In today’s pressure-packed sales management world, a sales manager who doesn’t have the time or energy to deliberate the best course of action may develop time-saving, automatic practices (also known as bad habits).
A bad habit is a tendency to handle familiar situations in a way that typically provides the sales manager with instant satisfaction that something got done, but the way in which that situation was handled ultimately leads to long-term problems in sales team performance.
Here are five bad habits that sales managers need to correct to achieve better outcomes for their sales teams..
Bad Habit 1: Jump in and take over a customer meeting from a salesperson.
We’ve all been in situations where a salesperson is doing poorly in a customer meeting, and the temptation to step in is great. But don’t do it! The negative consequences are much greater than the potential loss of one sale: First, you undermine the salesperson’s confidence. Second, the customer thinks that if they want to get something done, they should call you! Third, you’ve just forfeited the opportunity to observe and coach the salesperson’s skills so they can learn and improve for the next sale and every subsequent sales situation.
A better habit: Ask yourself this: is your team better off if you do things yourself or if you teach your team how to perform better? The answer is that your team will be better off in the long run if you stick to the role of coach and teacher.
Bad Habit 2: Trying to solve team members’ problems for them.
Good sales managers have the attitude “I am always there for my people.” Not a bad sentiment, but it can go awry if the manager takes it to the point where they think they have to solve all of their team members’ problems. In other words, they want to do the salesperson’s job as well as their own!
A better habit: When a salesperson comes to you with a problem, think about how you can help them solve it. Start by asking, “what have you done about it so far?” and “what do you think should be done next?”
Bad Habit 3: Point out the problem to the salesperson, but don’t work through the solution
An equally poor counterpart to managers who try to solve everybody else’s problems are those who simply point out problems to their salespeople then move on. Your salespeople want to learn from you, which they can’t do if all you’re doing is pointing out what they’re doing wrong.
A better habit: A quality coaching conversation aimed at improving a salesperson’s skills requires a commitment by the manager to spend time listening as much as talking. Engage your salesperson in a conversation where you ask questions and get them to think about what they’re doing well and what they can do better.
Bad Habit 4: Focusing on deals that are at the end of the sales cycle
Sales managers get paid on results, so it’s understandable why we would pay a lot of attention to sales opportunities that are forecasted to close soon. The trouble is that the size of a sales opportunity is determined by the customer at the beginning of the buying process, not the end. Plus, customers are most receptive to learning about your company’s value proposition in the earliest stages of their decision process.
A better habit: Early sales-cycle skills are the most important selling skills for your salespeople in terms of improving win-rates and maximizing deal sizes. So, it’s when deals are in the early stages that you should devote the majority of your coaching time.
Bad habit 5: Put off, or delay, difficult conversations with salespeople
Sales managers are positive people, so when we see a salesperson with an unsuccessful behavior, attitude, or poor performance, we often don’t take the time to have a conversation with them. We may secretly hope they’ll improve on their own. Or, we think it’s our fault for not doing more to help them. Plus, none of us look forward to having an uncomfortable conversation. So, we delay addressing the situation. That’s unfortunate because tolerating poor or mediocre performance or attitudes sends a powerful message to the rest of the team that excellence is not required.
A better habit: The rule of thumb is this: The sooner you address a negative situation with a salesperson the less negative emotion is involved in correcting the situation. When you go into a difficult conversation with a salesperson, have a clear outcome in mind: what improvements you want to see and by when, and what the consequences will be for the salesperson if there is no improvement.
Improving your team by year’s end
If you see yourself in any of these bad sales management habits, I urge you to pick one now and get to work on changing it. Fixing any one of these habits is a sure way to see improved overall performance by your team by the end of the year.
