Sales Leadership

When to Take a Prospect Off Your List
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How do you know when to take a prospect off of your list?  So often, we spend months calling on a prospect account to no avail.  The prospect was qualified well, there should be opportunity there, but the referrals never come.  How long is too long to work an account with no return?  While there is no magic time frame, here are some guidelines to help you determine whether to remove the prospect from your list and focus your efforts elsewhere.

To begin, we have to first talk about the prospect list itself.  Your reps should be working from a finite prospect list.  While everyone in the community is a potential referral source, we cannot effectively call on everyone in the community.  So how do you pare down the never-ending prospect list? 
To begin, determine what a workable number of prospects is.  This number will be based on the number of A, B, and C accounts your rep is currently calling on.  The more referring accounts a rep has, the fewer prospects they will be able to effectively manage.  Reps should identify a finite number of prospects they will work on for 90 days.  This becomes the prospect list.

During the 90 days that your rep is working their prospect list, they should be working the sales process:

-qualifying
-needs assessment
-solution presentation
-overcoming objections
-and closing

The goal is to build a relationship with the prospect, one that will turn into a referring relationship.  There are times however, when no matter how hard or smart we work, we are not going to turn a prospect into a referring account.  It is important that you dont let your reps jump too quickly to the conclusion that a prospect will never refer, and consequently take them off of their prospect list.  There are only 3 guidelines to consider when deciding whether or not to remove a prospect form the list: 

-The first reason is the best reason: the prospect becomes a referring account.  Once a prospect starts referring, they become an account and the strategy for working the account needs to re-evaluated.

-The second reason is that the prospect ceases to exist.  They may move, or retire, close their doors, or even pass away.  For whatever the reason, the prospect no longer exists, thus making it impossible to call on them.

-The final reason is a little more complicated:  When a rep has called effectively on a prospect for 90 days, and worked the sales process, but has received no referrals, it’s time to ask the question “What is it going to take to get a referral?”.  This is an assertive question, and definitely not one to ask in the initial stages of a relationship - but it is very effective.  You will likely be surprised by how honest your customers will be in response to this question.  By asking this question of a prospect, the rep knows immediately whether or not an opportunity still exists.  If it is determined that no opportunity exists, then it is time to take the prospect off of the list.  Once removed, that slot on the list should be filled back with another prospect from the Rep’s territory. 

It is using this structured process that will get your Reps to work their territories most effectively and get the most referrals. This will help to identify every single referral and referral partner within each territory in a timely and efficient manner - and unlike other methods - without inadvertently losing a single referral opportunity in the process.

The Secret To Sales Success: The Need For Role Playing
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For some reason, most salespeople we encounter tell us that they hate to role play. Why is that? We hear all the time that reps would rather try out a new skill in the field, where there is real business at risk, rather than in a safe environment where they can practice perfecting their message in front of their peers. 

As a sales manager, it is important that you encourage role playing within your team, and create an environment where role playing is common practice. When used effectively, this practice can boost your sales reps’ confidence, skills, and referrals.

So what constitutes an effective role play? There are 3 critical components to a successful role play:

1. The participants
2. The skills practice
3. Appropriate feedback

There are typically 3 or more participants in a role play: the salesperson, the customer, and the coach providing feedback. The role of the salesperson in a successful role play is to practice ONE specific skill in a realistic scenario. It’s important to use situations each sales person has already encountered, or knows they will encounter in the field.

The customer’s role is to respond appropriately to the salesperson, using commonly heard responses and objections. Again, realism is the key here—what objections would actually be used, what needs would actually be heard, etc. It may be tempting for the customer to let the salesperson off easy, but that accomplishes little. Conversely, the customer should also be careful to not be unrealistically difficult on the rep. Role playing is an exercise in skills practice, not an opportunity to embarrass one another. 

Lastly, the coach and/or others providing feedback have arguably the most important task in the role play. It is their feedback that will shape the future messages the rep will take to their referral partners. If the facts in the coaching are wrong, or if the coaching is presented in a way that gets the sales rep defensive or shut down, then the entire exercise will soon become futile. 

The second critical component to conducting successful role plays is the skills that your reps are practicing. Role plays should focus on one skill at a time. Each role play should not be an entire sales call. Many agencies get tempted to cram everything into one big sales call when role playing in order to save time and/or be even more realistic. While realism is important, what’s far more vital is that each key skill used in a sales call be learned and practiced individually. While piecing it out like this may end up taking more time in the role playing meetings, it will end up being far more efficient and effective because the sales reps will not only truly learn the tools, but integrate them much quicker into their actual sales calls. Practicing each skill is an essential element to your salespeople’s success.

The last piece of the puzzle is appropriate feedback. This includes creating a comfortable but serious environment to conduct the role play session. It is very important that all parties—the sales rep, the customer, and the coach do not break character. The moment any of you break character—laugh, make frustrating comments/noises, or start using bored or apathetic body language, the entire exercise for everyone in the room, becomes null and void. 

