Hospitality Sales & Management International


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Sales Management: More, Better, Faster Requires Change

I’ve been doing some prospecting lately and found that every CEO and Sale Manager I speak with has issues with their sales, but few want to do anything significantly different about their sales issues.  Sure they want everybody to do more, better and faster.  However this is the classic definition of insanity – doing the same thing and expecting different results. 

Managers don’t want to change.  They live in the hope it will get better, or they make excuses, or they use the work harder tactic.  Whipping your horse that feels he’s going all out doesn’t work, and feeding him high energy motivation doesn’t last.  It’s better to teach the horse a different gait (if he’s capable) and then maybe he can go faster, do better, and accomplish more. 

Here is the key to your success.  Your sales will grow only as fast as you grow.  In other words;

1. Do something different
   a. Have a different kind of meeting, phone conference or review.
   b. Read a book and deploy 2 ideas.  I recommend Take Me To Your Leaders.
   c. Hire someone to run a teleseminar with one specific topic and then discuss how all of you will implement it.  Majority rules.
   d. Analyze each sale and lost sale.  What worked?  What didn’t work?  Then reinforce what worked and start implementing the opposite of what didn’t.

2. Buy Help
You ask your clients to buy your expertise.  How come you resist buying expertise for yourself?  Ego??  Face it if you knew what to do you would have done it already.  You like most people in sales learned by trial and error.  Since closing ratios average less than 33%, the errors dominate.  So admit it, you do not have the answer, the time, the energy, whatever. Something is missing.

Then there are the excuses of why not to buy help. 

Budget??  I don’t think so.  How many additional sales would it take to justify a M, M, M, …, investment??

Or, time out of the field??  Maybe, since average sales people have to spend 2-3 times longer than better sales people to make a sale.  Why you’d actually save expense account money by bringing them in for something to change their behaviors vs. wasting time and money on useless sales calls and blown opportunities.

Yeah, this is tough talk, but wake-up and do something different.  Otherwise, you’ll maintain your position and float down and up with the economy against competition – assuming competition does nothing.

So here’s an action item for you.  Do it now!!

Voice what’s on our mind regarding sales – your issues, your concerns, your challenges.  Call me if you’d like.  Say it to a mirror, but you have to get it out of your mouth.  Then you’ll hear it for yourself.  Write it down and now ask yourself, “What can I do about it.  Listen from within for answers and/or sleep on it until the answers come.  If you listen they will come.   If you don’t they won’t

Once these ideas start surfacing, again, writing them all down.  It’s critical to see them with your eyes.  Eliminate the least acceptable and select 2-3 good ones.  Commit to a date to complete each.  Speaking it, listening to it, and see it are all critical component for you to grow. 

So go out and make some changes.

Now I invite you to learn more.

Hire the Right Sales Manager

Although every organization is different, hiring a sales manager is not as simple as it looks. In fact, the wrong sales manager can quickly damage morale, if not scare away the sales reps and potentially injure the firm.

A common mistake is to promote a high achieving sales rep who wants to move up in management. Unfortunately, a highly successful sales rep may be exactly the wrong candidate for sales management. Often aggressive sales reps are impatient, lack team-player characteristics, and tend to have huge egos; these can be exactly the wrong characteristics for a sales manager.

In my opinion, the following general characteristics or traits are needed for a good sales manager:

1. Teaching skills- This includes the ability and interest to help others learn.

2. Empathy- A good sales manager needs to understand how reps feel and how to react accordingly. Sales teams can be highly emotional and fragile. Insensitive sales managers fail.

3. Ego in check- A strong ego is required, but the needs of the team are greater than the manager’s.

4. Communication skills- This skill is an obvious requirement that includes the ability to lead the sales team and to work with the other departments.

5. Relationship skills- This is the ability to create long term relationships with internal and external customers. Sales managers must be likeable.

6. Analytical skills- The best sales managers must be able to decide the strategic options in complex sales situations. They have to make the tough calls.

7. Wins through the victories of the team- Gets satisfaction by helping sales reps win; this is knocks out a lot of reps who want to be managers.

8. Ability to handle pressure- On a day to day basis, the sales manager is “under the gun” more than any employee in a typical firm.

9. Continuous learner- I find that the best sales managers are always looking for new ways to get things done. They are naturally curious.

10. Sales manager experience- I always favor gray hair when it comes to hiring a sales manager. Conversely, rookies will likely make mistakes and those mistakes could be costly.

Remember to do an extensive background check on external candidates. Look for a history of strong performances with good references. Life is short, so hire winners.