Fundamental #5 – Align and Contribute to Company Goals, is part of our series, The Making of a Highly Effective Sales Manager.
I’m stepping through each of the 5 Fundamentals of a Highly Effective Sales Manager, offering depth around what each means to me. Catch up on posts 1, 2, 3 and 4.
A team intensely focused on clear goals will be rewarded. In sales, those rewards are in the form of compensation and recognition. Few things exceed those motivation factors.
Beyond having the team on the same page around the goals you’ve outlined, the “why” behind those goals is just as important to cement a common understanding. When there’s a shift in strategy, a good manager can communicate why and help the team get behind that shift, even though it may require work or feel uncomfortable based on previous focus.
Having run sales organizations, I can tell you there’s nothing more caustic or undermining than an undercurrent of reps or managers that run counter to the collective objective. It’s kind of like when someone says “I know we said we would go on three sales calls a week, but I’m only going to go on one.”
While it may not seem like a big deal to run counter, it breaks the fabric of an organization and muddles the story, confusing anyone doing their best to follow along. The best sales managers I’ve ever known are a force for good. They put the organization’s goals ahead of their own, and they are ultimately rewarded for it with a team that understands what is expected and can put defined strategies in place to not only meet, but exceed those expectations.
Try this …
Kick off every team meeting by reiterating the teams’ goals and how they connect with organizational goals. Examples might be:
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- We are halfway to our meeting goal in XYZ market segment, a critical growth market for the business to penetrate and achieve our 3 year plan
- Our goal is to have 3X pipeline coverage on the first month of the quarter, based on analysis that suggests teams hit their number 75% of the time when achieving this target?
A motivated sales team realizes that the business’ success is their success as well. It’s the job of the sales manager to get everyone marching in the same direction.
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