senior salesperson and putting someone under their wing, you’re really making them into a manager/coach,” he says. If you set up a program like Lash’s, make the payoff for the mentor clear. Then you’re more likely to have quality participants who take the program seriously. The expert likes the idea of tapping high-performing
sales reps and providing them opportunities to continue to learn and excel, as Lash did with her monthly train- ing. “That’s a great idea, as long as you’re compensating them for it,” he says.
Situation #3: Sibling Rivalry Interdepartmental relationships are tricky. Marketing argues with finance, who disagrees with manufacturing, who digs in its heels against R&D. And everyone, it seems, has a bone to pick with the sales team, which always feels misunderstood because they’re the ones who deal directly with customers. Jerry Tedesco, vice president and principal with a fo-
rensics litigation consulting firm, knows only too well how these sorts of turf wars can not only make it difficult for the sales organization to do its job, but can harm the very abil- ity of the organization to serve its customers. With 300 people spread over four different North American locations – and experts with 150 different areas of expertise ranging from physics to biomechanics – he understands how groups often felt isolated. As a result, customers were seen as one-time buyers, instead of being nurtured for repeat business across different specialties. Potential sales were walking out the door, unaware of the various services the company could offer. One of Tedesco’s goals when he assumed leadership of the firm was to move from an operational-centric approach to a more customer-centric philosophy. He also focused on tearing down the walls between sales and other divisions, particularly operations. “We wanted everyone singing from the same sheet of music,” he said. Here’s how he did it: • Start at the top. “You have to have a shared leader-
ship from your executive team,” he said. The big dogs need to agree on the basics: where you are, where you’re going, what’s holding you back, and what it’s ultimately going to mean to get there.
Once the executive team is facing in the same direc- tion, that unity of purpose must be passed down to the line managers. “If you don’t have your frontline people bought into this, it’s not going anywhere,” said Tedesco. The heads of different groups “have to be attached at the hip,” he said, and their teams have to see that close rela- tionship. The “all for one and one for all” approach has to be modeled before your team members can be expected to adopt the same position. “They have to illustrate to their teams that they’ve bought in,” he explained. • Talk it out. Communication is critical, says Tedesco.
For example, operations representatives not only sit in on sales meetings, they’re granted space to present opera- tional concerns and questions – and vice versa. When cross-departmental issues arise within their
groups, Tedesco recommends that individual managers analyze what they’re working with and devise an approach that addresses individual and team needs. Tedesco also stresses the value of one-on-one interaction, both be- tween and within groups. “Change is tough,” he said. Managers need to understand what’s important to indi- viduals, give them confidence in the leadership team, and talk to them in a manner they can relate to. “Get into their shoes,” he said. “Really break it down for them.” • Seek to understand. The more you understand your counterparts in other groups, the better able you’ll be to appreciate and assist them. Because the firm’s employees are so far flung, it was difficult for them to see the value of each other. By acknowledging the roles of each person in the organization, everyone feels valued. If there is some- one on your team who seems to have trouble grasping the unification plan, Tedesco suggests nominating them for a “cross-pollination” role within the other group. The more you “get” what the other players in your com- pany are trying to accomplish, says Tedesco, the more you understand what you, in sales, can do to help them get the information they need – and how to make their lives easier. These lofty goals don’t just make for a “feel-good” workplace; they pay off on the bottom line, said Tedesco. When the entire organization is headed in the same direc- tion, everyone’s looking to serve the customers’ needs more holistically, and everyone wins. Customers become repeat customers sooner, they buy more from more divisions, and your costs of acquisition and costs of sales go down.
The Expert Weighs In Salespeople are, for the most part, a unique breed. It’s not surprising, then, that we often find ourselves going head- to-head with others in the organization, says the sales management expert. “Sales is out making promises, and operations is saying, ‘Oh my goodness, we can’t do that,’” he explained. The sales rep tends to be the idealist – dreaming up the perfect future for the client – while the operations person is grounded in the realism of the here-and-now. “To be successful in sales requires ego drive, that competitive- ness,” he said. “They’re just not built the same way.” To bridge the gap between functions, he recommends some of the steps Tedesco implemented so successfully: namely, communication and accountability. Increase the quality and amount of communication between and among groups, and hold people to the corporate commitments. “I believe in changes in the operations compensation plan to increase idealist thinking,” he said. “There is all sorts of evidence in the literature which shows that works.”
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