Think about new sales leaders you’ve known. Were they promoted for their sales management expertise or for their sales success? Often it’s for their sales success. So what happens after the sales leader assumes the role and responsibilities of their new position? Even after some initial guidance, most new sales leaders find themselves trying to figure out how to balance the requirements of the position.
Often paper work like CRM systems, HR concerns, and other administrative requirements take precedence. Additionally, many new sales leaders are inundated by their sales team with fires to put out. Few new sales leaders find themselves ahead of the curve, proactively coaching their sales team.
These institutional obstacles are difficult for an individual sales leader to avoid because they don’t go away, so the answer centers on time management not prevention. On the other hand, there are some self-imposed pitfalls that can be avoided. Let’s take a look at three:
Because their sales success has led to the promotion, most new sales leaders believe the way they sell works well, so their inclination is that their sales team should use similar strategies. Unfortunately, tensions often arise then when a salesperson wants to pursue a sales strategy that differs from how the new sales leader would have attacked the account because each thinks their strategy is better. For argument’s sake, let’s say the sales leader’s strategy is better. But the key question is: Does the salesperson have the experience and skills to execute it successfully? Just because a sales strategy or sales technique works for one person doesn’t mean it will work well for another. And in the end, if the salesperson gives in to the sales leader and isn’t successful, there is resentment and lost revenue.
An alternative approach is for the sales leader to spend time up front understanding each salesperson’s strengths and weaknesses and coaching them on an approach that fits each individual. It takes more time, but the long-term payoff is substantial.
New sales leaders often hold the reins a bit too tight. It’s impossible to script and/or approve every interaction between a salesperson and a customer. If salespeople have to go back to their sales leader to get an answer to every customer request – no matter how small it is – the salesperson becomes frustrated, and looks small in the customer’s eyes since now only the sales leader has the answers. And the new sales leader? They’re inundated with e-mails, voice mails and texts containing issues that need to be addressed. In these cases, the new sales leader becomes a bottleneck, resulting in declining customer satisfaction and even revenue declines!
The most effective sales leaders have told us that they’re a “filter, not a funnel.” Simply put, they filter the unnecessary information coming down from the division or central office and only funnel to their sales team the information they need to succeed. As they explain, we’re “eliminating the clutter and freeing up more time for the salesperson to spend on selling.” Unfortunately, too many new sales leaders don’t eliminate the clutter, and their sales team spends a disproportionate amount of time playing with paper work rather than calling on customers. This can be difficult for a new sales leader, but the sooner it happens the better.
Today, it’s more important to have a superior sales team. It’s safe to say that it is near impossible to have a superior sales team without having a great group of frontline sales leaders – they are the pivotal job for driving sales excellence.