Sales Manager Coach
The sales manager must be proactive in helping salespeople moving a deal forward.
Too often sales managers accept “face value” from salespeople, and the deal never progresses. Imagine the sale as a hamster in a wheel. “It should close next week,” you hear. A week later you’re told, “It’s going to be next week – they promised.” “They couldn’t meet this week, but it’s going to close.” “We had a great conversation, and we’re going to move forward,” but nothing happens. There appears to be “movement” on this deal week after week, but in reality – the wheel is just spinning in the same place. How do we make sure these types of answers do not become the norm?
The sales manager must become the sales coach. Every interaction with sales people must be focused on moving the sale forward. This is done through a detailed process, while improving the sales person’s skills at each step.
Your manager must review (weekly, at a minimum) with each sales person:
- Top 5 accounts and the steps taken to move them forward
- Sales calls and prospecting activities for new clients
- $ potential of each deal
- Biggest obstacle faced and the lesson learned from the obstacle
- 3 goals for the upcoming week and how those will move each deal forward
If the sales manager is not doing this already, start immediately. It will be ugly – because you will find that many of the deals that looked great are actually spinning in the wheel and going nowhere. Can this be done? Yes. Will it be easy? No. Is my sales manager capable improving my sales team? That is the unknown. Anyone can ask sales people these questions, but can they elevate the sales people and their skills?
