Managing Manager Performance

Many sales managers believe that having the right people, products and services at the right time or competitive and market conditions determine their ability to succeed. It is possible, however, to impact sales performance through sheer skill, even when other conditions are not favorable. It is also possible to manage improvements in sales results by learning to apply more successful practices and behaviors.

Managing sales performance is no different than managing anything else. The results of a sales team are dependent on skills and the application of resources. The goal of managing the sales team is to create an environment that facilitates behaviors, which enable the players to achieve certain results. The reason this is such a challenge is that sales managers are inhibited by: administrative duties, politics, tactical necessities, involvement in selling activities, lack of experience and poor training. In short, sales managers aren't doing the things they need to do to deliver the results for which they are held accountable.

Athletes use personal trainers to help them reach peak performance. Visiting the pro is a common practice of top performers. They work with these pros for years to maintain their competitive edge and to stay on top of their game. They can never learn enough. Their quest for total competence in unquenchable.

In selling, the game is the sale and winning is making quota. How the team does this is a function of skill and leadership. The manager's job is to motivate the team to achieve results. Achieving the goal of quota requires the proper management of: talent, time and resources. The manager must provide the discipline and teach the behaviors that he or she knows will result in success.

Too many managers today still operate by the seat of their pants. They have a style. They're comfortable with it and that is that! Unfortunately, their results are variable. Few ever seem to develop consistency, but how does a manager know if their game is right on?

If a sales manager is getting mixed results, they need to consider that one of the things they can do something about is their own game: the way they coach the team. They may have average talent, product and service problems or other issues beyond their control. What they do have control over is their own actions and activities. Other handicaps may present obstacles, but since there is often nothing that can be done about them, managers should focus their efforts on those things they can do something about.

Sales managers need to take the example of other professionals and go visit a pro and take some lessons. Like pro golfers who take lessons, the lessons will start with reviewing the basics. This is a means to compare what they should be doing to what they are actually doing. The pro will help the manager develop an objective view of their own game, including: what the manager wants to accomplish, evaluation of existing skills and ultimately focusing on how to improve the skills that are preventing the manager from getting the results they want from themselves and their team.

Learning how to correct weaknesses is uncomfortable. The pro should not only help the manager identify weaknesses but recommend specific steps to correct them. This means that the pro must observe the manager, firsthand, to identify where their game is weak.

Next the pro should prescribe a program of skill building that the manager can use to improve their game. This program should include: new techniques, activities and practicing alternative behaviors. The pro should be an expert at identifying weaknesses, giving step-by-step instructions and advising the player about how to overcome handicaps or change unproductive habits.

At first, as with any change, the manager will resist and feel uncomfortable executing new behaviors. They will reach a point of frustration, before improvement comes, during which they will start to consider whether they should just go back to the old, more comfortable style or learn to overcome their discomfort and continue to pursue the implementation of new practices.

The problem, of course, with going back to their old style is that the manager's game will not improve. So although the new behavior may, at first, feel uncomfortable, it does promise that, if they keep at it, their game will improve. This seems obvious, but managers often decide to choose comfort in lieu of improving their game.

The payoff of persistence is that as they gain proficiency at performing new behaviors, results will improve as well. In addition, the team's results will also be enhanced due to the manager's influence. In fact, one of the greatest benefits of visiting the pro is that the pro's attitude and approaches to improving performance serve as an example that managers can follow in dealing with the members of their own sales team.

What about the manager's boss taking on the role of pro? The fact is that the boss/employee relationship is different than that of player/coach. There are usually too many pre-conceived notions about each other to effectively influence behavior, unless, that is, the boss is already doing an effective job at coaching. If this is not enough of a problem, bosses are usually distracted from good coaching by the same things that are distracting managers. The best alternative is a consultant who specializes in working with people in the sales environment. This may include expertise at working with managers, sales, marketing and other sales support functions.

