Inexperienced sales managers assume that if they solve the problems salespeople bring to them then sales reps will automatically sell more. Not true.
Sales managers must expect salespeople to solve their own problems instead of doing their thinking for them. When a salesperson comes to the manager with “a monkey on his back” it is the manager’s duty to:
a) Ask the sales rep how the problem should be solved.
b) See that the rep leaves with the monkey!
The next step is to follow-up. A lot of untrained sales managers make suggestions to their sales reps on how to improve sales, then assume salespeople will implement their suggestions. After all, when the manager was a salesperson, he/she implemented the boss’ suggestions. Sales managers who fail to follow-up create a team culture that lacks accountability.
Without sales team accountability there can be no team excellence.
