Rethink the Way You Lead
Right now there’s a sales manager assuming that their comp plan is doing their job for them. They’re failing.
I know you want to be easy to work for. I know you don’t want to be a micromanager, but that isn’t a permission slip for being uninvolved.
Holding your reps accountable means you care. It means you want the best for them. It means you want to make sure they have what they need to succeed. It means you want to be accountable to them as well.
There is not a single person doing anything important who wouldn’t do a little better if they knew someone was looking out for them with their best interests in mind. You need to be that person for your team.
You should have a strictly results-oriented meeting with everyone on your team once a month, preferably during the first week after results from the previous month are finalized. No BS, no smalltalk, no catching up on personal lives. That’s for another time. Stack these meetings back to back in blocks to hold yourself accountable. Make no mistake about the purpose of these meetings.
I’ll even give you a script. Here are seven questions you can ask to make these meetings most effective.
How’d it go since the last time we met?
What went well?
What hasn’t gone well?
What’s next?
When will you have that accomplished?
Do you have what you need?
How can I help?
These questions not only provide you with a status update, they give your team something to think about. Not all the answers will be discussed in this meeting- that’s ok. The really important stuff deserves its own time slot to be scheduled later.
It’s amazing how easy it is to lose sight of the bigger picture in the day-to-day grind. Meetings like this keep everybody focused on the greater goals of the quarter or the year.
When you and your reps agree on the expectations, you’re each committing to the outcomes. Without regular specific meetings to mark progress against those outcomes, you’re most likely going to fail.
Download the 8 Reasons Your Team Isn’t Creating More Opportunities white paper at https://jeffbajorek.com/8reasons
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