During one particular week in the season, like a shit head, I skipped school. I got caught and was suspended for that Saturday’s football game.  I had to stand on the sidelines, in my game jersey, no pads and watch. It sucked.  It was hard. We lost the game.

The next day, I walked down to my grandfathers house. As usual, he was reading the Sunday Paper. I walked in and started some small talk. He just looked at me and asked; “What happened?”

Apparently, my absence on the field was a bigger deal than I thought. The paper made a point to report I did not play due to a suspension.

I asked my grandfather what he was talking about, knowing clear well what he was asking me.

He looked at me and asked again. “What happened?”

Just as I was about to explain what happened, my grandfather blurted out; “Wait! Don’t tell me. I know. It was your coaches fault!”

I looked at him puzzled and wondered to myself. What is he talking about?

He then said, “Wait, I know! It was your teachers fault!”  He paused and then said, “No, it was your buddy’s fault!” he took a quick breath and quickly said; “It was the schools fault.” He then paused again.  He looked at me for just a brief second, but not long enough for me to say anything and said; “Don’t tell me! I’ll get it!  Because, I know it wasn’t your fault!”

I’ll never, ever, ever forget that day.

So, when you don’t make quota. When you lose the big deal, when you miss the RFP deadline, when you don’t make enough cold calls, when you don’t make Presidents Club, when you lose your best client, when the demo doesn’t go well, when your presentation bombs, don’t worry about it. I know! — It’s not your fault!

Activity based management is stifling. It removes creativity from the process. It removes ownership and employees end up feeling like cogs in a wheel and not true contributors.

Results based management however, gives people the ability to approach a problem the way they see fit. If going to networking events and social media is a better lead generator for you than cold calling, then network away. I’m not going to tell you how to get your results. Get the results however you need to. What I like about results based management is it embraces peoples unique perspective on solving the problem and getting the desired results. It gives them freedom. The military calls this commanders intent.

In my opinion, results based management is a far better approach than activity based management.  But, what happens when the results aren’t there? What happens when someone isn’t getting the results? That’s were the “freedom box” comes in.

I created the “freedom box” several years ago. It represents how much freedom I give someone when they are making their numbers or the results. If the results are there then the employee has all the freedom they want. They can do anything they feel is necessary to be successful. The only things outside the big box are unethical things or things that could bring down the team. Other than that, the box is pretty big with lots of options. They have lots of freedom.

However, if results start to suffer. If the numbers aren’t there, if the employee is having trouble getting the expected results, the box starts to shrink.

When the box shrinks, there is less freedom. More things are outside of the box. If it’s outside of the box, it’s not an option for them. I remove the freedom to do unproven or overly unique and creative things. They are now outside of the box. We move towards the basics. When the box shrinks, I spend more time challenging approaches. I ask more questions. I demand more metrics and status updates. The employee still has the freedom to determine their own path, just not as much. Despite the smaller box, activities are still not managed only monitored for results.

If overtime, results are still not achieved and progress isn’t made the box get’s even smaller.

When the box gets this small almost all freedom is gone. Almost everything is outside of the box. Focus is on fundamentals and proven methodologies. The employee has a limited time to turn things around. We develop a plan on how they are going to get the results. The plan is reviewed regularly and more approval is required. There is heavy engagement between the employee and management. Results have to be present quickly. Despite the lack of freedom, there is little activity management. There is some, but it is often in the form of collaboration.

If results are still not achieved, a good fit is lacking and we agree to part ways.  What I don’t start doing is manage their activity. Activity based management doesn’t work in sales. If you have to manage activity you have the wrong people. Good people know how to get the job done. They know what works for them and what it takes to get the results. If your employees have to rely on you, your direction and your approach to be successful you don’t have employees, you have drones and drones are only as good as the process they are programmed to execute. Too much changes too quickly to rely on drones.

Provide the direction, let folks now the expected results, then give them all the freedom and tools they need to get the job done. If the results don’t show up, shrink the box, but don’t tell them how to do it. Once you’re telling people how to do it, it’s  over, just get a new employee or do it yourself.

1. Do you have your version of the freedom box?
2. How much freedom do you give your team to get results?

We all have a pretty good idea if our sales team is good or bad. Most of us just look at the numbers. If the team is making them, they are good. If they aren’t they need help. Assessing sales teams usually goes something like that. It’s the old “gut” check.