Lastly, and most importantly, the coach needs to use POSITIVE language when providing comments. There is a BIG different between “That call wasn’t very good, and you need to do this, this, and this in order to do something that works” and “The introduction piece was good. I might look at tweaking A and B by saying “x” instead because it will make your customer think you’re listening to their needs….” If your sales reps feel you respect their effort, and highlight what they did right BEFORE going into what needs work, they will be better inclined to listen. Then when you highlight what needs work using reinforcing language rather than negative language, and give them a reason for why changing something would work better, they will listen, respect it, and focus on changing their habits. 

Role playing is all about practicing each of the many sales skills your reps will use out in the field. As with anything, the more you practice the better you get at something. And the more you practice in as realistic a way as possible and with the proper positive coaching, the better your agency’s sales reps will be, and the more referrals they will bring in. 

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Building your Team (Part 2)—Interviewing for Legendary Results
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One of the most important tasks of a Sales Manager is to build a great team focused on growing referrals. Identifying, evaluating, and selecting internal and external talent are essential skills for leading an extraordinary sales team.  In our previous column, we learned the steps to take in preparing for the interview, but now we get to the fun part: the interview.

While many of you do not think this process is fun, by now you are much more prepared and not having to “wing it” should at least make things easier.

Some of the fear of interviewing comes from apprehension about asking the wrong questions, either from an evaluation standpoint, or legally. While I’m about to go over which questions to ask for evaluation purposes, with the latter it is always advisable to talk with human resources at your agency as there are many important legal guidelines to follow.

To start, first you need to pre-plan your interview and analyze the questions you’re thinking about asking:

- Is the interview based on a thorough job analysis?
- Do the questions probe for job-related skills?
- Is the interview information related to job requirements?
- What characteristics are required for this position?

Next, you need to cross off any questions that ask about:

- Sex
- Race
- Religion
- National Origin
- Disability
- Age

Then, your next priority is to make sure you have a designated place for interviews that will allow for uninterrupted time with the candidate. A room without a phone (or your Blackberry) is ideal. Have you ever been interviewed and the manager spends more time answering messages? How did THAT make you feel? Allow enough time; usually 30—45 minutes is enough. Remember, you have a very important task ahead.

Now, your next step is to realize that the candidate will be assessing you as a manager as well, and take steps to be given a “passing grade”. You don’t want to identify the perfect candidate only to have them not accept the position because they felt you were not focused. Make them feel comfortable and that you value their time. The best information comes when they are comfortable with you. Make sure the room is comfortable, your phone is off, and that your attitude is pleasant and focused. Now, you want them to do most of the talking, but we’ll go over more about this later…

Know that hiring people with the right attitude cannot be over emphasized. If you hire people with the right attitude to begin with, then the most difficult part of the sales manager’s job is done.

So what is the right attitude for home care and hospice sales people? They should be:

- Enthusiastic
- Caring/empathic
- Personable
- Competitive
- Motivated

On top of having the right attitude for the job, when evaluating sales candidates it is important to hire people that possess an innate knack for sales. The ideal candidate is one that has sales ability as well as knowledge of the home care or hospice market. If faced with a decision between one or the other, hire the candidate with the strongest sales skills. It is possible to teach a sales person about our industry, but very difficult to get a knowledgeable home care or hospice person to learn to sell.

Here are some of the skills and attributes to make sure the candidate demonstrates. Remember, the best indicator of future performance is past behavior. Look for what the candidate has DONE, and not what was on their last job description.

~ Sales ability. What sales experience does the candidate have? What results can they share?  A good question to ask is “Tell me about a time you were not at your quota/budget and how did you remedy that?”

~ Self Starter. Are they motivated to go out and set the world on fire? A good question could be “Tell me about a time you were in a new territory and how you opened and grew that business.”

~ Knowledge. Do they know home care or hospice? If not, are they willing to learn? “Tell me about a time you needed to learn a new program or process in the past and how you went about it” could be one of several questions you could ask.

~ Experience. This can be obtained from those questions you crafted before the interview, based on the resume.

~ Connections. Who do they know in the community? Are they able to carry these relationships with them?

~ Personal characteristics. Are they neat and professional in appearance?

~ Attitude. IT is all about attitude!

Now, more about letting the candidate do the talking! You have spent the time to prepare, you have crafted great questions that give the candidate a chance to tell you about past behavior: now focus on listening and taking good notes. The candidate will both feel like you value what they are telling you, as well as helping you decide between top candidates later—it’s a win-win situation.

Lastly, after interviewing everyone, don’t make any snap decisions. Review your notes, compare all candidates, and make the best decision for your team.

If you utilize this entire process, you’ll end up with the best candidates for the job, for you, and for your agency.

