Overcoming Peer Promotions

One of the most difficult positions to be placed in is managing your peers.  Many top sales people eventually get promoted to Sales Management and find themselves struggling to manage their team.   The team used to be their peers working alongside them in the sales trenches.  Now the sales person has become “the boss.”

This is a really tough spot to be in.  After developing close relationships inside and possibly outside of work new dynamics are taking place that makes everyone uncomfortable.  Some peers may be jealous, others confused, some elated that their “friend” is now the boss and others may become defensive and challenging to test the companies decision to put the person in charge. There are also challenges on the Sales Managers side wondering what they are supposed to be and how to address the team.  Managing your peers is one of the most difficult positions.

So how do manage this?  How does one make this transition effective and successful?  Well…the bad news is that there is no easy way to do this or some slick process to avoid pain.  Like a flu shot you have to feel a bit of a sting to receive the benefit.

The first place to start is a candid conversation with you.  When you were cherry picked from the tree you have two choices:

1. Accept the position
2. Don’t accept the position

By accepting the position you accept that you are now accountable for the performance of both the individual team members and the entire team.  You accept that you will manage the goal numbers provided to you by the company (realistic in the eyes of the team or not).  You also accept that there will be days when you have to have some candid and difficult conversations with your former peers about performance which could negatively impact your personal relationship with them.

If by contrast you do not accept the position then you accept that you can keep the relationships you have established with your peers intact.  However, you will not be a manager for this team and most likely will not be considered for management of this team in the future (i.e. The opportunity door may shut).

So a conscious choice has to be made when you are offered the position.  You can choose to accept it and all the accountabilities and challenges that go with it or you can choose to stay a peer and remain at status quo.  Simple decision, but not always easy.

For the sake of this blog let’s say you “accept” the position.  The next immediate step will be to make crystal clear to the team the company’s expectations/goals (that which you do not have control of) and your expectations and plan for both each team member and the team as a whole to achieve those goals (that which you do have complete control over).  There are going to be those who may resist or challenge you, but if you make the expectations clear you will find that your people will come to eventually respect you especially if they are seeing results.

The biggest part of your success in this transition will be determined by you (accepting or not accepting the position).  Not just in words…but in mind.  Once the choice is made and you accept it fully the rest of the plan will fall into place.  It all starts with you!

Thoughts on Accountability

Accountability – an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility.  

Let’s face it…we have a love/hate relationship with this word.  On one hand we would love if we could effectively hold people accountable and on the other hand we hate having to hold people accountable…its just not fun.

In Sales Management it is vital that accountability play a significant role.  If you can’t hold your sales people accountable then there is a high likelihood you will not make progress on your sales goals.  So how do you manage accountability in an effective way?

First, you need to accept that when you got dressed in the morning and showed up to work it is not to “just be there.”  We often walk through the office door and say “I’m here” and subsequently that’s the way we run our sales teams.   A better way to show up is to say “Here I am!”  This let’s the team know you are here to play.

The next step is to be crystal clear on your expectations and get acknowledgment that each sales team member understands and accepts the expectations (i.e. agreement).  Many Sales Managers struggle with this part. If you don’t get the acknowledgment and agreement then accountability doesn’t exist and cannot be managed effectively.

Just to be clear I am not just talking about the numbers such as; “I expect that as a team we will reach our sales goal of $1.0mil by the end of the year.”  I am talking about specific accountability.   For example….. “Bob…our goal is $1.0mil by the end of 2011.  My expectation is that for each prospect call you go on you will put together a pre-call plan that includes the following:

• The objective of your call and outcome you would like to achieve
• Questions that will help you identifying 1-2 other products or services we could offer this prospect/client
• The top 3 priorities for this prospect (short-term and long-term)
• Other organizations this prospect /client is considering to solve their business need

Bob I would to monitor the effectiveness of this approach.  Let’s plan to meet each Monday at 9:00am to review the pre-call plan to see what parts are generating successes for you and what parts are not”. 

You can see that the approach is very specific and has clear accountabilities.  This is not about “micro-managing” anyone its about “managing” the accountabilities so that the sales person can become successful in meeting expectations.