A Cheerleader, Not A Quarterback

For a company to grow, a sales manager can't spend time managing sales; he should manage the people who make the sales.

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Perhaps the most misunderstood job in small companies is that of the sales manager. It is so misunderstood, in fact, that it is often the last management slot to be filled. As a company grows, specialists are hired to handle research and development, engineering, accounting, and so on, but sales stay in the president's office, especially if big contracts or big customers are involved.

There is, of course, a reason for this reluctance to delegate responsibility for sales -- namely, the critical importance of the top line on the income statement. Unlike industry giants, smaller companies seldom have a base of "automatic" sales that just seen to flow, month in and month out. For that same reason, a sales manager, once hired, is often expected to handle key accounts personally, while trying to manage the sales operation at the same time. The paradox is that no company can grow to its potential until sales becomes a managed function, instead of a manager's duty.

Sales managers should never manage sales. They should manage the people that produce the sales. The distinction is a critical one because, in order to build sales, a company has to invest in salespeople. "Invest" is the key word here. Selling costs are indeed investments, just like money spent on research and development or equipment, and they should be evaluated in that light. If, say, you invest $60,000 for a sales representative in one area, you should have some idea of the business that you expect to generate and the amount of time the process will take. Similarly, if another area is very profitable, the question is, should you be reinvesting that profit by opening new territories?

The same logic applies whether you go with independent sales representatives or a direct sales force. With reps, your sales costs will be a constant percentage of sales, and so budgeting and cash flow may be easier to manage. On the other hand, a direct sales force gives you more control. But either way, you need to invest in the people who are selling. Those people, in turn, must be managed. And just as there is more to selling than a shoeshine and a smile, there is more to sales management than being a supersalesperson.

The most important element of the sales manager's job is the selection of salespeople. There is simply no substitute for high-quality raw material. Forget about budget or time constraints: economies in this area will almost always come back to haunt you. An organization forced to hire the "best available" talent is an organiztion headed for disaster.

The alternative is for the sales manager to undertake an unending talent search. Patience and persistence are the watchwords. When a superior candidate shows up, that's the time to hire, regardless of vacancies. This does not mean that decisions need be made hastily. Even the most valuable candidate can be kept on ice for 30 days while the first flash of enthusiasm fades. Indeed, it is not unusual, or excessive, to take 60 days and four interviews to confirm that a candidate is right for the job.

So how is it possible for a sales manager to do a thorough, disciplined job of recruiting if he or she is expected to be out selling the company's products? Clearly, it is not possible.

The sales manager is also responsible for training, something that many smaller companies think they can't afford. Instead, they try to "buy experience," hiring "Xeroids" or veterans of IBM or P&G. But big-company salespeople are not necessarily the best recruits for small companies. Besides, sales training is far less time-consuming and costly than you may think.

The secret is to train salespeople the way surgeons are trained: see one, do one, teach one. Shrewd sales managers often team up recruits with middle producers in the sales force -- not the top producers, who often take a lot of shortcuts that work well for them but are not transferable. Customers will also help train new salespeople by letting them observe their businesses for a few days.

As for training materials, there is absolutely no reason that a company can't generate its own. To create an orientation manual, the sales manager can simply have some recruits keep daily journals of impressions and facts, in prose, for their first month on the job. Similarly, field salespeople can write the training manuals by putting together case studies of actual accounts.

Using such methods, recruits can be brought up to solo speed in a few weeks, or even days, no matter how technical the company's business may be. But this will happen only if the sales manager puts in the time and effort required to guide the training process.

On the other hand, sales management does not include developing people. They must develop themselves. A sales manager is paid for cheerleading, not quarterbacking. Granted, new salespeople may require a limited amount of coaching -- less so if the level of incoming talent is high. But even recruits with zero experience -- for example, those directly out of college -- can become productive in a few weeks with a well-managed program that rewards early success with high recognition.

Bear in mind that almost all successful salespeople have one thing in common: high ego drive, coupled with a positive mental attitude. The sales manager's job, therefore, is to feed those insatiable egos and promote those positive thoughts. For junior people, that means treating minor contributions as if they were major accomplishments. The truth is that new recruits often need an inordinate amount of encouragement, so much so that some managers may feel foolish giving it out. Nevertheless, that's what it takes to put together an effective sales force and build sales.

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