Sales Blog with Sales Tips

Many sales organizations are so chaotic and lazy in the way they manage their sales force, I honestly don’t know why they even bother having sales managers.

In my last post I wrote about the three different types of sales calls a sales professional and sales manager make together.  In this sales blog I’m going to address how these sales calls can actually be helpful to all interested parties.

Sales managers work with their sales professionals in order to provide both positive and learning feedback. Too often this feedback is omitted entirely or is done in a way that yields no useful fruit for the sales professional, the sales manager or the employer.

Sales Tips For The Shared Call Debrief
“Debrief” might be a strong word, but it’s not completely off the mark. When people are “debriefed” (i.e. sales managers and sales professionals in this case) they are questioned in an organized and systematic way to ensure that all bases are covered. This is a good thing.

Let’s Get Organized
Your company should have a standard form (paper or electronic) that is used to evaluate how you and the sales manager perform as you make calls together. Notice that I wrote, “…and the sales manager…” That wasn’t a misstatement. The sales professional’s thoughts are just as important as the sales manager’s. The sales manager needs to be held accountable too.

Both the sales manager and sales professional need to complete their own copy of this form in its entirety. This is the best way I know to flush out differences in perceived abilities between management and sales professionals. Simply stated, how do the two completed forms line up?

The Advantages
I know that using a coaching form sounds a little old school, but it has many advantages. Most strong sales organizations I’ve been associated with use one. Below are some of the reasons.

• Since both the sales manager and sales professional have completed the form (as suggested above), this provides a convenient way to find incongruities between what the sales manager and sales professional see as strengths and weaknesses they both may have. These inconsistencies should be a primary focal point for discussion.
• It forces the sales manager to put down – in black and white – what the strengths and the need-to-work-ons are for the sales professional. Sales managers can sometimes beat around the bush so much that the sales professional has no idea what the true issues are.
• It’s a record of performance. Both the sales manager and sales professional should have access to all past reports in order to see how things are progressing.
• Smart organizations have different sales managers work with the same sales professional in order to get different perspectives. Having these historical coaching reports can get sales managers up to speed quickly when they work with different sales professionals.
• Have you ever heard of the Hawthorne effect? It states that when people know they are being observed (in this case both the sales manager and sales professional), they perform at higher levels. Using standardized sales call assessment tools guarantees that both parties take shared calls seriously. Isn’t that the idea in the first place?

Sold On Debriefing
Debriefing will benefit both the sales professional and sales manager if it’s a mutual exercise and one that is documented. One-way evaluations and lack of record keeping result in many of the benefits of shared calls being wasted.

Further reading:

• Use the Hawthorne Effect to Increase Sales

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©2009 Scott R. Sheaffer

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Summary: A study was done many years ago demonstrating that people respond in positive and unexpected ways to attention.

There was a famous productivity study that started in 1924 and continued for several years at the Western Electric Company in Cicero, Illinois. Industrial engineers wanted to know how different light levels would affect workers’ output at this telephone equipment factory. When I was first introduced to this study I immediately thought that it sounded like one of those infamous studies funded by the federal government whose findings would be predictable to just about everyone. Wouldn’t you think that more light would equal more productivity? It wasn’t that simple.

The results showed that increased light levels in the factory did in fact increase the workers’ output. No surprise there. But what I’m about to tell you is why this study is well known more than 80 years later. When they decreased the light levels, productivity levels continued to increase. Can’t you just see those industrial engineers with their white coats and thick glasses scratching their collective head? They started experimenting with different scenarios and found that no matter what they did with the light levels, productivity increased each time. They even took levels down to almost black out and, you guessed it, productivity levels continued to increase.

What’s the explanation? The smart folks figured out that it was the attention that the factory workers were getting that made the difference, not the light levels. The fact that a whole brigade of industrial engineers were watching and studying them made them feel important and part of the team. They responded by working harder and harder.

The analogy to our relationship with our customers is obvious. Customers like getting attention from you; it builds the relationship because it makes them feel important, just like the workers at the Western Electric factory. I have seen this in practice a thousand times when a new salesperson takes over an existing account base. All the love and attention showered on those customers by the new salesperson makes customers respond with increased purchases. The Hawthorne Effect even suggests that if we are nurturing the relationship with our customers that we can make a few missteps without being sent to the principal’s office. Never take your relationship with the customer for granted; stay in constant contact.

I want to conclude this post with a note to sales management. You guessed it; pay attention to your sales force too, for all the same reasons.

To receive this sales tips blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer