • I will always keep my word and I will always honor your commitments to the customers, even when it costs the company money

 

  • What I expect from you…
    • I expect you to always be fair, open and honest
    • I expect you to have a healthy ego
    • I expect you to be on time to meetings – if you’re late for our sales meetings, how can I believe you’ll be on time for customer appointments?
    • I expect you to contribute to meetings by having a success story to share each week
    • I expect you to make decisions for yourself
    • I expect you to fail tremendously. This will ensure that you have tremendous successes. Besides, if you’re not failing, then I know you’re not trying
    • I expect you to learn from your failures
    • I never want to hear why we can’t do something, I only want to hear ways we can – In other words, stop putting roadblocks up in front of yourself
    • I expect you to be the number one salesperson in the company – yes, I expect each and every one of you to be number one
    • I expect you to be the hero and to never let anyone in this company, especially me, cut your legs out from under you
    • I expect you to always keep your word to your customers, even when it costs the company money
    • I expect you to stand on my desk and scream at me if I ever fail to live up to your expectations

 

Their Reaction

 

Prior to my arrival, this group was always told what to do and when to do it. The previous sales manager was the superstar and the salespeople were his roadies. It was always about him and never about them.

 

Given all this, you know they were putty in my hands after that speech. J




 

Of course, this presentation was just words unless I was prepared to live it, and “live it” I did. From cosmetic changes like removing the reserved parking sign for the sales manager to real changes like showing up unannounced to help a salesperson working on a Saturday, I lived the vision I described and the reps took notice. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Tomorrow’s post, part 3 of 3, will detail a questionnaire I provided to each salesperson at the end of that first meeting. A questionnaire that they were required to complete and return the next day for a scheduled one-on-one meeting with their new support person – me.

 

The New Manager Questionnaire

 

To read the salesman questionnaire and the results of these meetings, please follow this link.

 

 



After reviewing the documents and spending time in the market, it was clear to me that this team lacked execution and direction. They all seemed to be working very hard, but they were failing miserably at actually doing things that mattered. Additionally, I discovered that this group’s prior leader had been very active with the largest customers – so much so that he was figuratively cutting the legs out from under his team.

 

I felt like this group needed to see real change – not just a new butt behind the manager’s desk – so I got permission from the GM to come into the salesroom and rearrange a few things the weekend before I started.

 

Day One for the New Sales Manager

 

As the sales team staggered in between 8:30 and 9:00 AM on Monday, they were quite shocked to see that their salesroom bore no resemblance to the one they left on Friday.

 

While I understand that most people don’t like sudden change, and no one really likes surprise changes made to their space, this group was in last place and needed the proverbial “slap in the face.” So I slapped them as hard as I could.

 

Where they once had blank walls, they now had product displays of each and every one of their company’s products (complete with point-of-sale merchandise). On the formerly clean windows, they now saw up-to-date charts, graphs and spreadsheets detailing every single key performance metric for their team and the other teams in the region. They also saw weighted rankings that showed definitively who was performing and who was not.

 

The most striking change, however, was in the form of their seating arrangements. Where this “team” once had twenty small cubicles, they now had one very large table and a wall of short file cabinets labeled with their names. No longer would this group act as individuals – this new arrangement would prove to guarantee both best practices sharing and shorter office stays. (Unless he/she sells with a telephone, there is no reason for a salesperson to be in the office except for training and, in the old days before direct deposit, to pick up a paycheck.)

 

The grumbling was comically animated. I still chuckle today when I picture the mix of blank stares and angry glances – these reactions made giving up my entire weekend worthwhile.

 

I emerged from my new office and greeted the team as they arrived. I introduced myself to every one of them the same way: “Hi, I’m the new sales manager, and my only job is to support you.”

 

The First Sales Meeting

 

Like most sales teams, this group held a rah-rah session every Monday morning to “fire up the troops.” From what the GM told me, these were often very inspirational though they never seemed to translate into solid results. To learn what I shared at my first sales meeting with this group, please follow this link.