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It’s Only Common Sense: Sales Management—Focus on What Is Important

Author’s Note: This column is inspired by Sales Management. Simplified by Mike Weinberg.

A sales manager should do everything they can to focus on their sales team. They should perform at maximum proficiency at all times and ensure that they are focused on all the right things. It is recommended that good sales managers spend 90% of their time with their sales team doing three things: having one-on-one meetings with individual salespeople, leading team sales meetings, and taking part in “ride-alongs.”

A sports coach, for example, is always right there with their team, making sure that they stay motivated and inspired at all times. During games, they are never in their office, developing strategy; instead, they watch every faction of the game and check on the players to ensure that their heads are in the game at all times. Coaches make sure that nobody loses their focus and commits an error that could lose them the game. They never take their eyes off the game being played on the field.

The same should be true of sales managers. They should use their time as effectively as possible, doing their job and working with their sales team, and not letting anything else take away focus from their performance. This is called focused sales management. Think about the job you are doing and how you spend your day. Are you as focused on your team as the coach I described earlier? Or do you fall victim to dreaded time drains, doing things that seem important, but are not as important as your primary job, which is to manage your team?

We all have time drains, and sometimes we even hide behind them when we don’t feel like doing what we should be doing; however, we should avoid them at all costs. Are you what author Mike Weinberg calls a “Time Dracula,” who fills your days with non-essential work that can, and should, be done in your spare time? Here are some examples of time drains that Time Draculas can get sucked into, as quoted from Sales Management. Simplified:

1. They are slaves to email, perpetually checking and replying while living in a reactive mode
2. They sit in on a ridiculous number of meetings and conference calls that often have little to do with driving revenue—also known as “death by meetings”
3. They get caught up playing either assistant general manager or firefighter-in-chief
4. They are buried with administrative and non-sales crap, create or plow through an obscene number of reports, and live with their heads constantly buried in CRM screens
5. They don’t own their calendars, protect priorities, or plan well
6. They spend hours making travel arrangements, which they could do in the evening—not during precious work hours

And these are only the time drains that Time Draculas put on themselves, let alone the time wasters that management might impose on them. In the end, there are only three things on which a sales manager should focus:

1. Conducting One-on-One Meetings With Individual Salespeople

These can be face-to-face meetings if you have an in-house sales team or by phone if members of your sales team are in different territories. As the sales manager, it is critical that you stay in touch with your salespeople constantly.

2. Leading Team Sales Meetings

There are several kinds of sales team meetings. If your team is in-house, these can be daily, such as a morning update and/or an end-of-the-day review. If your team is remote, this can be a weekly meeting to make sure that the team is informed on any company updates and to check on their performance to date. There is a great deal to be gained from team meetings aside from communication, such as a certain degree of competitive peer pressure that naturally occurs when every salesperson is in the same place at the same time. Then, there is the all-important annual sales meeting when you review last year’s activities, review target accounts, and forecast for the coming year. Sales meetings are a critical ingredient of successful sales management.

3. Going on “Ride-alongs”

Go along with the salesperson on sales calls. Watch how they perform and provide valuable feedback and hands-on, face-to-face coaching.

Conclusion

These are the three things a sales manager should do, day in and day out, if they are serious about running a successful sales team.

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.