Why Sales Management Does NOT Work

Somewhere along the way managers and employees got off track. The truth is, both want the same things: to sell, sell, sell, to prospect new clients, to perform well, etc. It may be defined differently from company to company but in general, sales leaders want a high performing sales staff and employees want to thrive. Only one little thing stands in the way…MANAGEMENT. When sales leaders “manage” employees both lose site of their mutual goals and ultimately both are held back from the great success they could achieve.

Why Sales Management Does NOT Work

So, if sales leaders and sales employees want the same things why doesn’t traditional management work?... Would you be shocked to find out that some theory and psychology of selling are actually involved in this?

Let’s say you want to buy a car and I want to sell you a car. This is the approach I use to sell you this car:

• “Buy this car from me.”
• “You’ve got to but this car from me because I need to sell it.”
• “Buy this car from me because it will be my 5th sale of this month and 5 sales is my goal.”

Terrible selling aside, do you notice a pattern in those statements? ME, ME, ME! Of course you aren’t going to buy that car from me because I clearly don’t care at all about you, what you need or what you want.

The real truth in this situation is not that I solely need you or that you solely need me, but that we need each other. The same is true of the sales leaders and sales employees relationship. Both need one another to achieve their goals, yet traditional management is very one sided and sales people are not dumb.

When sales people hear their mangers say:

• “Get you sales up”
• “Ok, now get out there and prospect, prospect, prospect”
• “It’s final quarter who can you call on to make sales?”

They know he or she really means:

• “Get your sales up”…(My boss is breathing down my neck and I need you to sell so I can hit their goals)
• “Ok, now get out there and prospect, prospect, prospect”…(I just found out that I need to report 3 new client leads a month, so go do that please)
• “It’s final quarter who can you call on to make sales?”…(We’re way behind on our numbers, someone please pull out a hale Mary and save me.)

Obviously I’ve over simplified this to prove my point but I wanted to make clear is that traditional management is very one-sided, manager focused and motivated. How do you expect sales employees to be motivated when you are using the wrong motivators?

Want to find out what does work? Click below to download the free whitepaper: "Coaching and Motivating Employees to Perform Better"