I had an interesting discussion with a friend of mine today. He works as a rep with a company that sells hardware to heavy equipment repair shops. We were talking about the market and the job and the discussion turned toward his manager.
He was very frustrated because his manager called himself a “Team Leader”. I didn’t see anything wrong until he told me a little more about the manager.
This manager doesn’t work the field with his reps EVER! My friend has been with the company for over 6 years and has never seen or heard about this manager going on field rides or calling on customers. He also told me that this manager came from another industry and had no experience with selling hardware or the heavy equipment industry.
I listened to my friend vent for a solid 20 minutes about what his manager DIDN’T know.
When he was done I asked what the manager did right, he blurted out a single word with no hesitation, NOTHING! We both had a laugh for a few seconds and I asked again, what does he do right? This time my friend started telling me about the positive things the manager does.
The manager is good about giving praise to reps who do a good job, he is fair about making decisions when it comes to the reps, he is always supportive of a rep if there is a dispute with the company and the rep, he has an open door so reps always have him to go to when they need help or just need to talk and vent, and the list went on for awhile.
I then asked the rep what the manager does to improve the reps and advance them in their careers. He told me again without any hesitation that the manager was a GREAT teacher. I asked what he can possibly teach you if he doesn’t know the product or industry. My friend then turned a little red faced and said that the manager had worked with many people in the corporate headquarters, research and development department and manufacturing. He told me the manager spent over a year learning the company. The only piece of the puzzle missing was actually working with the customers. I found this very interesting, a manager that had the entire product and process knowledge but no actual selling experience. Most of the time it is the other way around.
So now I was getting down to some specific questions about the manager that I needed to be able to help in any way. I asked how the manager helps your selling. Again my friend told me the manager was excellent. I was a little stumped so I asked how so? He told me that no matter what the problem or stumbling block was the manager moved it out of the way. He said that he knew so much about the company’s inner workings he was able to find a solution to any problem the rep may be having.
I was impressed, so I then asked so tell me what he does if you need some direct help SELLING. He got the same smile and told me about the “Helping Hand” program the manager started. If a rep needed selling help the manager would find out precisely what kind of help the rep needed and then have the best rep at that skill help the rep in need. I said that sounds good but doesn’t that cause problems with commissions and account splits? He said absolutely not, the “Helping Hand” rep gets a very nice bonus if the sale is made and gets a fair bonus just for helping.
So now I had a better insight to the manager and asked what was so bad about this guy, he actually sounded like a darn good manager. My friend said he was, the only thing that bugged him was the fact that the manager called himself a “TEAM LEADER”. He said how can he lead the team if he doesn’t sell?
I explained that a manager’s job was to do exactly what his manager was doing. A leader’s job is to be the person the team wants to follow, not necessarily the front runner in the sales race. I continued, a great manager is the one who builds great people under them, they work to build the team and make sure that every team member has all the opportunities they need to succeed. A good manager doesn’t need to be in the trenches with his sales reps he needs to make sure the path to success is clear and well defined. He needs to remove anything that can harm the chance of making a sale and make the decisions that are the sales maker’s not sales breakers.
I told my friend that I felt he was very lucky to have such a great manager to work for. I told him that he needed to look at him as a TEAM LEADER not the TOP REP. If the manager does his job correctly as it looks like he is doing very well, he will develop every rep to be the TOP REPS.
My friend told me that he used to think just like me, but over the past year, because the market has been tough, he has gotten negative and has started listening to other reps complain. The other reps had gotten to him pulled him into the same gutter they were in.
My advice was instead of being the follower he needed to start being the leader and bring all the reps back into the fold to understand how valuable their manager is. He got a little red faced again and told me that he was looking for someone to blame his poor performance on, I said that’s easy, look in the mirror.
I left him sitting at the table thinking about what I had said. About 3 hours later I got a call from him. He had just got off the phone with the manager and told his manager about me and the entire conversation we had. He told his manager that he was going to do what I suggested and become the cheer leader for the manager and the team. He told me the manager told him to thank me and that he wanted to buy me lunch someday.
I felt good, actually I felt GREAT! I had to tell this story tonight, I know so many reps that have a similar problem and are in a similar mind set about their manager. I want them to remember that a manager can lead from behind. It may be from behind a desk, a steering wheel, or a computer. It may be behind a counter, a conference table or a cubical. It may be from behind a rep making a sales call. The point is a good manager can LEAD FROM BEHIND!
Lorin
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