As Sales Reps, each of us wants to become SALES LEADERS. Our natural competitive spirit will usually drive us to perform to the level of our peers. But how hard do you think it is for our sales managers to lead us? How hard is it for our sales managers to find ways to motivate us? And how hard is it for our sales managers to keep us on track?
Depending on which system you believe in, the optimum number of people a manager can effectively manage is 6 to 18. If you now look at theories about sales managers the numbers drop to 6 to 12. Taking it one step further and focusing on managers that manage commissioned sales reps the number is closer to 6 to 8.
I have worked directly with several sales forces and have experience with many others, my observations are that in most cases sales managers are being asked to manage 2 to 3 times these numbers. This fact alone sets the bar low for effectiveness, productiveness, and performance. Not due lack of talent or desire on the part of the manager but due to the workload and time restraints placed upon them.
So now the question is, what should a rep do? I am a firm believer that a great sales rep needs a strong sales manager. A strong sales manager needs co-operation from their sales reps. How does a sales rep co-operate with a manager? By using the manager for what they are best at not wasting the manager’s time with non productive, insignificant, meaningless chores and acting like a primadona.
OK BEFORE MY ENTIRE SALES REP FOLLOWING STARTS SENDING ME HATE MAIL AND LOGS OFF MY BLOG FOR THE LAST TIME, PLEASE READ ON.
If you take the facts that I have set before you so far and think about the questions I have posed to you it really comes down to what SHOULD I ask of my sales manager not what CAN I ask of my sales manager.
I have heard reps ask managers to do paperwork for them, make phone calls for them, basically reps asking their managers to be errand boys (or girls) for them. Depending on the ranking of the rep these requests usually become more and more abusive and more and more absurd.
If each of us took the time to think about the best way to utilize our sales managers to help drive our personal sales we would all benefit. Let me give you some examples. I have had top sales reps asking their sales managers to train and retrain them on company software. When I have approached the rep and asked why they didn’t ask IT or ask ME the sales trainer, in almost every case I was told they didn’t want to look stupid and follow it with, THAT’S THE MANAGERS JOB ANYWAY ISN’T IT?
Let’s look at the dynamics of a request like this. The sales manager is now taking time to train the rep and because the rep is being trained they are taking selling time out of their day. So a top rep and a sales manager are out of the revenue stream for however long the training takes. In other words, if the training takes 30 minutes an hour of productivity is lost. (30 minutes X 2 people = 60 minutes). Taking this one step further let’s say the managers top 4 reps ask for this kind of non-revenue generating help in a week that is 4 hours, half a day, or 10% of the week doing chores that won’t help the company make sales and won’t help the reps make commissions.
So back to the question of what SHOULD we ask our sales managers to do for us? This is really easy if we always ask one question before we make a request from our managers. Will what I am about to ask drive sales, make profits for the company, or directly help me earn more commissions? If you can answer yes to any of these criteria then it is a good request. If the answer is no then very simple DON’T’T ASK and look for help in other places.
I know that this may not be the most popular post I have ever written for my followers who are reps, but the facts are it really should be. By using our sales managers the right way we will not only earn more money for ourselves in commissions and bonuses, but we will also help every other employee of the company. Being a sales trainer and having been a sales reps I believe that every job in the company is depending on us to do our jobs the best we can. WE are the revenue generators, WE are the profit makers, WE are the people that make the company grow and thrive.
Take this responsibility seriously, your fellow employees, customers, and fellow reps are all depending on you.
Lorin
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