The Sales Maker is measured on how well they meet their quota. The Sales Manager is measured on how well the entire team meets its quota. How is The Sales Leader measured? That’s right; they are measured on how successful the entire organization is at driving revenue. Typically, Executive Leadership tends to wait for information to flow up to them in the form of updates on team metrics.
What do Sales Makers want most? Coaching! It’s true; a recent study on sales organization performance indicates that while Sales Managers think they are supposed to focus on like communication, organization, and time management, Sales Makers give the highest marks to Sales Managers who made it a priority to support the efforts and the activities of the Sales Makers and find ways to help them become more successful. In a word, that means: Coaching.
Imagine for a moment how effective a baseball coach would be if they never actually attended the game or watched game film, but instead based their coaching exclusively on the box scores. They would have plenty of numbers to crunch; they would know how many hits, runs, errors, strike-outs, walks and put-outs each player had, but they would still have almost no basis for providing any helpful feedback that could improve player performance other than, “try harder and do better next time.”
There is tremendous pressure in every sales organization to deliver an accurate forecast; a) for public company guidance and b) to support appropriate investment scenarios in the company. This pressure can cause Sales Executives to focus primarily on the existing business and not enough time on the future business. This emphasis on near-term performance can easily lead to Sales Makers not working hard enough or smart enough to develop the deals farther back in the pipeline.
It is not unusual for a Sales Manager to focus primarily on the productivity of the team. That is understandable, because the Sales Manager will be held accountable for the cumulative performance of the team. At the same time, even though the Sales Manager is aware that the team’s performance is derived from the individual performance of each Sales Maker, often that awareness only translates to exhortations to each Sales Maker to work harder and get those numbers up before the end of the reporting period.
Have you ever watched an NFL football game when the score is close and time is running out, and the team that is trailing shifts their offense into what is called the “two-minute” drill? The two minute drill is a specific play execution strategy that teams turn to when the clock is running down but there is still a chance to pull off a big win. Often even teams that have appeared sloppy and lackadaisical for most of the game suddenly come alive, attacking each play with new energy, crisper execution and sharper focus.
