A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post on why sales meetings are a waste of time. My complaint about most sales meeting is they waste the sales team’s time because most managers don’t really have a good reason for holding the meeting and even when they do, so few managers thoroughly prepare for the meeting so that it runs smoothly, have value for the attendees, and everyone gets out quickly.
I received many emails and calls from readers saying how much they appreciated the post—but I also received several letting me know that I really had no clue what to use sales meetings for. Here is one sample:
“I agree with much of what you say but I cannot begin to tell you how disappointed I was with your article about sales meetings. I don’t know of anyone in my company that would even begin to consider canceling a meeting just because we didn’t have time to prepare or because according to you we didn’t have a good reason to hold the meeting.
First, our meetings are for more than just relaying company information or doing some light training. We use them to help discipline our salespeople.
We hold meetings every Monday and Friday morning at 8AM sharp and everyone must be in the meeting room on time or they get fined. They show up on time, they pay attention, and they come prepared. If they are late, if they are not prepared, or if they’re caught not paying attention, they’re fined.
I can assure you that our sales team knows what’s expected and the consequences.
Maybe you haven’t tried using it, but sales meetings are an excellent tool for instilling discipline in the troops, and discipline is critical in sales. And they are here at the company’s pleasure; the company isn’t here at theirs.”
I might have thought this email was something of a joke, except I received a couple of more in a similar vein. And before you guess that the manager who sent the email works in some high pressure, one-time close sweat shop, he doesn’t. He is a manager for a mid-sized firm that sells a fairly sophisticated service to businesses in the healthcare industry.
Sales meetings as a discipline tool?
Now, I’m not naïve; I know sales meetings are used by many managers as a tool to ensure salespeople show up on time and to try to keep them in line. But the idea that there are people who believe it actually works is amazing to me, although I guess I really shouldn’t be
The last line in the portion of the email I cited above is the key to understanding the management philosophy that would see sales meetings as a disciplinary tool—salespeople should be grateful the manger is gracious enough to let them come in and toil for the company. Salespeople aren’t human beings, they are things, just as the copier is a thing, to be used to produce an end result and if they don’t, they’re tossed in the trash, just as the copier would be if it failed to live up to expectations.
Is this a sales force problem or a management problem?
If the problem really is the salespeople (which I sincerely doubt), the root problem is that the company is hiring the wrong people. If you have to drag people in the office twice a week to insure they get to work on time, if you have to fine your salespeople to get them to pay attention during a meeting, if you feel compelled to micro-manage your team members, there is a chance you have hired the wrong people.
Chances are great, however, that the root problem isn’t with your team members but with you and the management philosophy of the company. Micro-management is a management disease, not a salesperson issue.
More to the point, managers who feel the need to discipline, who view salespeople as cogs in their sales machine, who must resort to fear and intimidation certainly aren’t sales leaders, but they aren’t managers either. They are little despots who rule with an iron hand and who will likely face a general uprising within the ranks at some point. Like any good despot, he or she will try force to put down the uprising and if that doesn’t work, resort to bribes and milk and honey. With luck, they’ll put down the insurrection but will have learned nothing from the experience—other than they were just too soft, too nice, too accommodating. The iron fist comes down even harder.
Sales leaders lead by example and by empowering their sales team members to excel, to thrive, to reach their goals. They know and trust their team members, just as their team members trust them. Discipline, fines, and cogs in the machine aren’t part of the sales leader’s world.
Sales meetings can be important not just for what they can do to help build and strengthen your sales team but what they can tell you about yourself as a manager.
What is the purpose of your sales meetings? If you’re using them to insure your team members show up; if you’re having to threaten and fine because they don’t pay attention or come unprepared; if feel compelled to micro-manage, you need to examine not your team members but yourself because the deficiency is probably with you, not them.
How do we, as salespeople, uncover this type of manager in an interview? In an interview this manager is “selling” the position and it has been my experience they frequently paint a picture of a position that is not reality.