The main interference for most bosses is that they are driven by the same short-term demands that their managers are driven by. This makes using consultants a practical approach since the pro is not distracted by any of these things and can focus on behavioral change. The boss need only understand the purpose of the pro's job and support their efforts.

What about training? For most people, higher levels of performance do not result from mere training. Picture the difference between attending a class on how to become fit and hiring a personal trainer. The impact of these two approaches is dramatically different.

The pro approach enhances training but is an alternative approach that impacts behavior in a way that training does not. The focus of the pro/player relationship is long-term performance improvement that depends partly on relationship and partly on coaching experience and skill. Learning is part of the solution, but the interpersonal skill cluster is that of mentor rather than teacher. It is more intense, requires greater accountability and relies more heavily on relationship and practice.

The pro works with the manager both at practice and in the game. Together, they deal with the behavioral changes necessary to achieve established objectives. The boss focuses on the achievement of fiscal results. The pro influences the behavioral changes that must occur to create results.

The pro is a specialist who knows how to impart behavioral change and best practices, reinforce those practices and measure progress toward a set of behavioral goals. Pros focus on long-term goals because that is the nature of behavioral change. The system the pro uses will include: assessment, implementation, coaching and measuring the progress of behavioral objectives. Results are the responsibility of the boss, and behavior is the domain of the pro, but they go hand in hand.

Performance management is the systematic approach to the development, implementation, control and measurement of human and organizational productivity. There are no shortcuts in performance management. The best player, the most successful businessperson, the smartest student, all practice certain behaviors, consciously or unconsciously, that enable them to produce superior results. Performance management is the endeavor of breaking down these behaviors into discrete practices, imparting them to others and reinforcing their practice until the desired results are achieved.

Sales managers and their bosses who want to succeed at making their numbers aren't necessarily experts at imparting these practices and behaviors even though they may perform them intuitively. That's why most organizations need experts to help them implement performance improvement plans. These experts understand the discrete elements and can impart them to anyone who is sufficiently motivated.

Let me repeat, this is not a matter of mere training! In fact, training, per se, is no guarantee that individual productivity or organizational performance will improve. Working with the pro is a process of focusing on the behavioral aspects of manager performance and coaching them toward greater competency. It is not a replacement for good training, but it will enhance it.

Before an organization can expect improved results, they must make the connection between the results they desire and the performance or behavioral factors that will tend to create them. Many organizations are victims of their own mediocre objectives. For example, they will say that an annual 30% increase in sales is better than industry standards, but they never assume that a much greater improvement is possible. One reason is that when they find out that long-term commitment to the development of their people is involved, the "culture" of many organizations won't allow it.

The good results of many individuals and organizations are often the biggest obstacle to the achievement of their real potential. Most organizations know what to do; they simply don't know how to do it. They end up accepting the "industry standard" as a measuring device for success. In truth, they are actually limiting themselves to the mean, or average, set by the industry as a whole.

Those organizations who want top performance should not agree to measure performance by such minimal standards. Average means you are either the best of the lousiest or the lousiest of the best. Industry average is not an adequate standard for measuring superior performance.

Not surprisingly, however, many sales organizations are happy with achieving increases measured by this standard. They set the expectation that the industry says they should expect and that's exactly what their people deliver. This proves one important point, however: people are capable of doing what is expected of them. The problem is that many are capable of doing more; they don't deliver better results because it is not expected of them.

The key to enabling people to excel is to set expectations that will motivate them to achieve objectives beyond a standard that is merely "average." The tool that enables organizations to do this is performance management. In athletics, having a personal trainer is an unquestionable advantage. To reach peak performance as a manager, employing a consultant who can enhance your performance can enable you to reach the top of your game.

Organizations who put people on the street and hope for the best by demanding results without implementing behavioral change will get hit-or-miss results. If managers are left to trial-and-error approaches, the best that can be expected is unreliable performance. For those who want to fulfill their potential, a visit with the pro may be the enabling factor for consistency and success.


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Thomas Fee tomfee@procentral.com