Why sales professionals don`t need critical parents?
Business owners, sales directors and office managers should never forget how tough the job of a sales person really is. Your sales team is having to go out and represent your brand in the market place every day and secure cold-hard cash for your product or service. That is a tough and very specific way for anyone to be judged and rewarded.
My personal experience is that it only takes a bad call for a sales person to question themselves... a bad week and you wonder whether the products being offered are going to work for a client. A bad month and in that short space of time it’s possible to lose total faith in both yourself and the brand you are representing – Next step- Does anybody really need or want this product or service at all?
A professional, motivated sales person will take personal responsibility for their actions and because invariably monthly earnings are linked to performance, unlike many other roles, failure has a very real and personal impact. My experience is that sales professionals will perform better when they feel successful, valued and motivated as opposed to being anxious, unappreciated and under threat.
When there is pressure in the boardroom or around the management table it is just too easy to reflect frustration, express disappointment and even to take things personally and feel let down by an under-performing sales team. However there is no win in taking on the role of a critical parent, watching from the side-lines being disappointed. Counsellors will tell you critical parent mode is often a position taken by people to avoid addressing personal responsibility for a situation or a decision. Of course it is much more comfortable focussing criticism elsewhere rather than at yourself.
My suggestions based on my experience (and I will be honest enough to say I have got it wrong on many occasions) is to do the basic things as well as possible. Create an environment where sales success is celebrated and not assumed; ensure that the right internal meetings are taking place alongside client meetings- regular line-manager check-ins; structured team meetings; quarterly planning alongside ad-hoc creative strategy and personal and or team development days.
Be involved in the day to day lives of your team and be the leader that un-blocks the things getting in the way of your team`s success –whether that`s through better training and development, improved structures and processes or product offerings.
And then it`s back to you – Look ahead at what`s coming next? Are you providing enough support in creating a modern strategy for lead-generation? (more of that another time…).