Why take the time as a sales manager to get better? Why read a book on how to become a better coach? Sales performance improves when sales teams are better trained and coached, because it creates a cycle in which salespeople feel better about themselves and their career, experience more success, stay longer, and achieve even higher levels of success.
Gallup came out with a book titled “It’s the Manager” and their research indicates that 70% of the variance in a sales team’s engagement at work is determined solely by their sales manager. Sales managers matter, you matter, and you make a big difference! The question is what kind of a difference are you making? We, have a book we think will help you especially if you are facing a few of these common challenges many sales managers face where they need to make a difference.
- Shortening the time to proficiency for new hires – Even if your company has a great new-hire sales training program, the results are still going to depend to a wide degree on you, demonstrating, reinforcing, and coaching what was covered in the new hire sales training program.
- Developing the untapped potential of your sales team – Many companies categorize their salespeople into “A,” “B,” and “C” players. “A” and “C” players together often compose about 20-30% of a typical salesforce, while “B” players make up about 70–80%.
Coaching will more effectively optimize the productivity of your “A” players. For “C” players, it will either “help them out,” or it will “help them out.” That’s not a bad thing. Sometimes there are people in a sales role who are not a good fit for that role and it may be in their best interest to get on a path that might be more suitable for their skill set.
The biggest opportunity is with the moveable middle, the “B” players. If you can incrementally improve the performance of the largest segment in your sales force, you can have a dramatic impact on the bottom line.
- Increasing retention –The impact of attrition is costly because it includes the opportunity cost of having a territory/market vacant, plus the time it takes to source a new salesperson to move into the open role, compounded by the time it takes to get them to a desired level of productivity.
Effective sales managers, in contrast, have a higher retention rate. They have more experienced, more productive, salespeople in the field longer, resulting in higher customer loyalty. They spend less time sourcing and onboarding new hires and more time coaching their sales team.
- Leading a diverse sales team This is the most diverse workforce in history. Millennials and Gen Z’s typically like and expect ongoing feedback, positive reinforcement, and coaching to their strengths. You know what? So, does everyone else! Even Boomers! Effective sales managers today must be able to communicate consistently and effectively while flexing their style, so they can be the coach that each unique salesperson needs
If you’re like us, whenever you consider investing your most precious resource–your time–in reading a book, you are probably asking yourself: “What’s in it for me? This book better be worth it!” If you are facing any of these challenges, we think the juice will be worth the squeeze. We believe that the time you invest in reading this book will be worth it. The fact of the matter is, if all you get out of this book is one good idea, it will be worth it.