There are millions of inside sales reps in the world.
Reps know this and want to be the one-in-a-million rep that impresses their managers. Managers, on the other hand, should be honing each rep’s skills to mold a team of one-in-a-million reps.
That’s a tall order, right? It’s not as hard as you might think. It all comes down to knowing what makes a successful inside sales rep, and the best practices for training.
I had the great pleasure of appearing with an all-star cast of Inside Sales experts giving advice to Inside Sales leaders for 2018 sales management strategy planning. Check out the video hosted by Ambition and featuring Jared Houghton, Trish Bertuzzi, Steve Richard, and myself. Tips to find:
1. Start With Where: What Channels Should Drive Revenue?
2. War For Talent: Recognize the Need for New Hire Training.
3. Stop Selling Pens: Make Candidates Reach a Gatekeeper.
4. Use Call Recordings: Let New Hires Hear Voice of the Customer.
5. Network Hiring: Use LinkedIn Connections As Candidate References.
6. Selling is Driving: You Don’t Learn By Riding Shotgun.
7. Be Human: Personalize Your Communication.
8. Measuring Reps: Focus on Activity::Outcome Ratio.
9. Create Snipers: Balance Research and Calls.
10. Focus Coaching: Prioritize B-Players + New Hires.
Last week my son made his first sales call. For an inside sales thought leader, you have got to believe this was big in my house! My brave six-year-old D.J. read the school script to relatives & friends and got pledges for his APEX fundraiser.
READ: Sales Is A Confidence Sport
Watching a little human do this for the first time made ME nervous – and OH. SO. PROUD. It reminded me of a few truths we could all keep in mind when preparing new hires to take to the phones for the first time:
ANY human will get nervous asking people for money over the phone. Let’s all keep this in mind when we ask for more dials and results. His brother BAILED after one call (and he’s the extrovert in the family!!).
The small wins he got (and we celebrated big time) energized him to make more calls. He was pulling aunties out of the woodwork! When we set up small wins early and celebrate BIG, they’ll be hooked.
When he got his first “no” he totally rolled with it and still wanted to make another call. Why? Because we set it up ahead of time that it would likely happen, why, and what to say. Special shout out to Uncle Shawn who agreed up front to say no to a six-year-old so we could teach this lesson (THAT wasn’t easy!). More “NO” in role plays and more help in why they happen and how to handle them.
Remember that just like a first grader, our new hires watch us to determine how to act. It’s good to show some nerves, to celebrate small wins, and to get right back up like a “no” doesn’t sting a little. I know that the next time I’m in class I’ll be a little less tough on the 23-year-old making their first calls.
By the way, my proudest moment was when he DITCHED THE SCRIPT and felt confident enough to use his own words. I can’t believe I didn’t record it!
In my line of work, I spend a lot of time on sales floors around the world watching Reps, Managers, Directors, and VP’s try to drive the number. I see well intentioned organizations and leaders spend countless hours and dollars trying to unlock the secret that will bring in more customers and keep them coming back for more. The problem is that they are trying to run before they can walk.
If you’re behind the number for 2017 or wondering how you will turn things around for next year, maybe you need to start with the basics. Are the steps you are taking going to provide a clearer path to success, or are you making changes for change’s sake? Here are five of the most common ways that I see companies fail their salespeople, and it’s killing their numbers.
If you caught yourself cringing while you read this list or a few (or all!) items hit a little too close to home, you’re not alone. The good news is that it’s not too late to make some changes and get things heading in the right direction. If you’re not sure where to start or what changes can make the biggest impact, I’d love to have that conversation with you.
Think of your very best rep. Like ever. Pulled deals out of the air like little cloud gifts from heaven at month end. Broke new business, mastered the upsell, just couldn’t TOUCH their results. Was she a little high maintenance? Always had an emergency? Bet he never quite did the “I – dotting and T – crossing: like he was supposed to? Man, what a salesman.
Do. Not. Promote. Him.
Really.
Top reps (very tippity top Reps) make lousy managers. Sure they want it! But that’s because they like to WIN, get RECOGNIZED, get PAID.
What they don’t like is administrative crap, coaching other reps, and putting the rest of the team before themselves. Hint: these might be critical skills.
If you’re looking to promote internally, here’s a list of a few things I use to spot future super-managers. I hope you’ll add to the list!
Your turn! What do you look for in a Rep that tells you she might be your next manager?
PS here’s a link to a quick video about sales management and how it’s a different job.
When I moved to the Southwest during college, my “friends” introduced me to amazing recipes with Hatch green chilies. “Be careful Iowa,” they’d say, “It’s the chili that burns you twice.” Blank stare from LB. . . and likely from many of you – count yourselves lucky.
