to tune into a rejected salesperson’s plight and give higher priority to that person’s request to talk than an overall management training program might suggest.”
Moving expert Dee Carollo recog- nizes the necessary leadership style as nurturing, a trait she honed while handholding nervous transferees fret- ting over their delicate moving situ- ations. “At any level, human beings just want to be cared for,” she says. “Sometimes we forget that and only deal carefully with VIPs or above.”
Hands On
The key to management success lies in always providing value to the people who work under you. For Sargent, that’s the definition of strong leadership. Unfortunately, managers often shove the support angle aside in the dash for sales. “That’s a big mistake,” Sargent says. “The three critical factors for leadership success are strategy, ex- ecution, and people. Without those, sustainable, long-term success would be very difficult to achieve – more a matter of luck than skill.” Atwater calls it “servant leader- ship,” a humble attitude he adopted early in his sales management adven- ture. He quickly made his office an information conduit, sharing how indi- viduals tackled situations. “I didn’t tell Joe how to do his job, but I explained how Ann did it,” he says. “Because I didn’t have a fixed idea of how I’d do this job, I probably was more open to a variety of ideas and more versatile in the sales approach than if I’d been a highly successful salesman.” Karlsson felt he lacked time to indulge in long-winded research when he stepped into an office that wasn’t signing an appropriate number of businesses despite being ranked sec- ond in the country in terms of geog- raphy, number of sales personnel, and charge volume. The previous man- agement had fired several employees – handing Karlsson a staff of newbies and four vacant sales desks. “I walked into a big mess,” he sums up.
He hired by trial and error, seeking candidates who displayed motivations similar to his own. Two of those hires still work for the company in far-flung offices. “That makes me feel better than anything I accomplished person- ally,” he says. High praise, consider- ing he revived the West Coast office within a year.
For Carl Karlsson, restless sales pros at near a burnout level were a differ- ent challenge. The new guy found his best motivational tool involved rolling up his sleeves, jumping in their cars, and demonstrating how hard work walked and talked. He also fiddled with budgets to bring in new, young guns – and fanned their competitive- ness to spark dying flames throughout the cubicles. “Clearly, a few in that office lacked the desire to be successful at their jobs. It’s important as a sales manager to make those tough termination decisions and provide the counseling to help them come to that conclusion, too,” he adds. “But it’s emotionally painful.” Sargent consciously molds the moment to his three-step success plan. “Technology is a great leveler; so, ultimately, it won’t differentiate companies. Companies leading the future are those that figure out how to attract, develop, and retain good people.”
No Guts, No Glory Carollo refuses to feel shame when she answers a question with, “I don’t know.” She says, “You can’t shortcut the decision making process. Just because you have a process in place doesn’t necessarily mean it produces the right answer for every situation.” Nor can she achieve immediate measurable results to confirm she’s chosen the right path. The months- long lag time tests many sales manag- ers’ stress tolerance, so she cures her anxiety attacks with action. “Action produces results, so I’m always updat- ing changes, answering questions, getting involved in developing and implementing plans. You just break
goals into time frames to monitor and keep moving,” she notes.
Big-business politics sets Karlsson’s teeth on edge. Frankly, early in his sales career he didn’t know whom to trust with confidences and questions. That deficit slammed home the value of self-assessment. “Always keep a scorecard – not on others, but on yourself,” he says. “The only way to be your own teacher is to learn from yourself, so don’t skip the assessment phase after a sale or a challenge. Critique yourself ruthlessly.” Sargent includes the following experience-produced caveats: The higher you climb the management ladder, the more control you lose over both your time and income. You must anticipate the future, not merely deal with the present. Rejec- tion anxiety magnifies because it stems from people you interact with every day, not a once-a-year client. The consultant points out that sales managers live in glass houses where salespeople immediately zero in on any errors they make. The balance between friendship and business rela- tionships teeters as it reshuffles, and many managers dole out excessive performance targets. Finally, outside forces swell into this storm: You can’t control the economy, federal regulation issues, irrational competition, or technol- ogy revolutions. “I get frustrated all the time,” Sargent warns. “But you have to avoid internalizing it. Stress becomes destructive when it gets in your stomach and you let it churn into worry. I don’t see much construc- tive happening when people worry. It’s a waste of energy. “As you mature, irrespective of po- sition, you need more intimate time with yourself and with people you respect and can relate to, as opposed to technical training. It’s not a mat- ter of attending the right seminar or reading another book on leadership. The difference between people with leadership and communication skills, who think on their feet, and their manager is scope, scale, and focus.”
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