Building your Team—Preparing for Interviewing
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One of the most important tasks of a Sales Manager is to build a great team focused on growing referrals.  Identifying, evaluating, and selecting internal and external talent are essential skills for leading an extraordinary sales team.

Let’s go into more detail on preparing for the interview.  Interviewing for sales positions can be very challenging, but good preparation is the key.  In the past, candidates have been hired for many reasons, some that had absolutely nothing to do with the potential to grow referrals!

Here are the steps to making sure you are not hiring the wrong people:

First, review the job description and have a clear idea what you are looking for. Remember, you are not just filling an empty slot but are looking for ways you can grow your team and achieve or exceed the agency’s goals. It is a good time to see if the job description accurately reflects the needs of your agency.

Next, take a few minutes to jot down the key characteristics you want in this position. 

Then, develop questions that will get candidates to tell you what they have demonstrated in the past that show these characteristics.  These will be questions you ask all of the candidates applying for this position.

Although you may not realize it, you begin the interviewing phase as soon as you start receiving resumes.  Reviewing the resume is your first opportunity to “meet” the candidate.  Your goal here is to review each resume and sort into three stacks; definite, maybe and no.

Here are a few things to look for:

~ Look for relevant work history that would indicate the candidate has experience in a similar position or field
~ Note the names of previous employers—does the candidate list actual names?
~ Look for frequent changes or “job hopping”
~ Identify indicators of achievement, career progression and job stability
~ Recognize gaps in employment—(You can explore why later)
~ Check for spelling and grammatical errors—this could be an indication of lack of accuracy/attention to detail
~ Review educational background—legitimate schools? Degrees relevant to position?
~ Note awards/achievements
~ Organizational involvement
~ Professional affiliations
~ Consider candidate’s distance from the work location. Consider the territory they will cover

As you review the resume, write down questions that come to mind. For example, if you see a gap in work experience, make a note to ask the candidate to fill in the gap. Perhaps you see a mention of an award. Make a note to find out what behaviors attributed to this award.

Now you have your definite, maybe and no stacks complete with individualized questions to ask the candidate.  Preparation is the key here!  How many times have you been in an interview where you realized the interviewer is reviewing your resume on the spot?  How special did THAT make you feel?  Could you tell his/her questions were prepared?  Probably not!

A little note on the applicants you choose not to interview:  Send a thank you/no thank you letter.  You never know when you might have a position they would be suitable for.  They could go to work for a referral source or have a family member that needs your services.  The same is true for applicants that you do interview but do not choose for the position.

Here are a few hiring “Red Flags” to be aware of:

PAST EXPERIENCE OR CURRENTLY WORKING FOR A COMPETITOR

~ You cannot expect that their referral partners will immediately start referring to your agency. (This almost never happens!)
~ Look at the real reason they want to come to work for your agency. Maybe their agency requires 10 calls per day and they think you won’t!
~ Make sure they are willing to do their job YOUR way and not the way they have done it in the past.
~ If they have worked for more than one of your competitors—BE REALLY CAREFUL—you don’t want to hire them only to see them leave for a better offer or find out the reason they left the competition is that they weren’t producing results.

PHARMACEUTICAL REPRESENTATIVES

If an applicant has prior pharmaceutical sales experience, you must make sure that they have the aptitude to be successful selling hospice or home care.  The key differences between selling our services and being a pharma rep include:

~ We sell an intangible, a service. There are no samples and no product.
~ The primary customer in a physician practice is the person who calls in the referrals, not the physician.  We want the physician to be on board and we want to expand how they use hospice of home care in their practice, but they are not the only customer.
~ Facilities and hospitals are important referral partners for us.  Many pharma reps have never called on these.
~ There are more service-related problems to deal with in our industry.  Many are not good at problem resolution and do not see that as part of their job.
~ Most successful pharma reps are data driven.  They are used to having extensive prescribing information for both their drugs and those of their competitors.  The data in homecare and hospice is very limited.
~ Pharma reps are used to having set schedules with call cycles and route list established.  It is unusual that they are not able to complete their days as scheduled.  In our business, changes are the norm rather than the exception.
~ Pharma reps are used to having extensive sales and product training—most new orientation training programs are six weeks of intensive training.
~ Pharma reps are used to having extensive amounts of data at their fingertips to determine if their efforts are paying off and where.  We typically don’t have that kind of data in our industry. 

Follow these steps and you will be prepared to go to the next step with confidence and never go back to “just winging” it and making bad hiring decisions.

Stay tuned for our next Sales Leadership topic: Building Your Team - INTERVIEWING. 

Goal Setting
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As we ring in the new year, it’s time to think seriously about our goals for 2010.  You’ve likely already set your budgets for the year, but what will you do next?  You know what you need to accomplish as an organization this year, but how will you get there?  As a manager, you should set specific goals with each member of your sales team in order to help them to understand how they contribute to the overall mission. 

