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Written by Hamish Knox; President of Sandler in Calgary, Canada
Creating accountable, sales focused organizations in Calgary
“So I’m thinking of hiring a salesperson/sales manager.”
“You want a salesperson and sales manager?”
“Yes, but I’m only hiring one person.”
“Thanks for clarifying. Help me understand what’s prompting this.”
“Well, I want move away from managing the sales team, but I feel the team is too small to justify having someone only be a sales manager.”
“Fair enough. Which role is more important, salesperson or sales manager?”
“For now salesperson. Sales are up, but they aren’t consistent.”
“That makes sense. What if you hired a salesperson who had the right people skills to potentially grow into a sales manager role?”
“I’d like to do that, but things are moving so fast around here. Besides, I don’t like the selling side of the business anyway so if I can get that off my plate, I’d be happier.”
“So what I’m hearing is that you don’t like the selling side of the business so you want to delegate that to a new hire. Is that accurate?”
“Yes. I know sales is important it’s just not something I enjoy doing.”
“Not everyone does. May I use a sports analogy?”
“Sure.”
“Thank you. Are you familiar with the term coach/GM or coach/president?”
“Yes, it’s when one person is the head coach and has responsibility for managing the roster of players. Making trades and things like that.”
“Exactly. Did you know that that role has been pretty eliminated?”
“No, why?”
“Because no one person can do both jobs well.”
“That make sense.”
“So how might that apply to our conversation?”
“I’d either find a salesperson who wanted a manager title, but not the responsibility of supporting and growing the team or I’d find a manager with a high need for approval who was the team’s best friend, but didn’t sell anything.”
“What would happen to your business if either of them joined your team?”
“The salesperson would probably cause some of my current team to quit, which means I’d have to hire to replace them, which I don’t have time to do, and I’d probably have to fire the manager because they wouldn’t hold the team accountable to hitting their targets.”
“Sounds painful just hearing you say it.”
“Yeah. Neither of those are ideal.”
“So what do want to do and how can we support you?”
“Well….”
Until next time… go lead.
Sales Process Workshop
What if you spent more time coaching your salespeople instead of remembering what each salesperson’s definition of 25%, 50%, or 90% “closed” meant?
What is a “Sales Process Workshop”?
- Purpose – design and document the “Your Company Name Way,” which is all the steps and check boxes your salespeople need to address to take a prospect from “hello” to “here’s a purchase order” to “this has been a great X year relationship. Look forward to working with you for many more.”
- Who attends – Senior leaders of functional units in your organization including CEO or Owners only.
- Where – our place or yours. Most of our clients appreciate the opportunity to disconnect from distractions at their place and hold this session at ours.
- Time – three hours.
- You leave with – a clearly documented common language and the tools to implement internally and hold your people accountable to following your Way. We may address CRM integration if applicable, but we aren’t CRM experts.
Organizations with a common language and process around their prospecting, selling and client development activities scale faster, grow consistently and can realize a higher exit multiple.
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