Train the squad leaders – then trust them. Sales is a sales manager’s war, and often a single salespersons war. Battles are won or lost in moments; Whoever can bring power to bear in seconds, will win. The sales person in the prospect or client’s office controls the fight. You must train your salespeople to act intelligently and independently without orders.
You cannot get away with average sales managers or average salespeople. Training should focus on basic skills: prospecting, effective questioning, creating value for prospects and customers, and obtaining commitments. When in doubt, spend less time on other areas and more on sales skills training and development. Ruthlessly replace sales leaders who don’t make the grade. But once people are trained, and you have a shared operational plan, you must trust them. We talk about this, but few VP of Sales or Sales Managers really trust their people. Today, you have no choice. Twenty-Eight Article for Sales
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That’s deep. Some go into management hoping for more control yet its actually about letting up and pulling in the reigns of expectations. Would you say then, that CEO’s are operating on my more trust than control? How controlling was Gates or Buffet?
Hi Allyncia. Thanks for the comment. I come down on the side that control is an illusion. I subscribe to the German idea Auftragstaktik. I believe you want to tell your team what winning means, what it looks like. You set the goal, but you don’t give orders as to how the goal is to be accomplished, outside of informing them of how their mission fits in with other missions (you don’t want them to make an effective choice that undoes a bigger mission).