"How to manage sales people"

The “Incompetent” Sales Manager Who Gets Sales Results

Recently, I read a good sales article “Dismantling the Sales Machine - Harvard Business Review”. It is a plea for sales managers and sales people to rely less on “canned” processes and controls and more on insight to manage the business.
As with many sales books and articles, it is heavy on theory and light on operational insights. This is  a problem. In our consulting experience, high performing sales organizations are full of great sales people led by great managers. It is never the other way around.

The article made me think of a very successful sales manager I had when I first started as a salesperson. At first, I thought he was an “incompetent” sales manager. It turned out that he was a brilliant sales manager. While most other sales managers were directed to manage through the rigid formula, control and process, our sales manager seemed to “fumble around” the formula and control part.

Our sales manager was strong on direction and leadership but was flexible and adaptable. I was already strong performer before he came to be our boss. At our first meeting, I brought in my proposals for his review. He said to me that I really was much stronger at sales proposals than he was and why don’t we move onto something else.