Varying personalities & characteristics both of sales people and of managers. Focus on techniques for improvement.

1. Sales Managers
Assessing & Fostering
Your Team and You
Peter Rovick
PDR Professional Development
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2. Contents
• Common Sales Reps. – Cast of Characters
• Typical Manager Types
• How Can I Manage Better?
– Characteristics of Top Sales People
– Teams vs. Groups
– Best Practices for Managing
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3. Who’s on your Team?
… and how can you improve?
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4. Sales Reps: Stereotypes
• Hard driving / Ambitious
• Big egos
• Cutthroat: ‘sink or swim’ mentality
• Selfish: ‘what can you do for me?’
• Ethical? Need development
(regardless of experience level)
Stragglers The Middle Pack Top
(next to go?) (who will thrive?) Performers
(Sustain? / Grow?)
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5. Common Sale Reps
Typical Cast of Characters
“Not on my team!”
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6. The Winer & Diner
• Schmoozing, but losing …
– not winning enough
• Engages upper management in “high profile
deals” … opportunity cost of distracted efforts
• Lower than average net:
– sales costs > revenues
– Management time & value misspent
– Lives the good life at company expense … with
less-than-stellar results
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7. Smooth Operator
• Politically savvy, but not all-star sales
• Not trusted, for a reason
(actually … many reasons)
• Rapid climb to Mgr. & VP in many orgs.
(but detrimental to culture & long-term results)
• Spends more time managing up than growing
sales (but just enough)
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8. The New Hire(s)
• Eager to form friendships
• Seeks insights & “the real story”
• Testing the waters
• May become your best friend or worst enemy
Welcome them & share selflessly / sincerely,
then assess motives and share if/when they reciprocate
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9. So who do you want on your team?
Will you make needed changes?
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10. “Do I want to be feared or loved?
That’s a good question. I want both.
I want people to be afraid of how
much they love me.”
– Michael Scott
Typical Manager Types
“Replacing one average manager is much easier than replacing an
entire team of average salespeople.” – ZS Associates, Inc.
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11. Three Types of Sales Managers
• The Best Intended Sales Manager (<10%)
– Characterized by their willingness to invest their time .... Yet, even with these
best intentions, and the lack of important insights (other than ‘what has
already happened’) their coaching efforts are ineffective.
• The Average Sales Manager ( 30%)
– Characterized by willingness to ‘live with’ the limited reports ... These coaches
find themselves ‘guessing’ what the information means, and ‘second guessing’
its accuracy. Not surprisingly, these sales managers are ineffective coaches.
• The Less Skilled Sales Manager (>60%)
– … the less skilled sales manager may not have the tools or the competencies
to lead and coach a sales force. This is due to many factors, including a lack of
training, poor hiring, and... with limited insights to the hidden problems of
sales performance, these managers do very little coaching – and results suffer.
“… all-too-common practice of promoting great sales people
thinking they will also be great sales managers”
Source: St. Meyer & Hubbard, Elizabeth Cabalka
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12. Common Manager Types
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13. Suave & Detached
• “You’re behind plan”, but no help
• Cold & judgmental
• Seems only to criticize
• Expects more, but no constructive advice
• Focused more on his image than your growth
“You’re a professional, you know what to do” (but provides no coaching)
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14. Nurse Ratched
• “I’m here to help you”
• Talks the talk and adapts practices but …
– Insincere with ulterior motives
• Drives metrics at any cost (mostly to you)
• Talks constructive, but is destructive = ↓ morale
• Lures career development with veiled promises
“The best thing we can do is go on with our daily routine. ”
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15. The Feudal Lord
fief·dom: Something over which one dominant person or group
exercises control
• Attitude: “You’re here to serve me”
• Cares only about self-advancement
• Looks great in front of superiors, but doesn’t
care about team development or
• Takes credit for your accomplishments
• More focused on managing up, than
managing reports
“What do ‘we’ need to do to book these sales before end of quarter?”
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16. How Can I Manage Better?
Actual & active, not traditional management
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17. 7 Personality Traits of Top Salespeople
1. Modesty: ostentatious salespeople who are full of bravado alienate far more
customers than they win over
2. Conscientiousness: strong sense of duty and being responsible and
reliable
3. Achievement Orientation: performers seek to understand the politics of
customer decision-making
4. Curiosity: correlates to an active presence during sales calls
5. Lack of Gregariousness: overly friendly salespeople are too close to
their customers and have difficulty establishing dominance.
6. Lack of Discouragement: correlation between sports and sales success
7. Lack of Self-Consciousness: action-oriented and unafraid to call high in
their accounts
Source: HBR Blog Network
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/06/the_seven_personality_traits_o.html
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18. Managing
not just Reporting & Directing
• Harnessing and leveraging egos and strengths
– Don’t let misguided strong egos & selfishness poison culture
• Active coaching & mentoring
• Ensure regular shadowing & sharing
• Best practices – capturing & adopting
• Inspiring - not threatening
• Actively fostering specific skill growth
• Mapping career tracks
– Developing related competencies
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19. Characteristics of Teams
• Clear goals
• Results-driven structure
• Competent team members
• Unified commitment
• Collaborative climate
• High standards embraced by all
• External support and encouragement
• Principled leadership
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Source: NTD Resource Center, Teamwork in the Classroom

20. Best Practices
… but not just lip service … actual adoption & team growth
• Document & share success stories
– What strategies & tactics worked … and why?
• Develop & deploy processes
– Active / frequent coaching & ongoing modification
• Continuous development of competencies
• Mentors, not feudal lords
• Rewards merit, ignores sychophants
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21. 12 Best Practices for Successful Teams
7. Process: Don’t over engineer it, but don’t ignore it.
Come alongside team members to motivate and reward them in a social format
that brings out the best in them in a way that inspires everyone
8. Coaching: In the day – in the moment.
9. Herding cats: Dealing with the mavericks and high performers.
Turning great individual performers into great performing teams
10. Leading Indicators: Worrisome patterns of behavior.
Be proactive by coaching reps as they perform… helps prevent weaker
performances from becoming … bad habits that sap overall productivity and sales.
11. Protect their time: can’t sell if aren’t spending time with customers.
12. Celebrate: Winning is fun. Celebrate it!
Effective sales managers understand that the best way to
dispel some of the pressure is to reward wins – even
small ones – as often as possible
Source: Blog.Salesforce.com 12 Best Practices That30
Help

22. Next Steps / Action Plan
• Resist tradition … innovate
• Reassess & realign
• Change is difficult, but culture gains
• Actions speak louder than words
• Actively engage professional development
“A rising tide lifts all boats”
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23. About me
Experience
• Sales, Customer Service, Product Specialist
• Training, Coaching, Facilitating
• Continuous Process Improvement
• Creativity & Initiative (multiple awards)
Personal highlights
• Twitter: @SmartphoneTrack
• Blog: plrovick.blogspot.com
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/rovick/ Inquiries:
Peter Rovick
Full Cycle Professional Development
Sherborn, MA (USA)
e: provick@gmail.com
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