The problem with the “gut check” is it doesn’t give us much more information. The team is good or not, that’s all it tells us. What the gut doesn’t do is tell us why the team is good or not. It doesn’t tell us where the opportunities are to get better and grow, good or bad.

To give you more than a “GUT” feel we’ve created a sales organization assessment tool for you to get real insight into your sales organizations effectiveness and where its strengths and weaknesses are.

It’s free and only takes 10 minutes.

Go on, click here to take the assessment and find out how good your sales organization really is . . . and where you might be able to get just a little bit better:  A Sales Guy Sales Organization Effectiveness Assessment

Your gut will thank us!

The company is growing quickly and like most companies experiencing tremendous growth, they are struggling with growing pains.

I spent a lot of time with the team, especially with the frontline managers. They were a fun, smart, well connected team that truly enjoyed one another. Watching them interact and work together reminded me of some of the most successful sales teams I’ve experienced or been a part of. They had a great chemistry and sales teams with great chemistry win. — Period!

Sales teams with good chemistry gain what I call the “amplifying advantage.” Every positive thing they do is amplified. An amazing energy permeates the entire team. People work harder, sales seem easier and everyone is excited to be selling.

The most successful sales team I’ve ever been apart of had an amazing chemistry. We accomplished some unbelievable things. The team was the envy of the organization. I’ll never forget it. We crushed it. Then changes were made. The numbers fell and it was never the same. Once the chemistry was gone, the “amplifying advantage” was gone too.

I can’t think of a single sale leadership or sales management book I’ve ever read that talked about the importance of chemistry in a sales team. (If you aware of one let me know. Send me an email with the title and author.) It’s too bad there isn’t more emphasis on the importance of chemistry in sales because the evidence tells me that establishing chemistry within a sales team is one of the BEST things you can do to grow sales.

Sales teams with amazing chemistry sell more than those that don’t. It seems to me, working on the chemistry should be a key objective.

My client is pretty lucky, he’s been doing that for years and it’s making our work today that much easier.

What is the chemistry like on your team? If it’s not good, fix it! You’ll see a difference!

The beginning of the year in sales always starts with a number. Then it moves to getting to the number. Sales leadership spends a lot of time going through plans, setting quota, preparing for Q1, looking at the pipeline, etc. Everyone is looking forward and the management process on making the number begins.

What is often missed however, is a good solid understanding of what the team is going to need to make the number. I’m not sure why this is missed so often, but it is.

Sales leaders, pull out your 2012 sales strategy right now. Go through it and take note of how much of it is dedicated to sales support and enablement. How much of the budget is allocated to sales improvement or support tools?  How much of the plan focuses on training? How much of the strategy focuses on value proposition development? How much of the strategy focuses on marketing and collateral support? How much of the plan DOESN’T focus on direct go to market and numbers making? If  the plan as good coverage in all of these things, you have a good plan. But if your plan is like most, it’s lacking in almost all of these areas.

The best thing sales leadership can do in 2012 is support the sales team. In order to do this, you have to build team support and enablement into your overall sales strategy. Like a go to market strategy, critical analysis is paramount.

Take a look at your plan for 2012 then ask a very simple question. What does my team need today, that they don’t have to make the number? Ask the question over and over. Each answer should then become an initiative. If the answer is nothing, unless you’ve already asked the question, your not being honest with yourself.

Sales teams are not ready made, out of the box organizations. They require care and feeding. The best organizations understand this.

Ask the team what they feel is missing. Ask them what they think would make it easier to make their number. Ask them what you could provide to accelerate sales. Get familiar with the team’s weaknesses and strengths. Identify initiatives that will offset the weaknesses and leverage the strengths. Getting to your number, growing sales, and moving product is more than setting revenue targets and creating motivational rewards and recognition. Getting to your number means getting the most out of your team and that requires support.

Know what your team is lacking, know where it is weak, know where it is strong. Know what could make it stronger and then give it what it needs.

What is your sales support and enablement strategy? Do you have one? You should!

The key is to stop moving up!

I created this video to demonstrate what a real sales cycle looks like.  It will be part of the new A Sales Guy U, coming in January. If you are interested in getting the associated white paper on how to manage a real sales cycle, send me an email and I will send one to you.

The more we know how sales cycles work and how deals move, the better chance we have of controlling them.

What should you do when you see failure on the horizon? — Let it happen!

