A managers style shapes successes of a sales team

A SaLES MaNaGER often likens his role to that of a baseball manager whether it is a reserved approach, similar to that of Bruce Bochy, of the San Francisco Giants, or the passion of Ron Washington, of the Texas Rangers. Despite their differences, they are very similar. Like most managers leading any team, Bochy and Washington perform different roles at different times to help the players understand what needs to be done. Even more important, they demonstrate how to do it by being a mentor, Danny Wood supervisor, trainer and coach. Like professional baseball players, a company and its sales team benet from a manager who can strategically function in these varied modes. Whatever the corporate culture, the central role for a manger is supervision. This represents the use of authority related to each team members performance. The most effective and successful managers recognize that the best mark of successful authority is to not have to use it at all. Coaching, training and mentoring are the auxiliary management roles, and are no less important than supervision. These functions use relationships to enhance each individual performance. Some managers confuse good coaching with cheerleading. They pass around positive one-liners, motivational articles and tapes. Within a corporate setting, coaching is two-pronged. First, it focuses on applying the sales team members abilities to a reallife situation. The second tier is more broad and strategic, assessing the individual and team in the context of work. Both supportive and motivational, coaching focuses on applying skills that maximize performance in a team environment. Being positive is essential, but cheerleading in place of an honest discussion of actions and results is counterproductive. To be an effective coach, you must have the respect of the people you manage. There must be potency, which grants permission to fail and requires honesty to acknowledge these shortcomings. Managers must provide a level of protection that allows salespeople to improve and achieve greater levels of success. There is no potency without respect. Be careful not to confuse respect with being liked by your team they are not the same. Without respect for the manager, salespeople might listen, but they will have no intent to change. Where there is respect, there is change and growth, and the impact can be great. Bochy made several unpopular decisions with regard to his pitching rotation against the Phillies. By putting his players in the right spots, the Giants advanced to the nals and won their rst World Series title in more than 50 years. Another condition necessary for effective coaching is permission. Salespeople must be permitted to fail. A coaching session will have little value if the salespeople cannot share exactly what happened when the outcome was less than desirable. If they are constantly worried about being attacked by the manager, the coaching session will be lled with smoke and illusions. In the right atmosphere, one free of assigned blame, information can be exchanged. In order for a free ow of information between coach and salesperson to take place, the sales manager must provide protection. Allowing salespeople to be honest, and not using it against them later, goes a long way in gaining respect. For example, an effective coaching strategy is to begin a session by starting with the result of a call and working backwards. When a problem or roadblock is identied, look for the underlying behaviors and actions that created the situation. Next, map out a more appropriate strategy that will prevent the situation from recurring. Take care to discuss performance be sure not to attack. When you separate the person from his or her role performance, you can focus on improving results without the salesperson feeling the need to protect his or her self-esteem. Closely related to coaching is training. Primarily concerned with developing competence, mangers work to impart awareness, knowledge and skill. Training, or staff development, is one of the most misunderstood processes in corporate America. Whenever there is a problem, companies throw training at it. They are shocked to learn that training alone does not improve performance effective management does. Another misunderstood component is mentoring. As a mentor, the manager socializes the protg into the nuances, norms and values of the role and company. Also known as anticipatory socialization in the study of sociology, mentoring brings the salesperson into the fold as an integrated member of the group. The most effective mentors are stars in their work arena. Not everyone can be a mentor. When respect is absent, a manager is unable to function as a mentor. While the main function of a sales manager is to keep the sales team on target with established, dened goals, he or she wears many hats and knows when to change them. An outstanding manager also knows when, and to what degree, each role should be exercised. Only the most effective and successful ones recognize how not to use their authority at all.
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Danny Wood, president of Danny Wood Enterprises, LLC, in Rutherford, is a licensee of the Sandler Training and an eighttime recipient of the Platinum Award for sales excellence. He can be reached at Dwood@Sandler.com or (201) 842-0055.

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November 22, 2010 13

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