A few weeks ago I joined an online meeting sponsored from a LinkedIn group. This group usually has a presenter or speaker who gives advice to the group, which is mostly made up of small business owners and other entrepreneurs.
As the presenter talked about sales and ways to improve the bottom line, someone in the group asked a question about how to manage others when sales drop. The speaker made a comment that hit me in the gut. "As sales decrease, there is an increase of micromanaging." Words had never been truer.
I immediately thought back on all of the times when my own production had taken a dive. On those occasions when I was working in an agency with managers, the micromanaging would begin. There was much hand-wringing. "What are we going to do to get you out of this slump?" I would hear.
My first thought was to ask, "Where were you when I was doing well?" I thought better of asking, because I knew the answer already. And the answer to getting out of a slump is to go back to the basics and do what you were doing before the slump.
With Covid devastating tons of businesses, sales people were on the front lines taking a beating as their production shrank. Those decreases had nothing to do with the salesperson's work ethic or attitude, but were the result of an economy, and population, that was sick. Good managers figured this out and allowed their sales team some leeway, especially since many were having to work from home.
A good friend of mine has a couple of sons-in-law (is that the correct term?) who are in sales in different industries. Both of them told me that their sales actually increased while they worked remotely. And they also had more time to spend with their families. The question for these two will be how their employers will handle the whole work from home thing when restrictions are lifted.
But for other businesses, the managers were not so good. I have heard several stories about management scrambling to find ways to make up for lost sales. One company I am familiar with had to decrease the sales team which had been working remotely, and doubled up the production on the remaining sales people. The sales were not nearly as good over the phone as they had been when the team was meeting with people face-to-face, but because payroll and overhead costs were slashed, the company still eked out a profit. That was the good news.
The other side of the story was different. Since about a third of the sales team had not been offered any contract work, they more or less moved on to companies which were offering work. And of the ones that remained, morale was horribly low because while they work getting work, they were also being subjected to extra training meetings, having their phone calls recorded and other "extra credit" types of work.
At one point there was a sales contest which offered a bonus for every sale of a specific product. This bonus never materialized as there were total production minimums that the team neither met nor was made aware of. That didn't help matters either.
More obvious to the sales team was the way certain managers in the company relieved others of some of their duties so that management could be more "hands on". Delegating a task to someone and then saying in essence, "Let me do it before you screw it up" kills the morale of a team. It's like the one kid who's a "ball hog" in basketball.
If a member of your sales team is in a slump, be supportive but don't go into panic mode, which is the natural knee jerk reaction. That's when the micromanaging starts, which in turn puts everyone on their heels. Try to get back to basics. Instead of overcomplicating the issue, think of the baseball player who has to work through a hitting slump. Showing your team that you have confidence in them will get them back on track faster than coming up a new sales paradigm or training program.
Chris Castanes is a professional speaker who helps sales people succeed through workshops and humorous presentations. He's also the author of "You're Going To Be Great At This!", a humorous look at sales. For booking information, click here. He's also the president of Surf Financial Brokers selling life and disability insurance in several states.
Comments
Post a Comment