Comment by Michelle Suter — April 21, 2010 @ 10:24 am |
Outstandiing question, Michelle. In sales job interviews it often feels like a cow-patty-slinging competition. Who’s jiving who? Or, better question, who isn’t? “Fit” goes both ways, and I know that all of my creativity, drive, energy and potential become crushed under micro-management. So, yes… how to spot them in advance so as not to look like an unstable employee, jumping from job to job, while really just searching for that position where one can make the greatest contribution?
Comment by Pat Higinbotham — April 21, 2010 @ 11:09 am |
I agree, Michelle and Pat, it is a very valid and pertinent question. Although I have some ideas, I’m going to have a couple of my recruiting friends drop by and give you some advice from professionals who on a daily basis deal with interviewing issues from both the manager and salesperson perspective. I’d like to see what the advice is myself.
Paul
Comment by Paul McCord — April 21, 2010 @ 11:25 am |
I love the post and agree wholeheartedly with your take on sales management Paul. I also understand the question about discovering whether micro-managing is the norm at companies where you are interviewing for a sales position. So, let’s visit some questions you can ask to try to identify the real policies and expectations of the company.
Of course you should ask what the expectations are of the salespeople. And then ask how that will be monitored. You will most likely discover some nuggets in the answer. Ask if there is an expectation that the sales people spend time in the office at the beginning and/or end of the day. This is a huge micro-managing red flag. Any sales manager who wants you in the office instead of out in the field hunting and cultivating is more interested in control than success and just plain doesn’t trust you to do your job.
Ask what the reporting system is – do you turn in a report daily, weekly, . . . ? Do you have mandatory meetings and if so, when, how often, and what is covered in those meetings. Remember to ask what the expectation is of you in those meetings. I think that too many sales managers spend way too much time meeting with their sales people and not enough time providing them with the resources they need to be successful. Is the sales manager going to go on calls with you? ALways or only during your training period?
I think you can see where I’m going with this. If you have ever been micro-managed by a sales manager then remember what you didn’t like and ask questions about those policies and behaviors.
Lastly, trust your gut. Pay attention to what your belly is telling you about the person interviewing you. Are they too slick? Does it sound too good? Do they sound genuine and sincere? Down to earth? When I was in sales I could always tell whether the sales manager was any good in the first experience with them. They carried themselves a certain way.
Hope this helps you in your quest for the best scenario. And happy sales to you!
Comment by Diane Helbig — April 23, 2010 @ 8:49 am |
Thanks, Diane, great advice, especially the part about trusting your gut. Asking the right questions can give hints about what reality really is.
Comment by Paul McCord — April 23, 2010 @ 9:20 am |
Great post Paul.
A sales team’s attitude mostly mirrors their manager’s attitude. When you have a positive, committed, and value focused manager you will find fulfilled and engaged workers. The opposite is also true.
Comment by Ashley — April 23, 2010 @ 11:48 am |
My guess is that this is a company whose sales department is staffed with entry-level sales people, no true seasoned professionals, and a lot of churn.
Comment by Dave — April 25, 2010 @ 10:59 am |
Dave,
Surprisingly this isn’t a company with only entry-level salespeople, although they do have far more turnover than necessary. It is a company that has grown with its founder’s personality embedded in it–very hands-on, micro-management management philosophy. The company grew fairly rapidly and has been very profitable. They do have a loyal core of high performing salespeople who have learned to accept the way the company is managed. They also have a continual stream of sales professionals coming in one door and out another. The chances they’ll change anytime soon—slim to none.
Comment by Paul McCord — April 25, 2010 @ 3:12 pm |
Personally, I feel that a public flogging is a much better sales motivational/discipline tool. :>)
Comment by Brian Jeffrey — April 30, 2010 @ 6:51 am |
Wow,
What an interesting journey this morning. I have been in the pharmaceutical industry for the past 11-12 years and have experience of both, Inland Sales Manager and rep in some of the most successful companies on the globe (Cipla Medpro; Aspen Pharmacare and Be- Tabs/ Rambaxy). I am currently shorlisted for National Sales Manager at a very young, but very dynamic company. All I have read in the feedback of some of you guys, has really inspired me and has challenged me to find the champion, not just in me but in every other person that passes my way.
Keep on keeping on.
Regards
Colyn
Comment by Colyn Potgieter — August 19, 2010 @ 9:54 pm |
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