They notice stuff.

They notice what their salespeople are good at…as well as what they’re not so good at. They then leverage the stuff they are good at to coax even greater performance out of their salespeople. They largely minimize the weaknesses.

The average sales managers sees those same weaknesses and thinks that he can fix them. He spends all his time doing just that.

That’s why he’s an average sales manager.

Let’s show an example…

Here we have two top performing salespeople, both having achieved the highest sales awards in their companies:

Jane

Jane has has an incredible talent for building rapport, easily weaving pleasant conversation with the true sales pitch. Her manner is easygoing and laid-back, but hides a profound inner drive.

She’s completely in control of the situation at all times and asks many layered questions of the prospect to uncover their needs. Instead of being “all business”, she talks about jewelry, kids and other non-business activities; easily mixing in rapport building with selling through out the process.

She doesn’t take herself too seriously, taking time for some self-deprecating asides, but constantly driving towards the sale. She uses no real reference pieces, instead relies on her easy, trustworthy manner to build credibility. When it comes to the end, she doesn’t really “close” per se as much as she just assumes they will be moving on to the next step.

Tom

In contrast, “Tom” is incredibly persistent, although a little bit awkward in his approach, people respect him due to his aggressiveness and “never taking no” mentality.

When he is in a sales call, he’s all business, no rapport building whatsoever, but asks few precisely worded questions to uncover his client’s needs.

When he hears objections, he aggressively asks the reasons behind the objections. He then pulls out reference materials to overcome the objections and validate his claims. At the end of the sale, he asks “alternate close questions”, awaits responses before proceeding and aggressively pushes for the next step, and is very successful in doing so.

In our little hypothetical scenario, let’s say Tom and Jane report to you. Would they look at the above scenarios and think: “If I could just get Jane to use more reference materials and ask more hard close questions and Tom to just lighten up and build some more rapport, both of them would be even better!”

In both cases, the sales manager would be falling into the most common, yet well-meaning trap that average sales managers make. They would be trying to perfect them both.

I have news for you…they’ll never do it.

Instead, get more out of your salespeople by harnessing their strengths and minimizing their weaknesses.

Not only is it a far easier (and more fun) way to mange…but its a far more effective one too.

Post a comment below and tell me what you think.

There are a lot of nice things you could say…

“He’s a real nice guy”
“She’s very kind”
“He’s really funny”

The list goes on and on.

But when you speak of the people who are closest to you, maybe your best friend you’ve known for 20 years, the most important one is:

“I trust him”

What if all your company’s sales reps were asked the same question about you…and they answered the same way?

How powerful do you think that would that be?

How much more powerful leaders and motivators would you be?

Because once a sales manager establishes or re-establishes trust with their salespeople, then and only then can they start to optimally lead and motivate them…but not one second earlier.

Without that foundation of trust, the job of “sales leader” is twenty times more difficult.

At every turn, every possible moment, a sales manager needs to look for ways to strengthen their sales reps trust in them.

Far too many average sales managers try to lead first, but never bother to establish trust with their reps at any level.

Although unfortunate for their sales reps, this is very good for you and your company. Because if ALL sales managers led their troops this way, it would be far more difficult for your teams to surpass them.

To optimally lead sales reps and unleash explosive sales results, you need to be on the same page as your sales reps. They need to speak their language, and the only way they will listen is if they implicitly trust what they have to say.

What you need to do is make regular deposits in “The Trust Account”. This is our foundational concept for sales managers who read this blog, as well as for those who are members of the Sales Management Mastery Academy.

To learn even more about sales training, get our free ebook.

Post a comment and tell me how do you get your sales reps to trust you?

There are alot of nice things you could say…

“He’s a real nice guy”
“She’s very kind”
“He’s really funny”

The list goes on and on.

But when you speak of the people who are closest to you, maybe your best friend you’ve known for 20 years, the most important one is:

“I trust him”

Now let me ask you this: what if all your sales reps were asked the same question of you and they answered the same?

How powerful would that be?

How much more powerful of a leader and motivator would you be?

Because once you establish or re-establish that trust, then and only then can you start to optimally lead and motivate them…but not a second earlier.

Without that foundation of trust, your job as a sales leader is twenty times as hard.

At every turn, every possible moment, you need to look for ways to strengthen your sales reps trust in you.

Far too many average sales managers try to lead first, but never bother to establish trust with their reps at any level.

Although unfortunate for their sales reps, this is very good for you. Because if ALL sales managers led their troops this way, it would be far more difficult for you to surpass them.

To optimally lead your sales reps and unleash those explosive sales results you crave, you need to be on the same page as your sales reps. You need to speak their language, and the only way they will listen is if they implicitly trust you.

What you need to do is make regular deposits in “The Trust Account”. This is our foundational concept for sales managers who read this blog, as well as for those who are members of the Sales Management Mastery Academy.

To learn more about sales management training, click here to get your choice of free sales management training courses.

Post a comment and tell me how do you get your sales reps to trust you?

Although I suppose I shouldn’t be, I’m even more surprised to the degree that this ignorance pervades the highest level of the sales management food chain. Let me explain…

Not long ago, I was in yet another long, desperately un-productive, complete waste-of-time sales management meeting with “the top sales brass” at the company, sitting around a conference room table brainstorming how we could all collectively get the sales force “more motivated”, while at the same time, increasing morale. At this point in our company, sales force morale among many of the salespeople was extremely low due to a number of factors I won’t get into here. But suffice to say, the sales reps in one particular division (not mine, thankfully) were leaving at a rapid pace due to our operational incompetence.