In terms of development and productivity, it’s important to establish goals for your salespeople in order to give them direction and purpose.  Goals also let your salespeople track their progress, showing them where they stand at each step, and how far they have left to go.  Goals also enable to you to achieve your end of the year targets by breaking them down into manageable pieces.  A goal of growing your census by 60 by the end of the year can look overwhelming, but breaking it down into goals of growing your census by 5 per month is much more manageable. 

Goals also help to motivate your sales team.  People are more productive when challenged to reach a specific goal.  They also help to clarify your salespeople’s role in reaching your organizational goals as well.  Particularly in large organizations, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle and forget how each individual success impacts the overall success of the organization.  By setting the right goals for your team, you motivate them, give them ownership, and help them work together to accomplish the overall mission.

So what do good goals look like?  To begin with, they need to be SMART goals.  SMART is an acronym for the five characteristics of well designed goals.  Follow these rules for setting SMART goals:

Specific—Goals should be clear, telling your sales people what is expected of them.  Specific goals can be measured against, which is important as it allows your salespeople to see their progression towards completion.

Measurable—Goals should be measurable.  If you can’t measure progress towards your goal, how will you ever know if you are on track to complete it?  Also, salespeople lose motivation very easily when they don’t have milestones to celebrate on their progression towards their goal.  Milestones are only evident when your goals are measurable.

Attainable—The best goals require a bit of a stretch to get there, but are realistic when related to the salesperson’s expected performance.  Your only worry should not be about setting goals too high, as goals that are set too low are as meaningless as those set out of reach, and thus end up ignored.

Relevant—The goals you set for the salespeople in your organization must support the overall mission and goal of the entire organization.  Relevant goals help salespeople take ownership over their success and recognize their contribution to the overall success of the organization.

Time-Bound—Goals should have a starting point, an end point, and a defined duration.  Goals without deadlines will get pushed aside by daily “stuff”, and will likely never be accomplished.

So how many goals should each person have?  Having too many goals is as ineffective as having no goals at all.  When setting goals, less is more.  Pick two or three goals to focus on at any one time.  Once those goals have been accomplished, pick three new goals.  Salespeople should have two or three goals they are working on at all times, and any more than that will be overwhelming and de-motivating.

When selecting your current goals, pick the ones with the biggest payoff.  Focus on those that will get you closest to your goals as an organization, while supporting your mission.  And remember to revisit and update your goals often.  Sit down with your salespeople on a weekly basis to discuss their progress towards their goals and how you can support them.  Individual goals should be discussed one-on-one with each team member, while team goals should be discussed together as a group. 

Ask for input from your sales team on their goals as well.  Help them to make sure the goals they set for themselves fit the SMART criteria.

Finally, get excited about the goals!  Remember if you’ve set goals appropriately, and everyone reaches their goals, your organizational mission will be achieved as well.  So get your teams excited about setting and achieving SMART goals!

The Sales Manager as a “Coach” and a “Mentor”: Part 4 of a 4-Part Series
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As we went over in Part 1 of this series, a sales manager wears four hats: “Teacher”, “Coach”, “Mentor”, and “Manager”.  As you may remember, there are four types of reps:

~ the New Rep
~ the Rep That’s Meeting Expectations
~ the Superstar
~ the Underperformer

In our last issue, we discussed your “Manager” hat.  This week we look at the “Coach” and the “Mentor” hats.  While there is overlap between all of the hats, the “Coach” and “Mentor” hats overlap the most. 

While there is overlap, you will likely find that you spend more of your time coaching than mentoring.  I say this because all reps need coaching, some more than others.  The Underperformer rep and the Meeting Expectations rep will need the most coaching.  Mentoring, on the other hand, is most effective with your Superstar reps. 

As a Sales Manager, you will spend time helping your reps overcome obstacles, and supporting them in their sales efforts.  This is what we mean when we refer to “Coaching”.  As the Coach, your goal is to help your reps be the best they can possibly be, help them recognize their potential, help them practice, and keep them motivated.  A successful “Coach” understands that they must empower reps to do their job, not do it for them.

So isn’t coaching the same as teaching, then?  Not exactly.  Teaching educates your reps on the skills they need to be successful, while Coaching helps and supports them to execute those skills in the field. 

Coaching requires facilitating practice.  Use every opportunity you can, in the field and out, to practice your reps’ skills with them.  Provide feedback on the practice, both positive and constructive, and most importantly ask the rep for feedback on their own performance.  After leaving a call, or practicing through a role play, the coach should ask the rep how they thought they performed before giving any feedback of their own.  And then listen. 

Asking for feedback is only half the battle.  If you don’t listen to the response, your efforts will be futile.  When giving your feedback, start by emphasizing the positive aspects of the call or role play—and involve the rep in your feedback.  Saying things like “what could we have done to get past that gatekeeper?” will encourage your rep to objectively review the call and plan a better approach for the next time.  This format will also let the rep know that your goal is to work through obstacles together and support their efforts, not to just dictate behavior.

