Accountability

There is an ancient script that was written 3000 years ago that goes something like this: "I will counsel you with my eye upon you. I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go". I have this posted on a wall behind my desk so I can remind myself of this every day. Focus on doing the right things - not on doing things right. So the question is, what are the right things that a sales manager should focus on?

I have found that, even in large companies, the role of sales manager can go completely neglected. The worst case I ever came across was a manufacturing company generating $50 million in revenue and had 400 employees. The 24 person sales force had no accountability. The only things being measured were sales results and, if there were no results, people got fired. The door was always swinging. People came and went.

So, what should we hold people accountable for? We obviously want sales people to generate results - sales revenue for the company. I'm coaching a sales person who sells new construction HVAC and is expected to be proactive and build the business. So I asked the owner "how many attempted contacts did the salesman make last week?" He said "I'm not sure". I said "Okay, how many new prospects did he talk with last week?" He said "I don't know that either". I said "Okay, how many new houses did he quote last week?" He said "I don't know". Are you getting the picture? There was no expectation set for weekly behavior and no measurement of that behavior.

The mistake that I see owners make is to only hold salespeople accountable for sales revenue. I think we do that because it's easily measurable. We set goals and expect results but there are a lot of things that must happen in between. Try this model. Set a goal. Have a plan. Commit to the plan. Focus on the plan. Execute the plan consistently and then results may come. If not, the salesperson needs help in either skills development or other things.

What's the bottom line? Owners should hold sales people accountable to the behaviors that lead to results. Don't plan for results, plan for action and hold salespeople accountable to that action. You should set expectations for activity and behavior. Measure that and problems will come into focus earlier and you will save a lot of money in the long run.

I coached some salespeople at a large collection agency and a new person was transferred from within the company to be in sales. Because we measured behaviors, we found out within three months that it was a mistake to give him that job and he agreed. He was just not willing to do the things that it took to get results. So we put him back in his old role. If we had not been on top of his behaviors, it would have cost the company a lot more money and probably ruined a good relationship with a long time employee. He still works there in another capacity and is contributing to the team.

Motivation

Another area of focus for every sales manager to focus on is motivation. To me this is the hardest one to find. Everyone's reason for doing something is different. When you find the reason for doing the behavior allow them to achieve or experience the reason, which reinforces the behavior.

The simplest thing to do is hire salespeople that are motivated by money and have a commission structure that rewards the outcomes that come from the behavior needed to produce revenue. One problem with this is not everyone is motivated by money. Let me explain. I worked with a small company for about two years and coached the president and the sale person. The sales person had consummate skill in selling and did not need any more sales skill development. So how do we get more revenue? This was a problem of motivation. I felt like Jill was under achieving so I began to focus on things she wanted or did not want. She was not motivated by money. She was married and her husband had a good job and she was making almost six figures herself. They had no children and traveled all the time out of the county. Money was not the issue with her.

What she really wanted was more time off of work. My biggest challenge in this was the president of the company and selling her on the idea. She reluctantly agreed and we came up with a plan. If Jill's sales were above her goal for the year measured on Thursday afternoon she got Friday off. Over the next year Jill's sales increased by about 52%. She found a reason to do the behavior and also there was an added motivation to ask the prospect hard questions and make that sale. There were many Thursdays that Jill closed business and without the sale she would not get Friday off. Jill sold an intangible product, which was a testing protocol for physical therapist, and her average sale was about $10,000. She spent all day on the phone-selling people all over the country. So to get out of the office and go spend time with her mother on Friday's was her big reason.

What's the bottom line? Without sufficient reason to do something we are probably not going to do it. In the story of Joseph in the Old Testament his brothers sold him into slavery and told his father Jacob that a wild animal killed him. Jacob said of this "in mourning I will go down to the grave". In other words I want to die and will die. He had no reason to live. Just mourn and die. Later Jacob found out that his son was not dead. He lived many more years after that and even had more children. We must have a reason to live and do things. Help your sale people find a reason. The bigger the reason, the more they will sell. It is your job as sales manager to help them discover their own motivation.

While writing this article my son Andrew came in my office to talk and asked me what I was doing. I read him this article and he said " that is good dad" . So why do I take out the trash. I told him he does it to avoid something. He does it to avoid pain. He doesn't do it because he wants something he does it because he doesn't want pain. So motivation works two ways. Want and don't want.

Coaching

So we have talked about accountability and motivation. About 70% of a sales manager's time in my opinion should be spent on these things along with coaching. The other 30% takes up things like recruiting, details regarding payroll, planning and numerous other things. Warning, don't let them fill your time they are not critical to driving revenue.

Now, what is coaching? Coaching can be defined in a lot of ways but for our purpose we should keep it simple. Sometimes all you need to do is ask the right questions. Here are three good ones and if you will use this pattern you can probably learn how to be a good coach. Ask your sales person the following.

1. What do you want?
2. Why do you want it?
3. What are you going to do to get it?

Sometimes you will have to guide the sales person through this process if he gets off track, but let them discover these things on their own. This is really important in the goal setting process. Please let your employees set their own goals. If they are too low, have a conversation with them about their expectation of themselves. If they are too high, they will figure it out on their own or surprise you. Also, please don't limit your sales person because of your limiting beliefs. He/She may just be able to do what you think is impossible.

When they formulate what they want and why they want it the "why" or "reason" has to be very strong and emotional or they won't take action when things get difficult. I really started hanging in there with prospects when I got so frustrated with the lying and hiding. Frustration is an emotion and feels bad. So my motivation was sufficient for me to do some assertive things that were very uncomfortable. Also, uncomfortable is an emotion, but my frustration was worse so it helped me change some behavior.

All a manager needs to do is ask these questions, find emotion (motivation) and then ask them what action they need to take to make reasonable progress. Then hold them accountable to the action they promised, not the results. Remember plan for action and then hold accountable the behavior. Consistent execution over time will get results.