Streamline Your Sales Lifecycle Management for Teams

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- Sales managers, you've got a tough job. Here are the five challenges that you face on a day to day basis, and how to blow them out of the water. That's right, I'm going to give you the five challenges you face on a day to day basis, and how to eliminate them on this episode of The Dave Lorenzo Daily. (upbeat music) Hi I'm Dave Lorenzo, and on today's show we're going to blow away the five challenges faced by sales managers each and everyday. Before we do that, I need to remind you to subscribe, hit that button down there, also ring the bell. At the top of the YouTube channel there's a bell, this will make sure you get notifications every single day when we upload a new video because these videos are money in the bank for you. So you're a sales manager, and you're facing one of the five challenges that are most common to sales managers, I'm going to give you the solutions for all five of those challenges right now. Challenge number one is non-compliance with reports. You have to do reports all the time as a sales manager, and your team needs to do reports. So think about it for a minute, your team is out there, each of them are hustling. They're killing themselves trying to get money in the door, trying to develop new relationships, trying to deepen those relationships, trying to sell more everyday. And then they come home at the end of the day, they're tired, their kids are jumping up and down on their lap, they can't wait to see them, their spouse is asking them how their day was. They got about 100 things to do, they got to pay the bills, they got to do this, they got to do that, and you're on top of their back about completing reports. And the company's on top of your back about them completing reports. Here's what I want you to do, I want you to focus on the money in the bank first and foremost, that's what I want you to focus on. And I want you to make it easy for your people to do their reports, how do you do that? Go to your corporate office and say to them, "Listen as long as my people are producing, "who cares how many sales calls they make? "As long as my people are producing, "who cares what they're doing with their time?" And that's the actual truth. The company cares about revenue, the company cares about growth, and the company cares about their stock price. If your sales people are contributing with revenue, and they're contributing with growth, and they're hitting their goals, don't bother them about the reports. Just take the monkey right off your back, push back on people at corporate, let them know that the only report that matters is the bank statement. Second challenge sales managers face, and how to get rid of it, lack of motivation. Lack of motivation. Who knows why your top sales producer all of a sudden is not going out on calls? Who knows why he hasn't brought anything in in the last two weeks? Well, you should know that as a sales manager. So here's what you need to do. You need to invest more time with your top producers. The people who are your bottom producers, I don't care what you do with them. I want you to get rid of 'em, spend all your time with your top producers, and I want you to know the minute they start lacking motivation, and I want you to figure out what the reason is. There are a number of reasons why your top producers suddenly lose their motivation. Maybe something happened and their territory got reduced, or maybe their best client is moving on, going somewhere else. Or maybe something happened, and they're just a little disillusioned with the company or the industry. You need to know that as soon as it happens so you can nip it in the butt. Anybody who has a lack of motivation, and comes to you with a lack of motivation has already been experiencing it for weeks. I don't want that to be the case with you, so I want you to stay on top of your top producers all the time. 10% of your group of people are producing probably 80 or 90% of your income. That's right, it's not the 80/20 rule, it's probably the 90/10 rule. Top 10% of your producers are delivering the results for you on your team. That top 10%, you need to be like this with them, you need to be so close to them, you know the minute that there's a hiccup in their business or in their life. And I want you to get in there, and help them address it. Make their lives easier, make their business easier before it develops into lack of motivation. Lack of motivation is a symptom, the actual problem is something else, and you need to figure out what the actual problem is and solve it. Now I said something controversial at the beginning here. I told you to ignore the bottom producers. If you've given them training, and you've given them the tools they need to be successful, and you've cleared the path for them, and you've set clear expectations, and they're not making their goals, you got to get rid of 'em. Don't waste your time with people who aren't producing, spend your time with the top producers keeping them motivated, making sure they're on track, making sure they have the tools they need, making sure they have a clear path. And the bottom producers need to earn your attention, if they don't, let 'em go. The third element, the third challenge you face is bad technique, bad sales technique. Look, you deliver training, and the training is good, and it works. If people would just listen to you, I know. Here's the thing, sometimes people take shortcuts and they develop bad habits. I want you to make sure that your folks have the opportunity to avail themselves of all the distance learning your company offers, and if your company doesn't offer distance