We know how important it is for sellers to be coachable. Coachability, after all, is one of the keys to identifying top performing sales professionals.
You might not have realized how important reps relationships with their manager is though. I say this because I’ve seen managers give up on reps to the point that they won’t support them and nearly undermine them. I’ve seen reps write off their manager and simply work around them as much as possible.
If this situation is in your sales team, or one of your teams, as a leader you need to fix that. If you do, it will offer you more revenue and happier reps who undoubtedly will stay at the company longer.
After looking at Sales Evaluations of over 11,000 salespeople and managers, Objective Management Group (OMG) determined that how sellers think about the quality of their relationship with their manager has a big effect on their success.
Also, the research found that sellers who trust, respect, and have a supportive relationship with their sales manager are 33% more coachable.
[Credit: Objective Management Group (for image)]
Want your reps to be MORE coachable and MORE successful? Ensure your sales manager respects, listens to, and understands each of his or her sellers. Ensure that your sellers respect, listen to, and understand their manager. When people have respect for each other, they can take constructive criticism. Constructive feedback and coaching can do amazing things, like moving stalled deals forward.
Move a seller to a different team if a relationship can’t be improved or bring in a new sales manager if more than one person on the team is not feeling their undeniable support. It is that important.
Lori Richardson is Founder & CEO of Score More Sales, a top B2B sales strategy firm helping mid-sized companies grow revenues by solving key sales issues - like recruiting, retention, building an inclusive sales team, process, pipeline, and leadership. Lori is also President of Women's Sales Pros - a community created to get more women in sales and sales leadership. She speaks at CEO groups on topics of sales growth, the power of mindset, and the importance and value of strong sales culture. Salesforce named Lori a Top Sales Influencer in 2023, a Game Changing Sales Influencer to Follow in 2022 and 2021. LinkedIn named Lori as one of 15 Top Sales Influencers to Follow in 2020. Lori received the 2019 "Lifetime Achievement Award" from AA-ISP (The Global Inside Sales Association) Her book, "She Sells" is available on Amazon. She hosts an award-winning podcast, Conversations with Women in Sales. Subscribe to the award-winning blog, follow her on Twitter, Instagram and connect on LinkedIn
email lori@scoremoresales.com |My LinkedIn Profile | @scoremoresales