HTSS30 - How to ruin a sales team (Part 1) Scott Sylvan Bell

How to ruin a sales team (Part 1)

If you seek out to ruin a sales team it will happen. Th leadership that is picked to run a team does matter.

You will find that CEOs, executive or managers set the rules and the way salespeople are treated by the team and by the office staff. There is an ebb and flow of  executives and managers for most industries. When there is a vacancy is where the problems begin.   

How managers are hired

There are a few ways that companies look for sales managers. Some of the strategies for hire make sense while other do not. Here are the 4 main ways managers are looked for:

1. Just hire someone for no reason since it need to be done
2. Look for a salesperson through resumes candidate
3. Get referrals and find a manager
4. Get a head hunter and find the manager

Sometimes the sales manager is already wanted and companies will jump through hoops to make it seem like a manager was really looked for. What it comes down to is most of the time hiring sales managers are not really thought through. This is done on a whim or out of execution of control.

The worst sales manager

The worst manager to work for is someone who hates salespeople. This bad manager set the time for how salespeople are treated in the office by the rest of the staff. It is possible for a manager to set a bad tone and hurt the sales team.

What is said about the team is echoed in the office:

• Salespeople are crybabies
• Salespeople are paid too much
• Salespeople must bow down to the leads we give them
• Salespeople cant just sell when they want to, they have to sell all of the time

The trickle down effect

These issues with the sales team trickle down in the office. There is a ripple effect on how the salespeople are treated by the staff. It becomes open season on the sales team. The office staff that is a liability now think they can be rude, mean or demeaning to the sales staff.

It becomes the office staffs job to punish the salespeople on behalf of the management team.   

If the executive or the sales manager has never sold they don’t understand how the games effect the closing rate out in the field while sales presentations are being given.

The games with commissions  

There is a meeting at some point where the executive team looks at the pay out of total commissions and companies about how much is being made.

It becomes a “Its not fair” argument even when the team is selling.

The staff is told to deduct pay for erroneous reasons and to reduce the sales pay. The commission structure is played with and overall pay is reduced.

The people in the office take the role of punishing the salespeople. This comes in the form of scheduling and commission deductions.  This is OK because the sales staff makes so much money.

The office staff is never asked to reduce pay on their hourly, just the salespeople.

The evil sales meeting

The new compensation plan needs to be rolled out. The team is brought in and told that the pay plan needs to be modified. The sales team looks around and wonder why they are being sacrificed.   

Instead of worrying about a deal being closed with clients. Salespeople are worried about how they are going to get paid.

The sales team starts to rot form the inside out.

The sales managers team

A common event that happens is the manager or the executive will build a team to insulate them and the people are rewarded.  The people on the “team” are fed the leads and get preferential treatment. Games with the leads and or schedules. If you are not on “the team” you are treated even worse.

The hidden benefit is that tough buyers are the best to learn who to sell to.  If you get caught up in how leads are distributed it will ruin your life.  

Meeting after meeting

All leadership will play games and they revolve around commissions, scheduling and meetings.  When sales managers feel like they are out of control they will hold multiple meetings with no point. The salespeople “make too much” so meetings are started to control pay.  

The wrong executive and or sales manager will ruin chemistry. Salespeople will look to leave the company and there is a mass exodus. The next thing is executive and or manager is fired and then the wrong person is picked to run the team and this madness starts all over again.

Man or a mouse?

The real question is for executives do you want a man or a mouse? Do you want a strong sales manager or someone who just rolls over for executives? Most companies want a sales manager with a spine of a linguine. These weak sales managers will not work for or protect the salespeople. This one thing alone will tear down the sales team.  Salespeople should not be worried about the executive or manager, they should be worried about closing deals.

How to build a top sales team

If you want a top sales team you will want to look for the right person. You need to decide if you want a man or a mouse because this matters for the team. Most companies want a mouse and not a strong manager so that they can do what they want without push back. Strong leadership will defend the sales team and this does matter,

Scott Sylvan Bell

@scottsbell

#sales #closer #success #Hawaii #howtosellshow #closer #podcast

This episode was recorded on the North Shore of Oahu at Hale’iwa Ali’i Beach Park