Leading for Sales Performance: Can Your Managers Answer These Five Critical Questions?

Would you ask the best violinist in an orchestra to take over as conductor without any preparation? Probably not. And if you did, you wouldn't have very high expectations for the orchestra's performance.

Yet that is exactly what most organizations do. They promote high-performing salespeople into management roles without preparing them to be confident and competent in the critical areas of coaching, motivating, and developing their people.

It's not that companies don't recognize the value of the manager's role. When a group of sales executives was asked what was most important for improving sales performance, 88% answered "making sales managers more effective," a finding consistent with a Sales Executive Council survey.

At the same time, more than 50% indicated that their organizations were not preparing sales managers to lead effectively. Given a sales manager's potential impact on performance, those companies are leaving money on the table in the form of a smaller return on investment for sales training, weak sales productivity, and higher turnover costs.

For a relatively modest investment, companies can provide sales managers with the tools and knowledge to drive sustainable high performance. To target the handful of essential skills that sales managers need, prepare them to answer five simple questions.

What Sales Managers Need to Do: The Five Questions

Despite the differences in sales-force deployment, products, industries, competitive environment, and customers, sales teams share some core needs. When those needs are fully addressed, salespeople demonstrate higher levels of motivation and commitment, and greater effectiveness in customer relations.

Ultimately, well-managed teams will deliver more sales at higher margins than those that are poorly managed or left to their own devices.

To achieve top performance from the sales team, a manager needs the skills and tools to provide clear answers to five simple but profoundly important questions:

Where are we going?
What is expected of us?
How are we doing?
What's in it for us?
Where do we go for help?

Taken together, the five questions offer a road map for effective management and a guide to the key skills a high-performing sales manager needs. In fact, our research shows that when a company's sales managers are able to answer those five questions, sales performance increases 29% on average.

1. Where are we going?

It's a given that salespeople have targeted objectives—their own assigned quotas and the revenue goals for the team. But like most employees, salespeople want to feel that they are part of something important.

Unfortunately, they are often left in the dark about how they fit into the larger picture: both the organization's business-critical issues and goals, and the direction and expectations for the entire sales force.

Companies pursuing customer-engagement strategies, for example, need a sales team that is also engaged and ready to execute those strategies effectively when interacting with the customer—configuring solutions, delivering the right messages, etc.

If salespeople are not connected to the overall business direction, they feel out of the loop and are less able to carry out their role in achieving the broader business goals.

By communicating the company's vision, strategy, and challenges, and how the sales team fits into the big picture, managers provide their teams with a sense of belonging to a larger whole and ensure their salespeople are able to make a meaningful contribution to the organization's success.

2. What is expected of us?

It is easy to assume that once salespeople know what to do (i.e., "make your numbers") and are properly compensated, the rest will take care of itself. But to fully succeed, the organization needs the kind of performance that leads to strong customer relationships, a continual flow of referrals, and steady expansion of the business.

To achieve that level of performance, salespeople need to know not only what they are aiming for—the number they are expected to reach—but how they are expected to reach it.

How should they be interacting with their customers? How do they access and use sales-support resources to follow up on a sale? What type and quality of experience should customers be having with the salesperson and the company? How can salespeople make that happen?

Managers should be able to articulate and communicate both quantitative results and qualitative expectations that reflect longer-term outcomes of the overall sales effort. To do so, they must be able to articulate expectations for the team and for each individual.

3. How are we doing?

Almost every sales leader acknowledges the value and importance of coaching and feedback for salespeople. And almost everyone recognizes that those essential activities can easily get pushed to the back burner as managers juggle conflicting priorities.

Although lack of coaching is often attributed to a lack of time, many managers also lack the necessary confidence and skills to provide effective, timely, and useful feedback.

To build a high-performing team, sales managers must be able to reinforce behaviors that lead to success, develop the skills of less-experienced salespeople, and strengthen areas of weakness.

Does the team or an individual need to do a better job of discovering the customer's real issues and requirements? Is a new salesperson having problems qualifying prospects? Is there a call-reluctance problem that needs to be addressed?

Unfortunately, many managers are uncomfortable giving what they regard as "negative" feedback, so they avoid giving feedback altogether. Some provide the occasional "attaboy" type of general encouragement or praise that is not targeted to a specific situation or detailed enough to reinforce specific behavior.

To support, reinforce, and stretch their team's performance, managers need to have confidence and the ability to hold effective two-way conversations about what is going well and where there are opportunities for improvement. They also need to make specific suggestions for developing and strengthening needed skills and capabilities.

4. What's in it for us?

Even if they don't have any other help or support, most salespeople are given incentives in the form of bonuses, commissions, and other special awards for outstanding performance. Those kinds of rewards certainly answer the question "What's in it for me/us?".

Whether it's a trip to Hawaii, a financial reward for a big sale, or a plaque on the wall, some kind of tangible benefit is usually seen as both necessary and sufficient to motivate high performance.

However, some intangible rewards can have an even greater impact on motivation and provide a sense of personal fulfillment that keeps salespeople energized and committed. The most important thing a manager can do in that regard is provide meaningful recognition that is personal, specific, and timely.

Since what one finds meaningful varies greatly from person to person, managers can be most effective when they understand sources of individual motivation and accordingly customize recognition and rewards.

Managers who can do that see the results when their salespeople are inspired to deliver the "above and beyond" effort that raises performance from good to great.

5. Where do we go for help?

Most companies provide resources for the sales force, including sales tools, internal sales support, and marketing materials.

Unfortunately, organizational barriers often get in the way when salespeople try to round up needed implementation resources, get help in responding to a customer request for proposal, or find technical support to answer a customer's critical question.

The sales manager can play a key role in helping the sales team deal with other parts of the organization, ensuring that sales-team members are able to access the help they need.

Successful managers clearly communicate how well the organization is supporting the sales function and can work with other functional leaders to orchestrate the kinds of resources their sales team needs.

An equally important resource is, again, something only the sales manager can provide—time and direct support in the form of coaching and mentoring, and assistance in solving problems with customers.

Salespeople who know that the manager "has their back" will feel more confident, loyal, and comfortable in their role. They will be more willing to take risks and responsibility, and act on their customers' behalf, when they know they can count on the organization and their manager for help.

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The five questions may not cover every possible aspect of what effective managers must know how to do, but they provide a framework and direction for enhancing sales-management effectiveness.

A manager who consistently sets clear expectations, provides effective feedback and meaningful recognition, and ensures salespeople have the tools and support they need to succeed will have a competent, committed team that delivers superior sales results.