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pipeline. “Ask, ‘Is this one on strat- egy? Why go after this account?’” he advises. “Coaching is the key to keep- ing alignment.” Unfortunately, the second major weakness the research identified is that sales managers too often lack necessary leadership skills. Overall, managers were rated 6 on a 10-point leadership scale by their supervisors and subordinates. He notes, “That is 60 percent – academically equiva- lent to a D.” Research indicated that the major leadership deficiencies lie in coaching, motivating, strate- gic thinking, and creating a good climate for sales.


“Managers must see the big picture – not get bogged down in minutiae,” the EVP argues. “They must be think- ing partners to help reps deploy solu- tions and penetrate accounts.” Line sales managers must also, like successful sports coaches, create a cli- mate in which people enjoy reaching for excellence. Too often, that does not happen. “One sales manager put a damper on a whole room when he came in and started talking about numbers,” he says.


START SOMEWHERE Where to begin? “Climate starts with the manager and ripples out,” the EVP says. The aim is a climate that is upbeat, optimistic, opportunistic, and exploratory. Moreover, chang- ing climate should not be as difficult as changing the company culture of values and beliefs. He compares com- pany culture to a glacier – difficult to alter. “But climate is just the day-to- day weather.” And effective coaching is not about simply teaching salespeople how to talk better to prospects, but about dealing with specific sales situations. “Salespeople want new ideas on overcoming pricing barriers, calling on higher-level execs, and getting past gatekeepers on stalled sales,” he says. “Practical ideas make a huge dif- ference.” Top performing salespeople need reinforcement, recognition, and new responsibilities, such as mentor-


ing new salespeople. Training can help managers be better leaders, but real improvement usually requires systemic changes in an entire company. “From district managers all the way up to the VP of sales, they have to be supportive. Like reps,” he insists, “managers need support.” The third weakness is that salespeo- ple often lack critical skills – especially those skills needed to find and win new customers. Of 19 sales skills the research tested, finding prospects and winning their business were most highly related to revenue success. “This sounds obvious since all sales is about finding, winning, and keeping customers,” he acknowledges. “But, 10 years ago, the difference between high and low performers was in re- taining customers.” Now, even poor sales departments can keep current customers because they understand that this is less expensive. So the new differentiators between the best and the rest are the skills necessary for finding new buying centers, locating ancillary industries, conducting strategic prospecting, and using referral networks. Which industries should a salesperson tap when typical customers have been hit hard? This could be a new geo- graphical market or a new vertical. Top management may be responsible for finding these new markets in large companies. In smaller companies, the individual salesperson must do it. The fourth common problem uncovered in research: Salespeople lack the flexibility to respond to buy- ers’ differing needs. This challenge is largely about company processes – for example, in pricing. Some sales departments have a broad range of pricing authority, while others must go through higher management to clear prices. “It is also a problem in logistics and delivery schedules,” says the EVP. “Some salespeople can make com- mitments and have the authority to deal with delivery teams, while others have to get higher approvals. Some


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Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. JOHN F. KENNEDY


reps say their biggest challenge is selling within the company.” Often, critical sales-support sys- tems are at odds with sales strategy. These systems can include customer relationship management, sales force automation, reward systems, perfor- mance management systems, invoic- ing, pricing systems, and information technology in general. For example, a firm has a pipeline and forecast- ing system that requires entry of an opportunity’s projected revenue value and expected close date. Yet the firm’s strategy requires understanding customers thoroughly before propos- ing products or services. So sales reps do not know how much they can sell when they first enter an opportunity into the forecasting system. They have to either enter fictitious information or just ignore the system.


Or consider a firm whose call-center employees are assessed according to the number of calls handled per shift. We can assume that the company’s strategy is not just to pitch products but to understand customer needs and provide solutions matching these needs. This strategy requires lon- ger and deeper conversations with customers – not simply a large volume of calls.


High-performance sales organiza-


tions remove or resolve these contra- dictions between strategy, systems, and processes. They tend to have pipeline management systems that are well run, realistically linked to strategy, and helpful in driving oppor- tunities for reps. “These management systems help both reps and managers monitor volume, quality, and speed through pipeline,” he explains. “They


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