Case Study: Why Salespeople struggle at Leading?

Top-performing salespeople get promoted to become sales managers, but don't actually

know how to manage. The result is a disasterproductivity takes a dive, disgruntled

salespeople start heading for the door, and the new managers themselves burn out.

When salespeople become managers, they often do horrible job. Why are so many

salespeople so terrible at managing?

It's because even after they put on their manager hats, they continue to suffer from the

"super salesperson syndrome," unable to disconnect from the thrill of selling. They

hover over their salespeople and micromanage every deal to make sure it closes.

It's all about the difference between learning to take care of yourself and learning to take

care of others, from being an individual contributor in sales to being a manager who

gets things done through other people. That's a big transition that many people can't

make.

It's a problem that can permeate any layer of a businessa star performer is tapped to

become a manager, then flops on the next rung of the career ladder. But the sales

department is where a company's promotion mistake can be particularly glaring. Sales

is the pounding heart of a company's cash flow, where the numbers coming in that day,

week, or quarter often dictate the direction of the entire operation.

The answer to this problem is not as simple as deciding that salespeople shouldn't ever

manage. Quite the contrary; sales managers make important decisions that affect

salespeople's livesdoling out territories and quotasand it's hard to gain the staff's

respect if managers have never walked in their shoes.

"The common advice you hear is that companies shouldn't make salespeople sales

managers, but I don't think that's good advice," US CEO says. "Sales managers

determine how much money salespeople make and how well they eat. It's difficult, if not

impossible, to develop the relevant credibility to make those decisions if they haven't

demonstrated they can sell.

"At the same time, companies shouldn't simply be saying, 'You're a great salesperson,

and I'm sure you can manage.' I do think sales managers must learn how to manage."

The following key steps toward setting sales managers up for successstrategies that

could be applied in a variety of business departments.

Managers must assume a new professional identity. It's crucial for managers to

acknowledge they are shedding one professional identity to take on a new role with

more of a focus on their teams than themselves.

As independent contributors, salespeople aim their attention at their customers and

products, worried mostly about how to do their own job well. In becoming managers,

they must pivot toward clarifying to their staff what the job requires, helping them build

skills, and ultimately trusting them to skilfully handle the work of winning deals on their

own.

By letting go of micromanaging every transaction, a manager's time is freed up to

immerse themselves in other duties, like developing a staff they can delegate more

responsibility to and making broader contributions to their companies.

A micromanager's growth is bounded by what they can personally get involved in.

Managing is about leveraging not only what you do, but how you get other people to do

things. If you persist in your behaviour as an individual contributor, you're not managing.

Managers must learn how to hire and nurture talent. Companies should provide training

and development for management trainees on how to recruit, hire, and nurture top

talent.

And once on staff, workers benefit from constructive feedback. So companies should

train managers to conduct effective performance reviews, especially since many

supervisors treat them as an afterthought. "They'll begin to pay attention to someone a

few days before the performance review, and then it becomes mainly a compensation

discussion about whether the person did or didn't meet the sales quota," US CEO says.

"Compensation is important, but the research tells us that good coaching and

performance reviews actually have a bigger impact on performance, and this is a

tangible skill that managers can be taught."

In working with high-performing salespeople, managers should also look to be talent

developers-rather than talent hoarders, who hold back their hardest workers from

moving on.

"Many of the best people are ambitious, and if they feel blocked from advancing, they'll

leave to look for respect and status," US CEO says. "The best sales leaders are what I

call talent magnets; they develop a reputation as someone you want to work for

because not only are they good managers who help you get better, but once you work

for them, you move on to bigger and better things."

Managers must know their numbers. With the rise of e-commerce, some question

whether sales jobs might be declining. That's not true, according to US Bureau of Labor

Statistics, 12% of the workforce is listed as salespeople, a figure that has grown in the

21st century. Plus, the $900 billion that is spent on sales forces by US companies is three times what firms spend on all of their media advertising and 10 times what they

spend on online advertising.

QUESTIONS:

(a) Based on the management roles outlined by Mintzberg's model, how would youadvise the salespeople aspiring to become Sales Managers? You can refer to thecase study.

[12 marks]

(b) Managers and Leaders are not necessarily the same persons in an organisation.The differences between leaders are due to a large extent because of sources ofpower within an organisation. Explain the differences between a manager and aleader with reference to the case study.

[10 marks]

(c) Managers have a great deal of control over the internal environment of businesswhereas the external environmental conditions that affect a business aregenerally beyond the control of management and change constantly. To competesuccessfully, managers must continuously study the environment by using thePESTLE framework and adapt their businesses accordingly. Discuss thePESTLE framework in the context of this case study.[12 marks]

(d)How would you put some of the ideas of (one) early management principles and(one) modern management theories into the context of the case study? Critically

show its impact on performance.

[16 marks]