M
Marcus Cauchi
New Member
Guardian £3m below target! When did management know the train wreck was going to hit and what did they do to avert job losses?
History tells me that their sales team will largely be making excuses and blaming the economy, no one is buying, budget cuts, competition from the web and social media - blah, blah, blah! Yawn!
Management will be pointing the finger at the salespeople, recruitment freezes, lack of talent or talent being poached, pricing, targets etc.
But if you ask the management how they pay salespeople to drive behaviour working. If you ask how they manage their people, they typically talk about driving the revenues with targets. They think the weekly fiction meeting (forecast and pipeline reviews) is productive. Instead it's a weekly beating up of the weak and beating of the chests of the few stars. No learning happens and they waste hours in pointless inactivity.
I'd put money on it that management and sales are unconsciously colluding in making their problems worse. They're probably working harder than ever, management is firefighting and calling in the few remaining favours they have left. They forecast inaccurately and individual performance is often inconsistent.
If I was discussing the problems with thier CEO I'd be asking him what the individual sales and account dvelopment plans look like? What 3-5 advancements in key and target accounts have salespeople committed to making in each of their accounts? What are their primary and secondary messages for the quarter? How are they translating product knowledge into what actually sells in the field? How does management hold salespeople accountable for their behaviour? What habits do they recruit for when hiring new salespeople? How do they capture lessons learned on a daily basis so that they share knowledge and provide a faster ramp up period for new hires? How does management provide ongoing reinforcement and windscreen training for their people? What do the sales managers' touchpoints look like for newbies? And for veterans?
But they don't really want to know the answers as the truth is very uncomfortable and bleak.
I make no apology to the Guardian as they aren't alone. Most sales organizations are run badly. Managers are often promoted from the ranks for their success and you lose a good salesperson and gain a bad manager. They "manage" with stick and carrot and then look surprised when it doesn't work!
The cold hard ugly truth is that the fish probably started rotting from the head down. The problems that lead to this type of performance are certainly heightened by economic, technological & competitive pressures. But the responsibility for where they are now I'd bet fall at the feet of the CEO and his management team. In my experience they've probably been sweating blood trying to fix symptoms and not finding the cause. They're run ragged and the harder they work the worse they perform.
I'm clearly not out to make friends, but I am certain a lot of people will be facing a bleak Christmas, unemployed and broke because of management myopia and bad selling habits. Sadly, they won't fix the real problems and a great institution will become vulnerable to predators and spiral into further decline.
I fix companies where their selling beliefs, habits and behaviours are out of kilter with what will actually serve them. There's no magic dust and the bitterness of the medicine is enough to put off all but the most courageous leaders. Few people are committed enough to do the basics , well, consistently over time. Even fewer have the nerve to find the necessary will, time or budget to invest in fixing their problems forever.
Nuff said on that topic. Your thoughts please.
Marcus
History tells me that their sales team will largely be making excuses and blaming the economy, no one is buying, budget cuts, competition from the web and social media - blah, blah, blah! Yawn!
Management will be pointing the finger at the salespeople, recruitment freezes, lack of talent or talent being poached, pricing, targets etc.
But if you ask the management how they pay salespeople to drive behaviour working. If you ask how they manage their people, they typically talk about driving the revenues with targets. They think the weekly fiction meeting (forecast and pipeline reviews) is productive. Instead it's a weekly beating up of the weak and beating of the chests of the few stars. No learning happens and they waste hours in pointless inactivity.
I'd put money on it that management and sales are unconsciously colluding in making their problems worse. They're probably working harder than ever, management is firefighting and calling in the few remaining favours they have left. They forecast inaccurately and individual performance is often inconsistent.
If I was discussing the problems with thier CEO I'd be asking him what the individual sales and account dvelopment plans look like? What 3-5 advancements in key and target accounts have salespeople committed to making in each of their accounts? What are their primary and secondary messages for the quarter? How are they translating product knowledge into what actually sells in the field? How does management hold salespeople accountable for their behaviour? What habits do they recruit for when hiring new salespeople? How do they capture lessons learned on a daily basis so that they share knowledge and provide a faster ramp up period for new hires? How does management provide ongoing reinforcement and windscreen training for their people? What do the sales managers' touchpoints look like for newbies? And for veterans?
But they don't really want to know the answers as the truth is very uncomfortable and bleak.
I make no apology to the Guardian as they aren't alone. Most sales organizations are run badly. Managers are often promoted from the ranks for their success and you lose a good salesperson and gain a bad manager. They "manage" with stick and carrot and then look surprised when it doesn't work!
The cold hard ugly truth is that the fish probably started rotting from the head down. The problems that lead to this type of performance are certainly heightened by economic, technological & competitive pressures. But the responsibility for where they are now I'd bet fall at the feet of the CEO and his management team. In my experience they've probably been sweating blood trying to fix symptoms and not finding the cause. They're run ragged and the harder they work the worse they perform.
I'm clearly not out to make friends, but I am certain a lot of people will be facing a bleak Christmas, unemployed and broke because of management myopia and bad selling habits. Sadly, they won't fix the real problems and a great institution will become vulnerable to predators and spiral into further decline.
I fix companies where their selling beliefs, habits and behaviours are out of kilter with what will actually serve them. There's no magic dust and the bitterness of the medicine is enough to put off all but the most courageous leaders. Few people are committed enough to do the basics , well, consistently over time. Even fewer have the nerve to find the necessary will, time or budget to invest in fixing their problems forever.
Nuff said on that topic. Your thoughts please.
Marcus
