Tool Box
Issue No. 62 - December/January 2011
Three tips for the sales boss
by Craig Stubing
In his book, Kokoda, author Paul Ham explained the command principles of (then) Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Cullen of Australia’s 2/1st Battalion.
Cullen distilled the ‘art of war’ into three inviolable principles: 1. No bad soldiers, only bad officers; 2. Woolly orders get woolly results; 3. That which is not inspected is not done.
When I read the book, those words jumped off the page at me. As a former sales manager, they reminded me of some of the principles that were drummed into my colleagues and me when we were ‘learners’.
Let’s re-phrase these principles a little, as tips for the sales boss.
No bad salespeople, only bad bosses
On the surface this may seem an extreme statement but let’s recognise that if a salesperson is not performing it is either because they are a ‘wrong’ person or they are not being trained, managed and motivated effectively.
These factors are squarely in the boss’s area of responsibility – they hired the salesperson and they are responsible for their training, management and motivation.
If you have a salesperson who is not performing there are two questions to ask yourself.
Firstly, ‘Is this person a ‘wrong’ person or a ‘right’ person?’ If they are a wrong person no amount of training, managing and motivating is going to help you or them in the long term – it’s better to help them find another job, either in your organisation or elsewhere.
The second question to ask, assuming they are a right person, is ‘What more should, or could I do to train, manage and motivate them more effectively?’
The simple fact is, you will have to find some way to improve your performance as their sales boss.
Woolly objectives get woolly results
This is about effective goal-setting. If your salespeople don’t know what is expected of them how can they be expected to achieve it?
We all know salespeople are there to make sales but ...
