{"id":1967,"date":"2020-09-02T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/primaressource.enconstruction.website\/sales-managers-challenges-with-accountability\/"},"modified":"2023-04-18T13:11:44","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T17:11:44","slug":"sales-managers-challenges-with-accountability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.primaressource.com\/en\/sales-managers-challenges-with-accountability\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales managers’ challenges with accountability"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we have often discussed, sales managers have 4 main roles<\/a> in the day-to-day management of their sales team. This involves coaching, which should represent 50% of their work, holding their reps accountable, motivating them and ensuring the recruitment of the best talent.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Among these essential responsibilities, accountabilty is generally the one that causes the greatest discomfort for many managers who fear resistance or even their sales representatives quiting. However, a lack of control over your team can have significant consequences on the achievement of sales goals and on the performance of the organization as a whole<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Since the notion of accountability is still poorly perceived today, I share with you 3 common management errors and how to ensure better control over the discipline and performance of your best players.<\/p>\n

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Error #1: Thinking that setting goals is enough <\/h2>\n

Setting sales goals does not ensure that your sellers adopt good behaviours when it comes to their sales activities.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the goals, which are more often of a very formal nature, are not concretely related to attitudes (the how), but rather to the what, the when, the how much and the why. It is false to think that people will self-adopt the behaviours required to achieve these goals<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A second problem with sales goals is that they are usually communicated at the beginning of the year and then neglected afterwards<\/span>. In an ideal world, they should be recalled weekly during a funnel review<\/a> to ensure that the sales representative has enough opportunities in the pipeline and does enough profitable sales activities to achieve the goals initially set.<\/p>\n

Profitable sales activities refer to any activity that predictably increases the probability of generating sales and therefore revenue. The best example is a first base meeting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Error #2: Being reactive rather than proactive<\/h2>\n

It is not uncommon to find that managers prefer to wait and measure sales results<\/strong> rather than constantly monitor the activities of their sales team<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

When you do not evaluate the activities of each sales person by following leading indicators at regular intervals, you risk missing the red flags that alert you of the risk of missing targets.<\/p>\n

It is usually this lack of visibility on leading indicators that leads sales managers to react to the situation. In reaction mode, the sales teams start burning gas to quickly compensate for the lack of activity in the previous months, and at the same time put the next quarter at risk.<\/strong> It is the spiral of reactivity.<\/p>\n

The key to regaining control and being in a proactive mode is really to track the leading indicators consistently, that is, on a weekly basis<\/strong>. As soon as a negative deviation is found, the sales manager can immediately coach his team so that the right actions are taken. This allows to quickly get back on track and stay in control.<\/p>\n

Error #3: Managing the wrong way<\/h2>\n

The reluctance to monitor activities can be explained by a misperception on the part of sales managers, who are avoiding micromanagement<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

While the practice of a close management of activities is beneficial to salespeople’s productivity<\/strong>, some managers perceive it as a stricter way of supervising their sales team. Yet, it is the only effective way they can ensure that their salespeople put their efforts in the right place<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Ironically, some sales managers do the opposite. For example, they go so far as to require their salespeople to install a device in their cars that is used to track their movements with precision. Yet, other than knowing how much time they spent at a client’s office or at which convenience store they stopped, this device and any similar means do not help in any way to detect and manage deficient behaviour.<\/p>\n

Here is, as an example, a list of behaviours to be corrected:<\/p>\n