Letting failure happen is one of the most difficult challenges of sales leaders and other leaders a like. No one likes failure. Especially when we see it coming. The best leaders know this however and let it happen anyway.

Why let failure happen?

Failure is the only way to learn: 

Failure is the only way we learn. As leaders we need and want people to learn and grow. Failure is a part of the learning process. If people aren’t allowed to fail, they won’t learn and without learning, they won’t grow.

It creates ownership:

When we don’t let others fail, we strip them of ownership. When we don’t let people fail, we in essence make the decision for them. We don’t let them make the final call. When people don’t get to make the call, they don’t feel attached to the end result; good or bad. Ownership is important to creating accountability. We want our people to feel ownership for their decisions and the consequences; good or bad.

People need to make their own decisions:

At the end of the day, people have to make their own decisions. They have to be empowered to make the decisions they think will work best. Preventing people from failing takes away their ability to make decisions. We have to let people chose for themselves.

It creates accountability

When people make their own decisions, it creates accountability. We can’t hold people accountable for outcomes when they aren’t given the latitude to chose for themselves. When we don’t let people fail, it’s because we chose for them. We disagreed with an approach, we saw a flaw in the thinking, we did the work for them. When we step into avoid failure we are taking over the decision making process. Taking over the decision means it’s no longer their decision and we can’t hold them accountable for the end results. People have to be allowed to make their own decision if we want them to experience the consequences — good or bad.

It’s empowering:

When we let people fail, we are empowering them. We are telling them, “we trust you.” People need to know they are trusted for their expertise. People need to feel valued for what they know and for what they do. When we don’t let failure happen, we strip people of a sense of competence. We send the message that says; I don’t trust your judgement and therefore I’m going to do this for you. Do this too many times and your will create stunted robots, as no one will make any decisions. They will just wait for you.

You could be wrong:

Has it ever entered your mind, you could be wrong? What happens if you are wrong? What if your idea wasn’t the right one and failure happens?  What if they WERE right? Now what? Just because we think we know the answer, doesn’t mean we are right. We can be wrong too.

It creates diversity, creativity and innovation: 

By letting people fail, we are giving permission for people to think for themselves. When an entire organization is allowed to think for themselves it creates a wide swath of ideas and approaches for creating opportunity and to solving problems. If there is one single greatest benefit to letting people fail, this is it. When we don’t let people fail, we stunt creativity. Idea’s are put through the leadership filter and stripped of creativity. When ideas or approaches have to be run by management rather than implemented they lose their ability to be proven out. Letting failure happens means, letting ideas go out without the constricting filter of you. Leadership can’t think of all the good ideas, nor can they determine what the good ideas are. Let people fail, you’ll learn more than by trying to keep them from failing.

It’s why you pay them:

At the end of the day we hire people to do their job. If you don’t trust them to make good decisions, don’t hire them. If you do trust them, then let them fail. They will only fail once. They will learn a lot. They’ll feel as if they have ownership and that they are empowered. The will grow and get better. Letting people fail is an investment.

Let people fail. You’ll have a much more creative environment and a lot more time on your hands to SUPPORT all this new found creativity — and that’s exactly what you should be doing.

Let failure happen. You’ll be happy you did.

BTW: As I’ve been writing I’ve determined this puppy needs a follow-up post on HOW to let people fail. Letting people fail is not an easy to do.  Stay tuned!

This independent, capable, accomplished, solo sales warrior ideal, however romantic, is a common notion. Unfortunately, embracing this notion costs companies billions of dollars a year.

In most cases gladiators were slaves. They lived, were trained and fed in the homes of their owners. Gladiators were seen as an investment and the best gladiators came from the best houses, those that took the best care of their fighters.

Sales teams are no different.

Unfortunately, too often companies don’t make the appropriate investment in their sales teams and are surprised with the results.

Here are five ways companies fail their sales teams –

Poor or Weak Value Propositions:

Too often companies think sales people should be able to sell anything. Give them a product and show them the door. What most companies miss is sales people sell what is given to them. Give sales people a shitty, commoditized product with little competitive differentiation and sales will suffer. Regardless of how strong the sales team is, they can’t sell a shitty product. It’s the companies job to create solid products with strong, competitive differentiators. Creating killer products with strong differentiation ISN’T sales job. It’s the companies.

