Finding Good Sales Managers

   By Larry McGinnis
 

Sales Managers and Other Bad Decisions

Recently, I was discussing what it takes to make a good sales manager.I have hired about 12 sales managers in my day, and I must
admit that my record is not very good.  I did learn from my mistakes, however, and I learned a little about sales managers.  However,
just like in poker, I had to pay a lot to learn.  Maybe some of you can learn from some of my mistakes.

Case Number One: Jack G.

Jack G. was an excellent salesman. However, no one could figure out why.  He was obnoxious and so persistent that you would
think that he would have been thrown out of offices on a regular basis. We had a sales force of 12-17 sales people, and senior
salesmen had up to two trainees under their training.  The senior salesman was responsible for selling higher-speed machines and
selling to larger customers.  The trainees were responsible for low-volume machines and for cold-calling the territory, digging up
leads.  Jack’s trainees always did well.  They produced a lot of leads and sold a lot of small machines.  So, Jack looked like a good
choice to take over as sales manager when the position opened up.

What a disaster.  What we didn’t realize was that Jack was using the trainees to garner leads for him and he was closing all the
sales for them.  He just wanted to keep good cold-callers working for him.  He was not training them to become senior sales people;
he just wanted to use them for generating leads.  He soon turned the whole sales department into producing sales leads for him to
close—he became the super closer.  Of course, his numbers were great, but all of the other salespeople’s sales were dropping like a
rock.  Well, I had to fire him—and when I did I also lost a good salesman.  Had I known how he was working as a senior salesman, I
would have kept him with trainees for initial training and then turned them over to someone else for complete training.

Case Number Two: William B.

William was a good salesman, and he loved sharing his knowledge with other salesmen.  His trainees did well and he moved them up
and out; they were well trained. William was loved by everyone and he got along with upper management.  He was a natural to take
over as sales manager when the position opened up.

The trouble is that he loved everyone too much.  He kept non-productive sales people on too long—he was always trying to “save”
sales people that were not working.  When one salesman was seen at a pool hall at 3 in the afternoon, he thought a good talking-to
would fix the situation.  Work levels fell off, and so did sales.  Once again, I lost both a sales manager and a good salesman that
would have been content to stay a senior salesman. But, once promoted, they can never go back.

Case Number Three: Andy M.

Andy was a by-the-numbers salesman.  He made the proper number of calls, sent out a proper numbers of flyers, and produced
enough leads to build a backlog of well-qualified prospects. He offered proposals and did demonstrations.  His trainees were taught
to sell by the numbers, too; they became solid salespeople.  Andy was nothing special from the standpoint of being able to find the
magic words that would produce sales like Jack G., and he was not loved like William was.  But his sales numbers were good and he
was respected by his peers.  Would he make a good sales manager?

Well, I had to try him out—and he took the company from about  $1.3 million per year to over $6 million per year, with only an
increase of six salespeople.  You see, his sales method was a method that could be taught to others and, if strictly followed, would
automatically produce sales. If a sales person would not follow his method, they would be gone; some of the salespeople that he
fired were good salespeople, but they had to follow his method. And he was correct: We built a powerful sales force that was
uniform in the sales methods that were used to increase sales.

It took many false starts to get to a sales manager that would build the type of sales organization that we wanted, but the wait
was worth it.