The role of the coach is not to hold the rep accountable, but to help them be the best salesperson they can be.  Be careful when practicing in the field with reps to not bounce back and forth between coach and manager.  If you are going to spend the day coaching, then do just that.  If there are things that come up that need to be “managed”, save those for a later conversation unless they involve illegal or unethical activity.  It’s often difficult for reps to see their managers as coaches, because the managers spend so much time managing.  This is very difficult for managers too, especially when working with Underperformers.  It’s easy to get stuck under the “management” hat, and focus on accountability, while ignoring coaching all together.  But remember, the reps that are Meeting Expectations and the Underperformers need the most coaching.  Those Meeting Expectations need help in realizing their full potential and performing to it, while the Underperformers need help executing their skills.

As a mentor, your reps will look to you as the role model.  Your goal as the mentor is to set the example, and inspire your team.  You are the trusted advisor.  While it may seem contradictory, the Superstar rep needs mentoring the most.  The Superstar has the skills, executes wisely and strategically, and always performs well.  In theory, we would expect this person to need little managing at all.  While it’s true this rep doesn’t need much “managing”, they do need to be mentored.  The risk with Superstars is burnout.  We see it all the time—top performing reps leaving the industry because “they just don’t like it anymore”.  As a mentor, your goal is to keep your Superstars inspired, keep them excited about why they do what they do.  Sometimes, mentoring your Superstars is just about giving them some attention.  We tend to forget our top performers, taking for granted that they need us too.  As a mentor, spend time with your superstars asking about their goals, where they want to be in 6 months, 1 year, 5 years.  Help them to develop a long-term career path and plan, and then support them as they travel the path. 

“Mentor” is not a role that is assumed just because you hold the sales manager title.  While coach, manager, and teacher are easier roles to assume, mentor is one you have to work towards.  And mentoring cannot be forced on people.  Individuals seek and select mentors that set a good example for the person they want to be.  They select individuals who can offer them guidance and support.  They select people who are committed to similar goals, and who sincerely seem to enjoy helping others work towards their goals.  If any of this sounds difficult for you, work on it.  Mentoring is not a natural skill for many.  But you can improve your skills over time.  If you find that mentoring is a weakness for you, identify other strong mentors in your organization and connect your reps to them.  Everyone needs a mentor, but you may not be the perfect mentor for everyone. 

As a “Coach” and “Mentor”, you’ll find the lines blur easily.  Don’t worry too much about that.  Just focus on supporting your team, facilitating practice, setting a good example, and helping people reach their goals.  Remember that the Underperformer and the rep that’s Meeting Expectations need the most coaching.  And your superstars need the most mentoring.

Refer back to the Sales Manager Quadrant from part 1 of this series if you’re struggling with where and how to spend your time.  That concludes this 4-part series.  If you have questions or comments about this series, please don’t hesitate to send me an e-mail.  Happy holidays, and happy selling!

The Sales Manager as a “Manager”: Part 3 of a 4-Part Series
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As we went over in Part 1 of this series, a sales manager wears four hats: teacher, coach, mentor, and manager.  As you may remember, there are four types of reps:

~ the New Rep
~ the Rep That’s Meeting Expectations
~ the Superstar
~ the Underperformer

In our last issue, we discussed your “Teacher” hat.  This time we look at the “Manager” hat. 

As Sales Manager, you never get to completely remove your “Manager” hat.  There are, however, some types of reps that require more managing than others:  the New Rep and the Underperformer.
As “the manager”, you are the leader of the sales team.  You are responsible for establishing expectations, measuring results, evaluating performance, providing strategic vision to your team, solving problems, and generating revenue.

With the New Rep, your focus should be on establishing expectations, evaluating performance and providing strategic vision.  New Reps need to know what is expected of them—people perform better when they know what is expected of them.  Let New Reps know what you expect of them in the first 30, 60, 90 days of employment, as well as longer term, and also let them know how they will be evaluated against the expectations.  Show them the tools you will use to be sure they are getting the support they need to be successful.

Speaking of evaluating, you absolutely need to evaluate the performance of your New Reps.  While you won’t be performing an annual evaluation on them in the first month, you should be consistently evaluating their performance as it compares to the expectations you have set.  If you don’t currently utilize a standard 30-60-90 day review process, consider developing one.  And make sure to give your New Reps lots of feedback—both positive and constructive.  As “Manager” you should be meeting at least one time per week, one-on-one, with your New Reps to review performance and offer needed support.  Let your New Reps know exactly what you expect of them, and how they are doing in meeting those expectations.  You’ll find your reps are much more successful when you follow these simple steps.

In addition to setting expectations and evaluating performance for New Reps, much of your focus will also be on providing strategic vision.  For New Reps, particularly those new to our industry, it is important to help them connect their efforts to the overall vision of the agency.  It’s critical that you are able to deliver the strategic vision of the organization in concise, positive messages.  This will give New Reps ownership in the work they do, and help them to feel as though they are contributing to the agency’s goals.

