While reviewing some resumes recently, for people seeking sales positions, I reflected on my first assignment as a sales manager, and many other assignments since then. In any job, or activity, there are certain unwritten laws or conventions that seem to hold true, but you do not learn them until actually experiencing one, after the fact. During the aforementioned reflection, I came upon six – and there are many more – unwritten laws that will surface shortly after any new appointment to sales management.
Low Sales Numbers – When asked why a candidate’s sales performance numbers appear low - this happens with some salespeople inherited in a new appointment, too – they will respond with the unwelcome “I was wondering about that, too.”
Inverse Performance – The first 90 days sales performance of a newly hired salesperson will be the inverse of prior performance prominently displayed on their resume.
Cold Calls – The amount of time available to make cold calls is directly proportional to the availability of an Internet connection – be that Wi-Fi at the coffee shop, or wireless via a cell phone. The more time available to surf the Internet, the less time there is to make cold calls.
PowerPoint Rangers – When a single page of bullet points in a Microsoft Word document will do, hours (if not days) will be spent creating a PowerPoint presentation with animation and graphics.
CRM vs. XLS – When asked to submit a forecast for the coming month in the company’s CRM (or contact management system), as a substitute, a highly polished, colorful, and multi-tab spreadsheet will arrive as an email attachment.
GPS vs. old school map – The more sophisticated and capable the GPS, or Smartphone-enabled navigation, the salesperson owns, the greater the odds you will arrive late and to the wrong location for your prearranged sales call. The expanded version of this unwritten law includes a complete demonstration – by your sales rep - of the capabilities of the device, before you embark on your trip; you will become an undesirable benefactor of additional lost selling time.
Now it’s your turn. What are some of the unwritten laws you have found to hold true as a sales manager?
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