subject: Sales Management Credibility - Building Respect As A Motivational Sales Manager [print this page] Several sales managers tell me that their salespeople don't meet their expectations. The sales manager pleads, begs and even threatens, however the salesperson just goes through the motions of selling and following through on proposals and sales calls. She or he never extremely engages in their jobs or careers. The sales manager merely doesn't inspire confidence, credibility or have a firm grip on the performance of their sales team.
I may offer you a long list of reasons why sales managers lack respect from their sales team and why their credibility is shot. However, I wish to focus on the one downside that I see quite often. The quickest manner for a sales manager to lose credibility with their sales team members is their lack of taking decisive action when handling poor sales performers.
Too many sales managers, for myriad reasons, fail to deal with the problems associated with a poor sales performer. They speak concerning them with alternative people or managers. They listen to excuses month when month. The sales manager may suppose changing the salesperson's compensation plan may facilitate or perhaps providing a brand new territory or product will fix the problem.
Instead, what extremely happens is the salesperson in questions monopolizes the sales manager's time and energy while the other salespeople shake their heads and shrug their shoulders each night as they go home and download to their spouse. They can't determine why their co-employee is not pulling their own weight and why the sales manager isn't doing something concerning it.
Permitting poor performers to hang out too long simply reinforces poor performance. If no accountability is in place, then why should the poor sales performer step up and create an endeavor? Empty guarantees and hollow threats from the sales manager don't mean a thing. The salesperson still collects a paycheck and the remainder of the team gets additional and a lot of pissed off with the shortage of decisive action.
If you have got a salesperson that may not performing, it is your responsibility to take action to search out out why and work to resolve it.
Here are simply some reasons why your salesperson is not performing:
? Insufficient product training
? Lack of effective sales training
? Micromanaging sales manager
? Lack of leadership in the company
? Poor sales rent - they are not "wired" for the duty
? You inherited a poor sales performer once you started as sales manager
? And many, many more...
I'm an advocate for always trying to 1st find the source of the lackluster performance and fixing it, if possible. But, if you haven't discovered it through diligent analysis, then your options are reduced to either moving the salesperson to another position in the corporate or removing them completely.
In either case, your attention to the present serious problem is desperately required on the part of the sales team. It cannot perform as a sales team unless you build the boldness of the members that you're right for the job. You want to prove that you will create decisions that are in the most effective interest of the team and have a strong need to create an environment of success for everyone.