Now, what about the Underperformer?  Earlier, we mentioned this is the other rep that will require you to wear your “Manager” hat frequently.  This is true, but the skills you will employ when “Managing” the Underperformer are somewhat different than those you use with the New Rep.  While your focus will still be primarily around setting expectations and evaluating performance with the Underperformer, the approach is different. 

The Underperformer is the rep for whom expectations have been set, but those expectations are not being met.  As the “Manager”, your goal should be to validate the expectations, reaffirm expectations, and then hold the Underperformer accountable. 

In validating the expectations, you are reviewing past performance as it compares to expectations.  Consider any significant changes in the market, or unexpected crises—are the expectations still fair?  Assuming they are, then it’s time to reaffirm expectations.  Make sure the Underperforming Rep understands exactly what has been and will continue to be expected of them, and together develop short-term strategies to support them in reaching their goals and meeting expectations.  Once you have reaffirmed the expectations, you MUST hold the Underperforming Rep accountable.  Like with the New Rep, let the underperformer know how you will be evaluating their performance, and provide feedback often.  The main difference in the feedback with Underperformers versus New Reps will be a laser focus on constructive criticism.

Time spent “Managing” the underperformer should be assertive, but supportive.  It is critical that the Underperformer clearly understand what is expected of them and know that while you are there to support them, expectations need to start being met.  When you are wearing your “Manager” hat, part of your focus with the Underperformer should also be on solving problems and helping them to overcome obstacles.  Spend time discussing obstacles with the Underperformer on a weekly basis, and together develop plans for overcoming them.  This will help to demonstrate to the Underperforming Rep that while it is your job to hold them accountable for their performance, you are also very clearly focused on supporting their efforts.

It is easy as a Sales Manager to get stuck under your “Manager” hat, and lose focus on the other 3 quadrants in the Sales Manager Quadrant.  By mastering the four quadrants, or “hats”, however, you will be able to effectively and efficiently manage a superstar sales team!

Next week we’ll tackle part 4 of the series, the “Coach” and “Mentor” hats.  Until then, happy selling!

The Sales Manager as a Teacher: Part 2 of a 4-Part Series
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As we went over in Part 1 of this four-part series, a sales manager wears four hats: teacher, coach, mentor, and manager.  As you may remember, there are four types of reps:

~ the new rep
~ the rep that’s meeting expectations
~ the superstar
~ the underperformer

While all four types require you to spend time teaching, the new rep will require you to wear your “Teacher” hat the most. 

As “the teacher”, you are the expert in your field.  While you will need to teach your new reps a large number of things, your focus should be on selling skills, and account and territory management. 

Reps of all levels of experience will come to work with you, so as their teacher you will need to evaluate their expertise upon hiring in order to determine where and how to focus your efforts.  For experienced sales reps from outside of our industry, compare their previous sales methodology to yours.  If your selling methodology is different than what they’ve used in the past, they don’t have to forget everything they’ve learned and start from scratch.  You will, however, want to spend time with them on calls in order to understand and monitor how they’ve been selling, as well as to help them apply their skills in our industry.  For reps with experience selling in our industry, do not assume that you can just throw them into the field without any additional training.  Ride in the field with them, see how they operate, and make adjustments accordingly.  For reps with no selling experience, you will want to start at the beginning and work with them on each step of the sales process.  The A to Z approach, so to speak.

As mentioned earlier, Account and Territory management will be areas you’ll teach to all your new reps.  While experienced reps from our industry may have some account and territory management skills, it is crucial that you teach them your organization’s way of doing them, and reaffirm the importance of these skills.  All reps should have account lists ranked by admission history, prospect lists, and top opportunity lists.  They should also use account profiles to capture account information, and call logs for documenting their activity.

As “Teacher”, you should be the expert in these areas, and be able to communicate clearly to your reps about the tools and resources available to them.  Keep in mind when wearing your teaching hat that everyone learns differently.  Part of your job while wearing the “Teacher” hat is to determine what your new reps need to learn, how your new reps learn, and provide an environment conducive to each of their learning styles.

Next issue, we’ll tackle part 3 of the series, which is wearing the “Coach” hat.  Until then, happy selling!

The Sales Manager Quadrant: Part 1 of a 4-Part Series
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Do you ever feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day? Is it a struggle to find time to manage, coach, train, and mentor your sales team? 

You’re not alone. Time management is a big challenge for many sales managers. The first two steps in effectively managing your time as a sales manager are:

~ Recognizing all the different roles you play as a sales manager
~ Recognizing all the different types of sales people you are working with

As a sales manager, you wear a bare minimum of four hats. Each one has its own separate goals, and it’s important to understand the distinction each one has from the other. Once you do that, it will be easier to organize your time for each “hat”. The four hats are:

~ Teacher
~ Coach
~ Mentor
~ Manager

On the surface, each hat may seem to be very similar. But each has its own set of goals, and should be approached in a different way:

As a Teacher, you are the expert in your field.  Your goal is to train your reps, help them to overcome any obstacles they have, and ensure they have the tools they need to do their job successfully.