Complicated Commission Plan:

Forty to seventy percent of sales peoples compensation is variable. That means they don’t make that money unless they sell something. Therefore it’s a companies job to create, simple, dead-stupid-easy commission plans that allow sales people to know how they get paid. Too often companies create complicated, demoralizing, confusing commission plans that leave the sales team clueless on how they get paid. Don’t over think commission plans.

The Sales Prevention Department:

Every company has a sales prevention department. The SPD gets in sales way. They are the group that holds up a 50 million dollar sale because the customer wants billing to commence in the middle of the month and your company requires billing to be at the beginning. Really? Sales prevention departments drive sales people crazy. The more bureaucratic a company is the bigger their sales prevention department will be. Sales people have enough challenges externally to getting the deal closed, they don’t need to have to fight internally too. Get rid of the sales prevention department and stop making it hard for you sales people to sell.

No Sales Support or Lack of Sales Enablement:

It’s not enough just to get out of sales peoples way these days.  Sales are increasingly more and more complex. Companies need to provide broad, robust support to make it easier to sell. Companies need to provide selling tools, presentation and collateral development, lead support, strategy development, cross functional support, etc. Sales enablement is the companies support of the sales teams engagement with its customers. Without a good sales enablement function, sales cycles are longer and close rates are lower. Support your sales team.

Shitty Leadership:

The importance of good leadership holds true for any functional group, not just sales. In sales your superstar sales guy doesn’t alway make the best sales leader.

Sales people need motivation, coaching, and direction. Having shitty sales management in place sucks the life out of any sales organization. Too often companies pay too little attention to sales leadership, too focused on the numbers.The soft-skills required to lead a team to greatness are missed or worse ignored. Find the best leaders you can and put them over you sales team. The best leaders will get more out of your sales people than they can get out of themselves.

Sales people are the closest things to real-life super heros. They accomplish amazing things with little support and direction. Sales people are at the tip of the company spear. Sales people determine whether or not the company makes its revenue goals. Don’t fail your sales team. Give them a decent product with discernable differentiation and a strong value proposition. Give them an easy to understand commission plan. Get rid of the sales prevention department. Support and enable your sales team and provide over the top, killer leadership. Your sales team deserves it.

The best sales teams, like the best gladiators, will come from companies who take the best care of them.

Stop failing your sales teams, else they start failing you.

What are the essentials to become a great sales manager?

The answers ranged from being a good communicator, to moving from getting results yourself to getting results through others, to accountability, to providing support and setting high expectations. The answers to the questions were good but to be expected.

Here are a few excerpts from the some of the answers:

A great sales manager understands that her salespeople are unique individuals. They have their own way of gaining clients. They should be nurtured as well as held accountable. A mistake sales managers make is trying to force a process on their sales people; a process they can’t do effectively. -Dianne

Great managers make sure they equip their people with the right strategies, processes, systems, tools, training, and resources to succeed. -Dave

When one of the sales people is having trouble, the sales manager steps in to assist and steer the person in the right direction and must take corrective action if necessary – so one of the traits needed is to have the ability needed to confront a subordinate who is not meeting the goals and objectives in a constructive way. — Bob

Equally important, the sales manager also needs to be able to analyze your position in a sales opportunity and guide you through the next step. — Todd

To be a great sales manager, he himself should be a great and super sales man. As many other replies, a great sales manager to be a good coach, motivator and super communicator. — Raj

These are all good descriptions of good sales managers. However, I don’t think they are what make great sales managers.  Great sales managers have a very unique skill that is almost impossible to find and more importantly impossible to teach. It’s the ability to get more out of people than people can get out of themselves.

We all have our own motivations.  Each of us strive to achieve. Some of us set the bar high, others low. Regardless of where we set the bar and how hard we work, individually we are unable to maximize our abilities alone.  To reach our peak, to be the best we can be, requires help — a coach.  Great sales managers recognize this and don’t just look to support or communicate or hold their people accountable, they look to grow and expand them. Great sales managers have the ability to see deeper into people, than people can see in into themselves.  Great sales managers use the power of objective insight to empower, direct, motivate and get more out of people than they get out of themselves.

