SIX KEYS FOR CAREER GROWTH :
FROM SALES FRONTLINER
TO NATIONAL SALES
MANAGER
(the gist of a address at the inuagural of a sales conference of a pan india multinational )
KEY ONE; BELEIVE IN YOURSELF
The Self Doubter: A sales rep that sees and believes
everything they do is wrong. These frontliner are extremely
challenging to coach. If you provide direct feedback it may be met with “I already do that” or reasons why they don’t. The Self Doubter perceives any critiquing as weakness and personalizes it
as confirmation that they are doing a horrible job!
The trick with this type of individual is to lead them through a process of self-discovery
and improvement. By asking them a series of questions you can guide them through a process of self-awareness that will lead to an “ah ha” moment. This breakthrough may seem labour-intensive, but the payback is a stronger rep and increased performance.
KEY TWO: Proactively Manage your Boss
Your boss is no different than you. All bosses want to know two things: one, that you know what your issues
are and, two, that you are doing something about them.
Put yourself in your boss’s shoes. S/he has enough to worry
about. If your boss is spending time wondering what you are doing about your issues than they are
really questioning whether you
are effectively doing your job.
Before your boss figures out your issues,
communicate and demonstrate that you have
a plan to proactively
address them yourself. Remember, the best defence is
an offence.
KEY THREE: Manage Your Own Motivation
Welcome to management. As a rep you lived in a highly supportive environment. In management the
environment is less supportive and filled with stress. It is incumbent on you to stay inspired so you can inspire your sales people. The word inspiration comes from the Latin word “spiarae” which means to breathe, to live. I have found that there are many ways to keep oneself motivated. You can read a leadership book or take a leadership course. Make sure you take care of yourself, take mental health days, exercise and eat well.
Regardless which options you choose, it is essential that you stay inspired because your
people need your energy
as a source of motivation.
KEY FOUR : LET YOUR ATTITUDE LEAD YOU
OK, you have two candidates that you really like. One knows the products,
customers and the industry. The other candidate is passionate, driven and eager to prove them selves. The easy
answer for a busy manager is to hire the sales rep that comes with all the experience. But have you thought about what
else they bring to the table? Have you considered the infamous industry baggage?
The experienced rep may be easier on the manager for the first 6 months whereas the driven rep will have
a slower start, but in 6 months he/she will likely have
achieved better sales. Hire attitude over aptitude!
KEY FIVE : COMMIT AND SWEAR BY YOUR PERSONAL GOALS
To increase the chance that your sales frontliner will achieve
a goal they have set for themselves it is critical to have them
commit their plan to paper, write it down! When people put pen to paper it has two key benefits. Firstly, they have thought out what specific activities/steps they need to do to achieve their goal(s) and secondly the process of writing crystallizes in the brain what they intend to
do. This speaks to
commitment. With a written commitment the sales rep takes ownership of the outcome.
KEY SIX: SHARPEN YOU SELLING TECHNQIUES AFTER EVERY SALES CALL
Time and time again I have seen it. Sales frontliner going through their daily activities like robots. They have little impact on each call, they just show up and expect the business.
I call this “failure to impact syndrome.” It is contagious and can spread throughout an entire sales force. It works as long as the business grows. Everyone
gets high fives and there is no need to dig any deeper.But what happens when sales are down and senior management starts asking questions? Sales managers struggle to come up with the answers and frontliner get nervous.The cure: Get out in the field and inspire your frontliner to be innovative.SO
IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS EVERY SALES MANAGER IS A SALES COACH
with best compliments
Dr Wilfred Monteiro
the meta+coach
