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By Chuck Jones Did you hear the one about the top sales rep who was so good at selling that his company made him a sales manager only to see him fail because he didn't know how to lead a successful team? It's no joke, and it happens far too often. When it does happen, the deprecation can be either good-natured: "He got kicked upstairs." Or sardonic: "He was promoted until he reached the level of his incompetence" (The Peter Principle). But getting a promotion doesn't have to mean automatic failure, as William "Skip" Miller tells us in his book, ProActive Sales Management.
According to Miller, we have to learn to move from being reactive to being proactive, and he helpfully includes early in the book the quiz "How Reactive Are You?" He finds that most of us are fairly reactive, and he has some advice for us: "Get out of the meetings to have meetings," he writes. "Stop focusing internally on past revenue numbers. Stop having those quarterly reviews that focus on what happened the last three months. Quit guessing on what you need to hire and fill those open head counts within 30 days. Start being one step ahead of the game." Miller gives us a chart that spells out the qualities of a successful salesperson and compares them with those of an effective sales manager. We learn that a good salesperson is aggressive, whereas a sales manager is a good listener. A salesperson is a winner unto himself, but a manager gets things done through others. A salesperson takes direction well, but a manager has coaching skills and is a motivator. Similarities "Successful salespeople love being the individual contributor," Miller writes. "They love the independence, which to a large degree, is what made them successful. These customer-focussed traits will not lead the salesperson to success as a sales manager. Why? Sales managers need to work with, and through people and cannot act so independently. "Is it any secret that some successful salespeople are not good at being sales managers? The reason is obvious. It is not what they have been trained to do. They have been trained to manage customers, not people. By the way, it may not be what they want to do either. Given the choice and knowledge of what the two positions really are, salespeople need to understand what the management job entails before they sign up, are recruited or get commandeered."
Throughout the book, the author offers illustrative examples of management success, often from sources outside the business world. He quotes, for example, the ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu who said, "The battle is won or lost before the first shot is fired." This, he writes, is a ringing endorsement of proper advanced planning--an important tool for all sales managers. There's also a long and helpful chapter devoted to finding and recruiting an outstanding sales team that includes nuts-and-bolts advice on hiring, firing, reference checks and conducting a legal but revealing job interview. While not focussed specifically on insurance practices, ProActive Sales Management nevertheless has an agenda, which is to turn accomplished salespeople into effective sales managers. Within these pages are ways to accomplish more in less time, motivate salespeople to motivate and manage themselves, turn "A" salespeople into an "A+" sales force and create a winning sales culture. We can prove the Peter Principle wrong, and this book will help.
Open Book
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