“If you want buy-in and action, you need to make sure there is recognition of importance and the best way to do that is face to face.” – James Troiano in today’s Tip 1029
Are you managed by email?
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from James Troiano. James is an experienced direct sales leader with a track record of developing talent and driving a high level of sales performance. Believing that 80% of sales leader performance outcomes are driven by talent, James is a coach first and “manager” second. He also hosts the Stuff about Sales podcast. Here he is:
James Troiano: PSA to Sales Managers. Don’t manage by email. It’s lazy, impersonal, and if your default go-to for team communication is email. It’s a telling sign that you’ve not built good enough direct lines of communication to your team.
An example? Sure. Why not.
You just got off a forecasting call with your VP of Sales and the big takeaway is that your group’s pipeline is a mess. Maybe they’re leaving opportunities in past due close dates in the CRM or not updating key indicator fields. Whatever it is, you’ve been directed that it’s very hard to get an accurate pipeline view based on the data and it needs fixing.
If your first thought is to get off that call and shoot a banger to your team with screenshots of your pipeline report, past due pipeline numbers, a long written explanation of the fields they’re missing and then give them an ultimatum of like Friday end of business to clean it up. Please stop yourself. Instead, try this.
Call a short huddle. If you’re working remote, make sure it’s through video call, make sure that every team member can attend. Communicate the message face to face and focus on the why. How is this helping them? Is it because of the VP of Sales is fighting for more marketing spend and accurate pipeline reports are important to understand the amount of pipeline your group actually has? Is it that you don’t understand if they are set up for success because you can’t see what good pipeline they actually have?
Whatever the reason, make sure they know why it’s important for them, not you, not your boss. Your team individually, I hate to tell you doesn’t care what is important for you and your VP of Sales. If you want buy-in and action, you need to make sure there is recognition of importance and the best way to do that is face to face.
Oh, and if you’re still not getting buy-in and action from one or two salespeople, one on one meetings to hammer at home.
Scott Ingram: For links to connect with James and to his Stuff about Sales Podcast, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1029, and as always, once you’ve done that, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!