Sales Manager Fears, Fails, and Fixes: Fast Actions to Prevent Burnout & Failure! [Webinar Recording]
Sales Manager Fears, Fails, and Fixes: Fast Actions to Prevent Burnout & Failure!
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Lauren Bailey, known to many as “LB”, is a sales leader, enablement leader, and entrepreneur and founder of 3 successful brands: Factor 8, providing front-line job training for inside sellers and managers, The Sales Bar, a subscription-based virtual sales training platform, and #GirlsClub, a community and development program helping more women earn leadership positions in sales.
Lori Richardson is a sales process and leadership expert who helps mid-sized company leaders build top sales teams through the right people, processes, pipeline and leadership moves. Lori is a sales coach at Harvard Business School for their MBA students, hosts an award-winning podcast, and is author of “She Sells – Find, Hire, and Retain Great Women in B2B Sales” Founder of Score More Sales, you can find her @scoremoresales on most social platforms.
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This one is for the enablement folks. Truth: I’m an enablement leader in my heart and soul.
I was just talking to an enablement leader friend who was really frustrated that they spent so many months building a robust training program – rolled it out beautifully – and had to hand their baby over to the sales manager to keep those skills alive. Which did not work…
I’m here to tell you why it’s not their fault.
READ: Why You Need a Sales Training and Enablement Budget
I’ve been both an enablement leader and sales manager and can tell you that sales management is the busiest job in the world. We spend the bulk of our day fighting fires and there’s never been a learning emergency.
So if you’re an enablement or training leader and you’d like some tips to get sales managers to coach more often and keep rep skills alive, keep reading.
WATCH: Creating A Coaching Culture
I’ve got 20 tips to help you increase the sales coaching focus at work. Below are my top 3 (get the rest at the bottom of this article).
#1 – Don’t expect them to do more work. As I said previously, sales management is the busiest job in the world. If you want them to coach, you’ve got to fit coaching into their jam-packed schedule. What meetings do sales managers have often? Rep performance 1:1s, pipeline meetings, team meetings, and sales huddles. You’ve got to find ways for your managers to keep rep skills alive during their existing meetings.
At Factor 8, we’ve built manager toolkits that have activities a sales manager can run during a sales huddle to keep skills alive after training.
#2 – Make it easy. If they need to build a deck, it’s not going to happen. If they need to create a process, it’s not going to happen. If they need to go on a scavenger hunt to find different information for the coaching session, it’s not going to happen. You’ve got to make it fast and easy for managers.
At Factor 8, we’ve created coaching guides for various rep skills that managers can easily use for skill reinforcement. They combine a cheat sheet of what “good” looks like, which questions to ask during coaching, and a ready-to-use worksheet that coaches both the will and the skill with an easy grading form.
#3 – Most managers don’t know what “coaching” means. Sure, they understand the definition, but they don’t know what it means to actually coach a rep and they definitely don’t know what “good” coaching looks like. That means you get a lot of things like this…
“Hey rep, let’s work on this deal.” You’ve been coached. ✔
“Hey team, what’s the forecast?” You’ve been coached. ✔
“Let me get on this call and help you close it.” You’ve been coached. ✔
Folks, this isn’t coaching. As enablement leaders, we know that.
READ: How to Increase Sales Coaching Frequency
So, in training hundreds of sales managers over the last few years, I’ve learned that it’s a tough skill, it’s not natural for sales managers, and they’re too nervous to do it (though they’ll never admit that last one out loud).
Just put yourself in their shoes. Imagine going to a top player and saying “Let me listen to your call and give you feedback on how to do it better.” Sounds terribly nerve-wracking, right?
That’s why we’ve got to address it and build confidence in their sales coaching, call coaching, and rep skill coaching skills.
If you haven’t taught your managers how to coach to build up their own confidence, it’s probably no surprise that you think they can be doing more coaching.
If you’d like to talk about more specific strategies or a particular issue you’re dealing with in making that connection with sales leadership so they really get behind enablement, I’m here to talk. Email me at LB@factor8.com.
Want more tips to increase the coaching focus at work?
Download our guide on “20 Ways To Increase Sales Coaching Focus At Work.”
Contact us today to request information on our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps (and managers).