All people have a blind spot. Each one of us. This blind spot is called Johari‘s window. Our blind spot is that part of us that we don’t see, that everyone else does. We are blind to certain things we don’t like or are inconsistent with our own definition of self. Although we can’t see it, everyone else can.  These blind spots cost us, as we are unaware of our actions. The blind spots are also the personal positive assets that we could be benefitting from yet, we are unaware. Identifying and embracing our blindspots is critical to growth and success. Unfortunately it’s almost impossible to shed light on blindspots without the help of others.  This is where GREAT sales managers come in.

Great sales managers go beyond communication, support, accountability, direction, process, etc. Great sales managers work with our blind spots. Great sales leaders have amazing vision and insight into their people and know how to leverage that insight to get more from them than people can get from themselves.  Great sales managers know how to push people past their own preconceived limits without breaking them. They know how to get people to take risks they wouldn’t normally take. They are able to get people to be comfortable being uncomfortable. Great sales managers take people to higher-levels of achievement.

Great sales managers are the opposite of poor sales managers.  Poor sales managers drive under-performance. When poor sales management is in place, teams underperform. Not only are their people not stretched, they’re not achieving what they are easily capable of. Poor sales management creates an environment where people dont’ meet their baseline capabilities, they under achieve.

Good sales managers are able to get people to do what they know they are capable of and do it consistently.  Good sales managers are the top of the bell curve. There are lots of them. Good sales manager are plentiful and can run a good sales organziation. They will keep the satus quo. They will get people to meet their baseline capabilities. Good sales managers won’t hurt their people, but they won’t take them to the next level.

Great sales managers get people and teams to outperform themselves.  Great sales managers take people and teams to the next level. Great sales managers can see in people what they can’t see in themselves and then know how to tease it out of them in a productive, non-threatening way. Great sales managers create more value than would be present if they weren’t there.

Finding great sales managers is almost impossible.  Few sales managers have the insight and skill to accomplish this. It can’t be taught.  It’s innate. That’s why there are so many good managers, yet so few great.  Great managers are like Jedi Knights, it’s just in them.  If you find one, snap him or her up. They are as invaluable as they are rare. If you are ever lucky enough to work for a great sales manager, thank them!  Because, you wouldn’t be where you are today without them.

Are you a great sales manager?

Have you ever worked for a great sales manager?

What’s it like to work for a great sales manager, a good sales manager and a poor sales manager?

BTW: This goes for all GREAT Leaders!

After a few months something isn’t quite right.  Things aren’t going as expected. The numbers aren’t where you thought they would be.  Progress isn’t being made. Your superstar isn’t looking so super. After  about six months it’s clear. Your impressive new hire isn’t going to work out.  You’re left asking yourself, “What happened?”

What happened? — You hired the right person, for the wrong role.

This happens all too often.  We often spend too much time trying to find the right person without spending as much if not more time on the role. Job descriptions are normally, buzz-wordy, annoying descriptions of the job and the type of person required to do it. What is really behind a job description? Normally, not very much.

Imagine hiring Tom Brady to be your starting offensive tackle.  It ain’t gonna work. He’s a superstar, but to think he can hold a block is plain dumb. It’s no different in the business world.  Too often I see farmers being hired to hunt. I see hunters being hired to farm. I see change agents and “pot-stirrers” being hired to keep the status quo.  A good hire takes more than finding the right person. It’s finding the right person for the role.

To get the right person in the role, break down the role by; goals, environment and effort.

Goals:

List EXACTLY what the role is to accomplish. Be very clear and concise. Don’t stick to the high-level goals. Be specific. Get them all on the table. At the end of the day what are you expecting from this role.  What will success look like?

Environment:

Outline the working environment. Again, be specific. Is it fast-paced? Is it political, or open? Is there lot’s of supervision or is it a free-for-all? Is it a grind, or are the skids greased? Does it require attention to detail? Does it require lot’s of baby kissing? What type of environment exits? Not everyone thrives in the same environment.

Effort: 

What’s it going to take to be successful? What exactly does the person have to do to make it?  Is there lot’s of calling?  Is there a lot of writing? Is there lot’s of travel? Do they have to write their own RFP’s? Do they have to be good with excel? Do they have to know how to read a financial statement? Do they have to motivate and lead a matrix organization?  What effort is required to be successful? What do they have to do?  Not everyone is good at everything.

Finding a superstar is awesome. However, he or she will fail if they aren’t in the right role. Spend as much time on defining the role as you do in finding your next superstar. It matters.

Superstars are useless if they aren’t in the right role.  Tom Brady at left tackle?  What a joke!