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Where else can a person out earn his boss, or even his boss's boss? That situation alone, as you can imagine, can be unmanageable.Have you ever worked with wonderful sales managers as well as managers who drove what was a well-functioning organization into a tailspin? Let's explore various issues and aspects of the relationships between the rep and his or her manager with situation assessments and proven solutions to fix problems
Issue 1. Buffering Salesreps from Executive Pressures
The failure of the manager to buffer the rep from the pressures from the executives above is one potential obstacle preventing a good working relationship between manager and salesrep. I've seen salesreps literally driven to distraction by senior executives who micromanage, threaten, push, cajole, and overlook chain of command.
Most sales managers are caught in the danger zone between the downward pressures of senior management and the day-to-day activities of the salesrep. There are sales managers who handle this exceedingly well and others who become, in effect, transparent, allowing their reps to be the recipient of every message, concern, insult, and doubt that the senior executive is feeling at any given moment. The impact of this transparency can be dramatic. Reps can become distracted and demoralized, and even lose respect for their managers, delivering less rather than more in terms of revenue.
As an example, I recently listened in on a weekly sales forecast review at the invitation of the CEO of one of my client companies. It was a very critical quarter. During the call the CEO said, "The board is expecting you to deliver your numbers this quarter." I know the CEO to be a strong leader, very open to coaching and therefore this potential problem required just a minor adjustment. When I pointed out what he had said-- that he was expecting the salesreps to do his job, not their job--he agreed and promised to set things straight with the reps.
Here are some suggestions for effective sales management around this issue from the best-of-the-best sales managers and sales executives* from my client base:
"You can only protect your reps if you, as the manager, have the respect and confidence of your boss, which you have to earn."
"Set realistic expectations with those at the executive levels from the start. That's the time to do it, not at the end of the quarter or the year."
"Communicate changes, additions or subtractions to executive management early. Bad news smells worse with time."
"Take ownership from the beginning for the numbers."
"Make sure your sales team has a copy of the forecast that you have submitted."
"Be informed. Executives would prefer to go to one person for the answers not track down 5 or 6 people. Having the correct and accurate information is critical."
"Use sales methodology that takes the emotion out of forecasting. The facts are the facts."
"It's important to be proactive with the sales team and eliminate the performers who are not doing the numbers - cutting off the bottom performers is always respected if necessary."
"What must be avoided is simply forwarding on the message from above without any care or thought given to when, how, and even if the message should go to the troops."
"Employ the executive team in opportunities so they can see first hand the challenges we face. They can then leverage their influence to provide us with what we need."
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