learning, you call me and I'll help them. I have a distance learning suite, I'd love to give it to you to help, well I'm not going to give it to you, I'm going to sell it to you to help your top producers grow, and develop even more. But make sure that they know about the distance learning resources that are available, and make sure that they have the opportunity to sharpen the saw in live events all the time. The key thing here is for people to grow, and develop, and fix bad habits or bad technique. They're not going to want to hear it from you, Mr. Sales Manager, they're going to want to hear it from somebody they admire. If you can invite someone over to help them with their technique, who is also a top producer maybe for another region, like a peer to peer thing, two things will happen. The competitive juices will get flowing, and they'll steal the good ideas, and that's what you want. You want them stealing good ideas, stealing good technique, and ignoring bad habits. So if somebody's got bad technique, and they're a top producer, maybe they've been taking some shortcuts, do a peer ride-along where you send them to another person's territory to watch what's going on so that they can steal some good ideas. They're going to hate it from a competitive standpoint, but they'll love it from an idea standpoint, and they'll bring them back to their territory, and it'll energize them, it'll revitalize 'em. Number four, the fourth challenge you face is someone going into a slump, and they're feeling a little depressed, and it becomes a self-fulfilling cycle. The easiest way for you to handle this is to treat the person who was a winner just three weeks ago, four weeks ago, last month, treat them like a winner again. Make sure they know that you know that they're a winner. Make sure they know that you know that they're successful. If you treat them like they're in a slump, and you keep beating 'em up, you're just going to drive 'em deeper into the slump. If you treat them like they're a winner, and don't breathe down their neck. Let them know you're there for them, let them know you're happy to help them with anything they need, ask them if they need any tools, ask them if they need any help or guidance. Offer to do a ride-along with them, but if they say no, respect them and understand it. That's the best way to help someone who's in a slump, treat them like a winner that they are, and just help them realize that they're going through a rough patch, and that rough patch will make 'em better, and eventually they'll break out of it. The last challenge that you face as a sales manager, big ego. Successful sales people have big egos. Here's what I want you to do with them, I don't want you to drag 'em down. I don't want you to root for them to fail, I don't want you to knock 'em down a few pegs. I hear this all the time, sales managers say, "I had to take Joe down a few pegs, "his head was getting too big." No, that big head is part of what makes him successful, the ego is part of what makes him successful, let him have his ego. I want you to enable him by asking him for help. Say, "Hey Joe you're really successful. "You've been on the top of the leader board "for six weeks, you know what I'd like you to do? "I'd like to invite somebody from another territory over, "and I'd like you to show them your secrets. "They're never going to be able to do them as good as you, "but I'd like you to show 'em your secrets." Or, "Hey Joe, we got a new kid. "I think he's got some potential, "I'd like you to show him your secrets. "He's never going to be able to do 'em as good as you, "would you take him out for a day, "and show him what's goin' on?" "Hey Joe, you're the most successful guy in the office. "You know what I'd like you to do? "I'd like you to show people how you write a proposal "for high ticket sales because you do it better "than anybody else. "Nobody's going to be able to do it as good as you, "but spend an hour teaching the folks, "would you mind doin' that?" Use their ego to enable their development by helping them help other people. Don't try to take 'em down a peg, build 'em up, use the ego to get what you want, and what the company wants, and help them grow and develop. Big ego sales people offer you three opportunities. They offer you the opportunity to help them be more successful by celebrating them and their success. You know what lever to push with them, they're the easiest people to motivate to get them to take more action. The second thing is the big ego sales person can help the company because they want to be on stage, they want to be recognized so let them tell their story, let them reveal their secrets so they can show how good they are, and help the rest of the company. The third thing the big ego sales person can do is he can help you Mr. Sales Manager, he can help you relieve your burden. All you have to do is let him know that you appreciate him, and recognize him, he'll do anything you want. Don't try and take him down a peg, try and build him up to get him to help you. He'll be glad to do it because he loves to be recognized. Those are the five challenges that sales managers face. I hope you take this video and watch it over and over again and use it because you're going to come across these everyday. I'm giving you 30 years of sales shortcuts that I developed by getting beat up day in and day out trying to manage these sales people. This will make your life a lot easier. I'm Dave Lorenzo, and I hope you enjoyed this sales management video, and I want to see you right back here again tomorrow for The Dave Lorenzo Daily. And until tomorrow, I hope you do this and sell more, thanks for watching. We'll see you back here tomorrow. (upbeat music)