As a Coach, your time is spent developing and motivating your team, supporting their efforts, and encouraging practice. 

As a Mentor, you become the trusted advisor to your reps, the role model, their inspiration. You lead by example as a mentor. 

As a Manager, you are responsible for holding your team accountable, creating strategic vision, managing ROI, and evaluating your team. 

So, how do you perform each of these very different things with all of your reps? Just as we train reps to approach each account based on their specific needs, you have to do the same thing. Your approach has to be customized to each rep, and customized based on your goals. 

Now, to further examine how to customize your approach to each rep, we’ll need to classify what kind of reps there are.

There are four kinds:

~ the new rep
~ the underperformer
~ the rep that’s meeting expectations
~ the superstar

The new rep is the newly hired, still-in-orientation rep. They’re learning their way around, learning to sell the benefit, learning the sales process. They’re in learning and practicing mode. First and foremost, you need to be a teacher and train these reps.

The underperformer is the rep that that’s not meeting expectations.  Their productivity numbers are down, their call volume is down, they’re struggling. This rep needs support, so first and foremost they need to be coached. After they’ve been coached, they need to be held accountable—managed.

The rep that is meeting expectations is producing, but they’re not a shining star. On a scale of 1-5, this rep is a 3 or 4. They meet their call requirements, they meet their goals, and they don’t take up a lot of your time. This rep tends to be easy to manage, yet this rep also has the most potential to be a superstar. Unfortunately, most managers don’t spend the time coaching and mentoring this rep to get them to that next level.

The superstar is the role model. This rep usually takes little time to manage. They are self-motivated, and always exceed their goals. This rep needs to be mentored. Without proper mentoring, the risk of losing this rep is high. They don’t usually get a lot of attention because they’re not creating problems.

As you can see, each of these reps requires different hats on your part. We call this the Sales Manager Quadrant. The Sales Manager Quadrant places your roles as a sales manager on the quadrant, and overlays the types of rep on top. 

Click here to view the Sales Manager Quadrant. Notice that each circle represents a different type of rep:

~ For new reps, you will spend the majority of your time teaching
~ For the underperformer, most of your time will be spent coaching and managing
~ For the superstar, most of your time will be spent mentoring
~ For the rep that’s meeting expectations, you will wear all four hats, but extra emphasis on coaching and mentoring to get them to the next level

Look for our next newsletter, where we will begin to discuss the four hats in detail. In the next newsletter, we will discuss the Teacher role.



Retain the Best: Part Two
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In the September 30th issue of The Legendary Sales Leadership Letter, we discussed monetary incentives for retaining your top sales people.  In this issue, we’ll continue that discussion with some non-monetary incentives.

Non-monetary incentives should be considered along with monetary ones, but not in place of them. These could include perks such as dinner with a spouse or a weekend getaway. The more creative and unique the perk, the more bang you will get for your buck. Whatever incentive you provide, make it fun! Try to include the family or spouse; without family support the sales person will never be as successful as possible.

Look for unique incentives in other industries and find ways to apply them within your agency. Just because a specific practice is not the norm in home care or hospice is no reason to not utilize it. In fact, the more unique an incentive the greater the reason to implement it. There is a reason that sales dependent organizations use incentives—they work!

Foster good-natured competition among sales team members. The incentives and recognition programs that foster healthy competition will deliver the best results.

Make sure that your agency offers a variety of incentives that would appeal to everyone. There will always be some that are of greater interest to specific team members. Therefore, by varying the type and nature of the incentive the entire team will be motivated. Remember that just because you like the idea does not make it a good incentive. Test new ideas on different members of the team before implementing anything new. Another way to balance the offerings is to make some longer term than others.

Make sure that you match incentives to the philosophy and practices of the agency. The last thing that you want to happen is to have non-sales staff looking at any reward being offered as somehow unsavory. There will always be a certain amount of disdain for any sales reward programs. The way that these incentives are communicated to the rest of the agency will have a major impact on their acceptance. Frame any sales reward program in a way that is common to other areas of the agency such as productivity rewards. For example, if a nurse understands and values rewards for clinical productivity, they should be able to understand the value of sales incentives.

Rewarding and recognizing positive actions and attitudes will breed repetition. Repeated positive actions and attitudes will breed a culture of success. Just as you train your sales people to thank the referral sources for referrals, you should recognize and reward productive sales people.

