With the great religious holidays about redemption—Easter and Passover—both happening this weekend, we thought it would be fun to think about what redemption might be like for an earnest, hard-working sales manager. This is the manager who works his or her butt off to get it right, but life being what it is, still has plenty of near-misses and disappointing outcomes.
When that redemption day finally arrives at the sales manager’s office, it might look like this:
- Staff turnover is reduced to zero for one full year. No one quit, and no one needed to be sacked.
- An entire week goes by with no emergency emails after 6pm that “absolutely have to be dealt with right now.”
- A year of bliss in which the sales team makes budget in every category and on every line the company measures.
- The pipeline is real and the pendings are accurate—week after week after week.
- The aging report comes through showing zeroes in the 90- and 120-day columns.
- Once during the year, the manager hires a salesperson with no experience but loads of talent, and through excellent coaching, sees that newbie go on to great success.
- The manager tells a lousy client (no matter how much they’re spending) to take a hike—because the sales organization is performing at such a level that it no longer needs to suffer fools.
- The corporate office has reduced the number of meetings and reports it demands of sales managers, so they can invest most of their work week out in the field, coaching salespeople to ever greater levels of success.
- The manager’s boss comes in to say that he wants to partner with the manager to help him or her develop and grow—just like the managers does every day for the sales staff.
- A lead-generation system that allows salespeople to spend 80% of their time what they were hired to do, uncover needs and sell solutions.
In my mind, that's what redemption looks like. And, actually, if at any point in time, those ten points are met, it would be an excellent day—regardless of where Easter and Passover fall on the calendar!
If you want to improve your sales performance, download the ebook.