[Video Recording]
Lauren Bailey, known to many as “LB”, is a sales leader, enablement leader, and entrepreneur and founder of 3 successful brands: Factor 8, providing front-line job training for inside sellers and managers, The Sales Bar, a subscription-based virtual sales training platform, and #GirlsClub, a community and development program helping more women earn leadership positions in sales.
As Head of GTM Enablement, Michelle ensures all global systems, tools, and programs are successfully in place to educate and enable internal employees, sales reps, systems engineers, partners, and customers on product, process, and everything in between.
Formerly the Head of GTM Excellence at Zoom, Anna brings over 15 years of experience in Revenue Enablement to this webinar. Passionate about Manager Enablement, she is excited to share insights gained from her background and experience across enabling executive leadership, front line management, and supporting revenue teams. Anna is a seasoned professional dedicated to empowering sales leaders and promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace as the founder of the Sales Manager Excellence Program at Zoom.
With a successful track record in sales and sales management in a variety of industries, John transitioned into sales training/enablement in the late 2000s, leveraging his knowledge and experience to empower emerging talent in the field. His most recent experiences are with international companies seeking to expand their global reach.
Sheryl Buscheck is a passionate Enablement leader who has worked in technology for over 30 years, GoToMarket effectiveness for 20 years and Sales Enablement for 10 years. She is dedicated to ensuring every person is equipped to achieve their highest potential, and feels strongly that everything Enablement does should have measurable outcomes.
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Working with newly-promoted sales managers may be my very favorite thing. Maybe that’s because the pain I remember in their position is still a bit fresh (albeit over 20 years old…)
READ: 5 Quick Tips for New Sales Managers
The transition from rep to manager is tough. It’s also risky for both the company and the new manager. Companies lose top-performing reps and serial high-achievers sign on to feel NOT successful for a good six months. I’ve seen some sad stories of new managers flailing, flat-lining growth, or simply quitting in their first year. It’s sad for the manager and it’s a double loss for the company. They lose a manager AND top performer.
So how do we support and develop new sales managers to help them feel more successful sooner?
Top reps are competitive, self-centered, and aggressive (said with love, folks). Margaret Arakawa said it best in a panel once. I paraphrase, “Moving from top rep to manager is like leaving the role of the lead actress on stage to become an executive producer.”
Exactly.
Successful managers focus on:
READ: Tips for Mastering Call Coaching
What they don’t do is:
Most new managers talk to me about their utter disappointment in their first year. Not with the job (exclusively) but with their team. They aren’t used to relating to reps who aren’t as dedicated and passionate as they were. Help them see that this is normal and talk about strategies for dealing with the frustration.
Ultimately the buck stops with them and their success is getting the most consistent and high-level performance from these people. Set some expectations! For example, talk about how a sales manager’s success is judged not just by the number but also by:
Each of these requires a focus on the people, their success, and their development. Sure we want managers focused on the “W,” but it needs to be a Team W, not their personal commission check. Hearing this advice from a leader they respect can help them focus on the right things early and find new ways to get daily wins.
If you’re lucky, managers have access to some generic management skills about communicating with others, approving timecards, giving feedback, etc. Helpful stuff. Not job training. Get them sales management skills like:
Sales is an ever-evolving landscape, with tools, techniques, and targets shifting regularly. Yet, while we often focus on training our frontline sales reps, there’s a critical group that’s frequently overlooked: sales managers.
In fact, 60% of new managers fail within the first 24 months in their role. Why? Lack of training and development. Oftentimes, companies will promote reps into management without providing critical leadership skills to prepare them for their new role.
DOWNLOAD: Critical New Manager Skills to Master
Let’s dive into why training for sales managers is paramount and the benefits that come with it.
Often, organizations operate under the assumption that a stellar sales rep will naturally transition into a stellar sales manager. However, the skills required for each role differ significantly. Managing a team, strategizing, forecasting and coaching demand a unique skill set that isn’t always innate.
DOWNLOAD: Leader Activities to Start & Stop Doing
On-the-job training for sales managers isn’t just a “nice-to-have”; it’s a necessity. By investing in our sales leaders, we’re not only boosting current performance but setting the stage for sustained success in the future. It’s high time we prioritize sales manager training for those at the helm, guiding our sales teams to victory.
Contact us today to learn about our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps and managers.