Manage your managers!  Seems straight forward, right?  WRONG.  Its not easy.  Its hard.  Its time consuming.  It gets complicated.  It has to be done.  Goals, accountability, reporting, timelines, budgets etc don’t just get done if not managed.  Chris Bounds, Austin, Texas offers the following:

#1   Ethical Sales will cure most other issues.  Lets be clear, its all about sales.  Sure, someone has to decide when to order more copier paper and yes, it is sad that Rick’s father is dying from cancer and that the swim up bar at the adult pool has a cracked mirror;  yeah those things must be dealt with BUT don’t let life’s distractions cloud your vision of what the goal is.  Don’t stay busy all day doing things that don’t show up on the bottom line of the quarterly sales report.  AND, don’t let your managers do it either.  Is it coincidental that record setting sales figures seem to make it much easier and more pleasant to deal with life’s issue.  I think not!   SO & THEREFOR, never, ever let your management team get bogged down in stuff that has nothing to do with sales. NO, no excuses; just don’t let them do it.  Try this for 3 months and watch what happens.

#2  Shift the focus of the time you spend with managers. With sales reps, you’d (hopefully) spend your time digging into the details of their sales production. But with your sales managers, you must dig into the details of their management. For example, in a review with an individual salesman (Bob), you might say, “Lets review your 30 day sales efficiency on X”. But with a sales manager, you would say, “How are you working with Bob given his 30 day sales efficiency report for X” Or rather than asking, “How could Bob have done Z better?” you instead should ask, “How could you have managed Bob to do Z better?”  Make your managers answer these questions.  Make them study and be accountable for their answers.  This will bind the team and give them ownership of the process.

# 3  Know that you’ll teach by example, whether you want to or not. When you’re managing all phases of a project or development, you’re probably not real concerned that the kitchen staff sees you out of your professional dress when you snitch a cup of coffee on your day off. But when you’re managing managers, you and your behaviors, dress, habits, language etc., matter 24/7. REALLY.  What they see, and so perceive of you, is what you are going to get back – and that can be good or bad. If you’re delegating effectively, providing useful and regular feedback, conducting useful check-ins, hiring wisely, and fairly holding all staff accountable,  that’s what your management team will do. Conversely, if you tell one of your mangers that he can hold a pender over and close it the next month so he can get his Christmas bonus, then you just told him (and his piers) that cheating and breaking the policies is ok.

#4  Feed the tigers, ride the horses & shoot the dogs. It is very important that the sales mangers you manage, although operating fairly, for everyone, by the exact same policies and handbook of rules, understand that at the end of the day SALES is what we do.  We do them ethically, straight forward and do not cut corners or skip any procedures, BUT our job is to sell.  When managing a fast paced, high energy sales organization fairly and according to stated goals and budgets, your managers’ recipe must call for: 1. Feeding the tigers: give more leads, tours, and prospects to the #1 salesman/manager/team.  The #1 seed in a tourney gets the #8 seed for first game.  That’s just how it is. Make your rules and policies match  2. Riding the horses: We don’t ride pigs or cows.  No, we want horses and when you have a horse why would you keep a pig or cow into the stable for riding.  Horses are for riding, so when your salesman/manager/team is selling well, do not quit riding.  Big mistakes are made when the top team is broken up because of promotions, lateral moves or reassignments.  # 3  Shoot the dogs: we don’t want dogs in our stable; it creates caos.  When a team/manager/salesman is just not performing and not performing consistently, despite your focused efforts, then you must train your management team to get the dogs out of the stable.

#5  Quick, fair & public trials:  Nothing quite like a public hanging to get your attention and help you understand that rules must be followed and that the results of actions will not be dealt with in secrecy or privacy.  Not withstanding proper adherence to employment and privacy laws, your mangers should see, know and understand that all matters, good and bad, will be dealt with immediately and in a fair and open forum.  Showing managers that it is ok to post the weekly sales reports and comment openly on efficiency numbers is a good thing.  There are no secrets in sales numbers.  They are exactly what they are.  No excuses, no what ifs and no where to hide.  If you are second place by $0.50 then you are second place.  Your management team must have the confidence to openly admonish wrong behavior and reward good behavior.  Actively treating managers with this same philosophy will trickle down.

For more NO BS sales management stuff, feel free to contact Chris Bounds, Autsin, Texas.