Mastering the Art of Success
A salesperson’s role is to win n ew customers, grow the ones you
have, and differentiate you from the competition. Sales management is
re cruiting, training, coaching, building, and developing. Just because a
salesperson is good at the sales role doesn’t necessarily mean he or she
is going to be good at the sales management role. A further ha ndicap is
th at salespeople live in a world of immediate gratification—they get a
deal and then are anxious to get another one—whereas the sales
management role has no immediate gratification. Recruiting a top
salesperson could take you more than a year, and so could training,
coaching, and developing. You therefore take a person who is
ac customed to living in a world of immediate gratification, you move
him or her to a world with no immediate gratification, and eventually
the person becomes disenchanted. The person loses his or her zest for
the sales management job and eventual ly will go back to sales, probably
working for a competitor.
The third sin of sales management is probably the most grievous of
al l. The best salesperson is made a sales manager, and he or she is also
required to continue booking business. I have no idea how you would
judge that person’s success or how that person spends his or her time. It
is absolutely ruinous. Very often what happens is that the person
becomes nothing more than a glorified salesperson who happens to
throw a few bones on the pile called sales management.
Each one of the three sins is defacto, minimizing the sales
management role and effectively holding the company back from
achieving its vision of growth. Small to medium sized businesses tend
to go in one of two directions: they stay small to medium or they go out
of business. When you ask why, it most often comes down to violation
of one or more of the three sins of sales management. Having key
people in key spots is absolutely the secret to success.
WRIGHT
We hear a lot these days about culture. What is your take on the
culture of a business?