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Tough times for sales managers

by Robert Nadeau, Industrial Performance Group

These are tough times for sales managers. A sluggish economy, rising costs, fierce competition and intense price pressure are just a few of the challenges sales managers face.

Despite these difficult conditions, the pressure to get the numbers remains high. In fact, some sales managers I’ve spoken with are being asked to grow sales.

If this wasn’t tough enough, many of you have less time, smaller budgets and fewer people to get the job done.

Your sales force is the primary growth engine for your business. But it can also be a major cost driver. The challenge for sales managers is to stimulate sales performance while controlling costs.

There’s no shortage of solutions. Products, books, newsletters, trainers and speakers on the topic of sales performance abound. Each promises to deliver the results you’re looking for. Very few come with a guarantee.

With more options, limited budgets and less time, you must decide which solutions provide the greatest return on your investment. Making the right choice makes you a hero. Making the wrong choice can — well, you know what can happen.

Meeting the challenge
Getting the numbers in today’s environment requires harnessing the full potential of your sales resources, with a minimum investment of time and money. Many sales managers are struggling to meet this challenge. Not because they lack the commitment or the desire, but for a reason that’s often overlooked.

Very few managers have received formal training or direction on managing a sales force.

The reason — yesterday’s peak sales performers often become today’s sales managers.

What made you a good salesperson does not adequately prepare you for the challenges you will face in sales management.

I asked sales managers from a variety of industries what they needed to know in order to better manage their sales resources. Here is what they told me.

What sales managers want to know
The vast majority has a strong desire to learn more about the things that actually drive sales performance.

They believe this knowledge will make it easier to determine where to invest their time, money and talent.

Specifically, they want answers to the following questions:

• What is natural talent and what role does it play in sales success?
• What’s the right mix of knowledge and skills?
• How do I measure the effectiveness of sales training?
• How do I get my salespeople to keep the proper focus?
• What’s the best way to compensate salespeople?

In a series of articles that will run throughout the year, I will answer these questions. This article focuses on natural talent.

Natural talent
Is there such a thing as a natural-born salesperson? Perhaps. More likely, there are individuals with natural talents that help them succeed in the selling profession.

Natural talent is the unique set of abilities each of us is born with. It’s how we are hard-wired from the start. These unique abilities determine whether we will excel in sports, math, music, art and/or sales.

You cannot acquire natural talent through training. However, training can enhance a person’s natural talent.

Three natural talents determine whether a person is likely to succeed in sales. They are work ethic, tolerance and rapport.

Work ethic. Sales managers spend a lot of time and money attempting to motivate their salespeople. In reality, the way salespeople approach their jobs is determined by how they define working hard.

Each of us has an idea of what it means to work hard. For some salespeople, working hard is about being busy and productive throughout the day. For others, it’s doing just enough to get by.

Peak sales performers are often referred to as highly motivated self-starters. But in reality, these individuals have a much different definition of hard work.

They are hard-wired to make that extra phone call or client visit at the end of the day when everyone else heads home. They’ll stay late or come in early to prepare one more quote. It’s their nature. No matter how hard you try, you can’t train or motivate others to behave this way.

A sales candidate’s work ethic is something you need to identify early in the interview process.

Tolerance. Tolerance refers to the thickness of one’s skin. In other words, it’s how a person deals with the inevitable ups and downs of selling.

Tolerance also determines how a person handles rejection and disappointment, both of which are abundant in the selling profession.

Tolerance is why some salespeople enjoy prospecting and others avoid it at all costs. Salespeople need to prospect throughout their career. This requires tolerance.

Tolerance cannot be taught. It must be hired. As a sales manager, you need to be on the lookout for sales candidates who are thick skinned.

Rapport. Have you ever met someone you immediately liked? For some reason, you felt a sense of connection and trust. This describes the third natural talent that determines sales success: rapport.

Rapport is the natural ability to quickly develop long-term, trusting relationships with others. Rapport works at some subconscious level of our brain. Customers trust and seek advice from salespeople with this natural talent.

Salespeople with rapport are strong closers because customers look to them for help with purchase decisions.

These individuals keep the sale moving forward. They don’t rely on closing techniques, they instinctively know how and when to close the sale. Like all natural talents, rapport cannot be taught. It must be hired.

Work ethic, tolerance and rapport are the three natural talents that determine whether a person will succeed in the selling profession. As a sales manager, it’s up to you to find candidates with these natural abilities. In the next article I’ll answer the question: What’s the right mix of knowledge and skills to train into your sales force?

This article originally appeared in the January/February 2009 issue of Progressive Distributor. Copyright 2009.

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