But you probably do recognize the double burn of promoting a top rep to Inside Sales Manager. Yes, they’ve asked for it! Yes, they’re fantastic at the job! If they could teach the team HALF of what they do…
But you’ve lost your top performing rep and it’s a really tough transition for the entire team. This is what a recent CEB study found:
“Employees often take on significantly bigger and broader responsibilities when promotions do occur. As a result, nearly half of promoted employees (46%) face a traumatic transition because they are unprepared and then underperform up to 18 months after their transition.” – CEB, April 2016
So, how do you ensure that you’re promoting the right reps and then how do you set them up for success?
Solution 1: Invest in some training folks. Give them the skills they need to be an awesome manager.
Solution 2: Target the B player instead. Look for the team “mom” or “dad” who folks go to for help and who always have time for a question. These are natural people developers. That’s the critical piece missing from most top highly-competitive reps.
Put these into practice and you’ll skip the double burn. Unless you like the burn and in that case, I’ll send you some recipes.
This month Factor 8 turned 8 years old. I’d have missed it completely if I hadn’t gotten your LinkedIn Congratulations. Thanks you guys! So it’s on this auspicious occasion that I want to publicly acknowledge the complete tool that I used to call my boss. My friend, you drove me right into entrepreneurship.
Can you picture him or her? If you’ve been to one of my leadership seminars, you could actually picture MY boss (you BET I show his picture!), but how about YOUR worst boss? The worst jerk you ever reported to? Got his or her picture in your head? See how it makes you feel in the pit of your stomach? I actually still get a little involuntary sneer on my face when I do. Now answer this question:
How many of these guys or gals work for you today that you don’t know about?
Inside Sales Managers are some of the very worst offenders in the crappy-boss arena folks. We’ve taken young and inexperienced sales reps and promoted them. Then we gave them little to no training and let’s be honest, not a lot of great role models (we do have a pretty young profession). So this is it, I’m going on record to blatantly say:
Poor Sales Managers are THE NUMBER ONE REASON that you have high turnover on your inside sales team.
And believe me, they appear completely differently to you than they do to their team. Here are a few nuggets to consider:
Call to action 1: Folks, you need VIRTUAL SALES MANAGEMENT training – not just the good touchy-feely stuff from HR. Check out my LBTV posting on what training you need here.
Call to action 2: Consider re-appropriating your rep training budget for your managers (you’ll get more ROI from your rep training that way).
Call to action 3: If you have under five managers, check out the online training from AA-ISP. Sure online training isn’t as good as live, but this will take you a good way down the field.
MAN that’s a lot of calls to action. Hope this was helpful everyone! And boss man (you know who you are): You were really truly awful.. Thanks! 🙂
It’s so simple, so obvious, you couldn’t help but be drawn in. Bob is your top producer. Bob knows the systems better than anyone on the team. Bob can sell with his wireless headset tied behind his back. So when the time came to hire a manager for the team you had no doubt in your mind. Bob was the choice. Now you’re 6 months into your “Bob the Manager” experience and it’s a complete disaster.
Bob is frustrated, his team is frustrated, you’re frustrated, and the numbers are tanking. How can this be? You keep asking yourself…what’s wrong with Bob?
The answer is that you hired Bob based on his abilities as a rep, not his ability to be a manager. They are two different jobs, and being good at one does not automatically make you good at the other. Think about when you first hired Bob out of school. Did you hire him because he was a good student or because he showed the skills, attitude, and characteristics of your top sales reps?
You didn’t assume that because he was doing well at his current job (student) that he would automatically be good as a sales rep. You hired him because he was able to display skills that were consistent with people who are good at sales and then you trained him to do the job.
You need to take the same approach when hiring a Manager – screen and hire candidates based on how well their skills and abilities match up with the profile of a strong sales leader. And by the way, then you need to train them! (Doh!) I mean really, do they need to be a strong closer or an accurate forecaster? Truth is, great sales reps actually have to UN-learn some skills to be a great sales manager. . .and they’re not going to know how to do it without some development.
I’ve attached a clip from last year’s AA-ISP Leadership Summit that talks about why this is such an important topic, and what you can do about it. And the fact that it made my Top 10 list means that you can rest assured that you’re not the only one that’s made this mistake.
Here’s a sneak peek at the 4 tips for Sales Manager development, watch the video for all the details:
If you’re not already planning to attend, there is still time to register for the AA-ISP Leadership Summit where there are LOTS of great tips on developing your management team.
Let me know if you’re attending and we’ll get you hooked up with a discount!
And if you want to get more sales management development tips, follow us on LinkedIn . . . by clicking here or check out our website!
LB