Fringe benefits are another important aspect of sales management. They comprise an important part of the overall compensation package, from the expense side of the calculation and from the impact on the sales team. Meaningful fringe benefits will aid with retention. One caution: think about the impact of any of the benefits and factor them into the sales plan. The most important item is vacation time. The territory must be covered while the sales person is on vacation. It is important that the sales people take vacations but make sure that there are policies in place that will minimize the disruptiveness. If at all possible, ride along with the sales person before they leave on vacation and meet their best accounts. Have the sales person introduce you as their boss and that you will be available to handle their needs while the sales person is out.

An area that must be managed expertly is the expense reimbursement system for the sales team. A poorly manged expense reimbursement system can have disastrous results in many agencies. Make sure that there is quick turnaround for all expense reimbursements. Consider allotting each person a “draw” amount that can be used to fund any initial sales or promotional activities. The amount of the draw is calculated as follows:

Turnaround time for reimbursement checks
+ one week (to allow for any missed turnaround times)
multipled by the weekly budget per sales person

A well designed expense reimbursement system can be a key to sales success. The system must be easy for the sales person to execute and should make life easier for the person in finance or operations processing expense reports. Taking the time to set this up properly will go a long way in preventing negative outcomes. Make sure that you have a system in place to handle any unique situations.

When calculating the total cost of the sales team, you must take all of these elements into consideration. Commissions and performance-based bonuses can help track revenues if properly constructed. The ability to understand the true cost per sales person is important to managing the sales team. Once all of the costs are known, it is then possible to calculate the return on investment by sales person and by territory. Without calculating all of these costs, there is no way to run a smart sales organization.


How to Conduct an Effective Ride-Along
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As a sales leader, it is absolutely imperative you spend time coaching your sales team. It’s also important to realize that coaching is more about developing the sales skills of your rep than it is about evaluating them, which is a common mistake. You are a partner to your salesperson, and as their coach it’s your job to help them achieve success. 

One effective way to provide coaching is to spend time with your sales people in the field. For most sales reps, having their sales manager ride with them for the day can be rather intimidating—but it doesn’t have to be. By focusing on coaching your reps to improve their sales skills, as opposed to evaluating them, you will alleviate much of their anxiety. 

To be an effective coach in the field, your focus is important—you must give reps your undivided attention. Try to limit phone calls when in the field with your rep. If you know you’re going to handle a lot of phone calls on a particular day, then do not schedule a Ride-Along for that day. Constant interruptions to the day will be counterproductive, as it will be both frustrating to the rep and ineffective for your coaching. The ability to notice the nuances of what your reps do right and wrong on their calls is all in your focus.

Start the day with the rep by reviewing the plan for the day. Look at their car, their briefcase, and their calendar. Check that their plan for the day matches their calendar, and discuss any discrepancies. By doing this on every visit, you are emphasizing the importance of territory management and general organization. By setting this expectation on the Ride-Alongs, you are helping your reps build good habits. If there are discrepancies between the calendar and the schedule for the day, allow the rep to explain why before assuming a development need. As we know, in our industry, schedules change constantly. Top performing salespeople are masters at managing an ever changing schedule. 

Once in the field, as you drive between calls, discuss the objectives for each upcoming call, and discuss your role in the call. Will you be an observer, a participant, or a demonstrator in the call? Make sure that whatever role you decide on is what you stick with in the call. If your role is the observer, it may be very difficult not to jump in when your rep seems stuck. Don’t be tempted to do so. Stick to your role. It is important the rep learn to work through challenging situations. If you rescue them every time, they will not learn. When returning to the vehicle after facing a challenging situation, practice the call with the rep and roleplay various scenarios to help them feel confident were they to face the same challenges again.

To ensure consistency between your Ride-Alongs, utilize a Ride-Along evaluation form. This should be a simple tool used to assess the rep’s skills throughout the day, and should be used to discuss with the rep both their areas of strength and those in need of improvement. It will also help you know where to focus your coaching efforts. On each Ride-Along, refer to the previous Ride-Along tool and discuss the progress the rep has made in areas that needed development. As a coach, do not try to focus on every single thing on each ridealong. Instead, choose one or two areas for improvement and focus on only those throughout the day. 

The final thing you can do to help alleviate anxiety in the rep, and ensure a successful coaching day, is to ask the rep for feedback. Before you give any feedback on a call, ask the rep how they think the call went. Allow them to share their thoughts with you before offering any constructive feedback. As the coach, a huge piece of your role is to teach your team to self-evaluate and self-coach. Help them to think objectively about each call, and identify coaching opportunities for themselves. Empower them to identify their own strengths and weaknesses. When it is your turn to offer feedback, do it in a positive manner, highlighting the things they did well as well as those that could be improved upon. Work together on a plan for further developing their skills. This tone of partnership both alleviates your rep’s anxiety as well as helps your rep feel comfortable listening to and retaining what you coach them. 

By staying focused, being consistent, and empowering your teams to identify their own strengths and weaknesses, you will alleviate much of their anxiety about Ride-Alongs. By partnering with them, and helping them to overcome barriers, you will be the coach everybody wants in the field with them!