Seeing this disturbing trend, the Senior Vice President of Sales called this meeting to come up with ideas. She was desperately trying to come up with an idea of how we could motivate this bedraggled sales force in one fell swoop, with one grand sweeping initiative. Although I give her a lot of credit for trying, if you have been a reader of this blog, you know that “motivating” your sales force can never happen in “one fell swoop”…but I digress.

She was looking for ideas, then said emphatically, “let’s just start recognizing everyone with emails and voicemails of their big achievements – better yet, lets fill out a form every time one of your salespeople does something praiseworthy and submit it to me so I can then send a group voicemail – after all, every sales person loves to be praised publicly…”

The other sales mangers in the room all agreed – praising the VP, stating they thought it this was a “great idea” and ”that will really work”, all getting behind this “new motivational initiative“.

I just sat slumping in my chair, not saying a word…

Noticing my silence, the VP asked me why I was not “as enthusiastic as the others” about the initiative.

Not wanting to be only dissident, slowly I started talking. I simply explained to her and to the rest of the sales management team, that out of the sales reps that I had reporting to me, only half of them actually enjoy or are motivated by public praise. I added that for most of my reps, private one-on-one praise is what motivates them the most – a few even told me outright that they hated public praising, saying it was downright embarrassing…

She sat in stunned silence as I relayed to her why and how I knew this.

Bottom line: I just simply asked them.

This brings up our point on motivation: if your sales reps are the lifeblood of your career, you rely upon them to pay your commissions and their effectiveness is what sustains as well as advances your career…then why on earth wouldn’t you know exactly what motivates them and exactly how to motivate them?

If you don’t know what motivates them, how do you expect to prompt them in the right direction? How can you possibly expect to be a good sales manager to them?

Without knowing what motivates your sales team, you’re traversing the Arctic without a compass in a blizzard with white-out conditions….meaning, you’re totally blind.

You must find out what motivates them…you need get out of your own little world that is your cubicle, walk up to their desk, and simply ask him or her. 

To learn more about sales management training, click here to get your choice of free sales management training courses.

In the meantime, what do you think? Can you motivate your sales reps by just winging it? Or do you have another method to motivate your sales team? Post a comment below and tell me what you do.

I’m pretty sure you’ve been asking yourself, “What exactly will all these Trust Account deposits do for me anyway?”

It’s okay. I asked the same question myself back when I was new to the concept. I was thinking all I wanted was for my sales reps to start producing big time results. What does it have to do with Trust Accounts?

It turns out that producing great results has everything to do with Trust Accounts.

Look, what stands out to you the most when someone mention the words “Trust Account?” It’s the first word – Trust – that does it, right? Trust is the one sole element that shouldn’t be absent in a relationship between sales manager and sales rep. The saying goes, “Trust is the glue that binds people together in groups.”

Trust is:

• Hard to earn
• Easy to lose
• When lost, nearly impossible to regain

Forming a relationship built on trust allows your sales reps to act so that the rules of the game aren’t constantly changing. It encourages peace of mind. And when your sales reps have peace of mind, they become willing to exert extra effort and place themselves on the line for you and the team.

I’ve never seen a sales person pull off peak performance without doing those things on a regular basis.

First establish trust. Then reinforce that trust by looking for the smallest opportunities to make deposits into their Trust Accounts, either by praising them on a job well done or asking them out for a joint lunch, your treat. These are just some of the MANY ways you can motivate your sales reps to peak performance.

The key is to always your treat your sales reps the END unto themselves. This is what separates the men from the boys. Never treat them as a means to which you achieve your own ends. Great sales managers don’t do that.

To learn more about sales management training, click here to get your choice of free sales management training courses.

How often do you make deposits into your sales reps’ Trust Account? Share your opinions by leaving a comment below.

He was called a “leadership genius” and acclaimed as “one of the top management gurus to come along in over a century”. He earned it. Management By Walking Around (MBWA) was groundbreaking during its time.

But it wasn’t that big a deal – if you ask me.

 MBWA was simply common sense. So okay. Maybe that’s why it became popular in the first place. MBWA was a simple yet effective solution to sales management. I guess that kind of stuff doesn’t come around more than once in a century.

A sales manager could be a management genius too by following what Tom Peters advocated more than thirty years ago—that is, by incorporating “roving sales leadership” into your style of management. I know, we all have our way of doing things. But MBWA is so simplistic in its approach that you might as well be doing it already without you knowing it.

Management By Walking Around talks about establishing trust with your fellow sales reps by understanding first and foremost their trials and achievements through their level of perspective.

You can’t expect to understand your sales reps—and them to understand you—if you’re giving out errands from your comfortable office chair in front of the computer. You need to get out there and know what’s really going on. Like I said in my previous post, human contact is key to any relationship. Period.

If you’re expecting people to email you in the office any time of the day, set up an auto-responder to say that you’re unavailable from 1 PM to 4 PM on weekdays. Set your messenger status to “Busy” or “Not here right now”. Those people can wait. Your sales team, on the other hand, is only waiting for you to make a deposit in their Trust Account.

To learn more about sales management training, get our free video on the sidebar of this post or by clicking here.

Tell me what you think about establishing a personal relationship with your salespeople by posting a response to this post.