I am sick of sales managers complaining about their top sellers not being team players.
Sellers do need to be acting legally, morally, and ethically, and we do want them to get along with people. However, your sellers don’t need to be team players as that’s a job requirement for the sales manager. The top sellers’ job is to sell in their territory as a sole contributor.
Many sales leaders and companies make the mistake that a sales team is like a soccer team or a football team where everyone has to be playing together in order for the organization to grow. This is simply not true. A sales team is more like a gymnastics team where every individual has to excel in their own narrow parameters.
[bctt tweet=”Your sales reps need to be good at managing their specific customers with a specific skill set in a specific territory.” username=”EngageColleen”]
Think of it this way. On a gymnastics team, a person who excels at the parallel bars will have a different skill set than someone who excels at the pommel horse, but both people are equally important to the team. This is the way we need to think about our sales team. Every top seller will need something different from a sales leader such as different coaching, communication methods, and development. You should tailor your training to each individual sales rep and not expect them to be a team player.
Making your top sellers focus on the team rather than sales will cause them to leave because they want to focus on what’s good for them. They’re not going to do that to the detriment of the company, but don’t insist that they be a team player. Build a team of individual top performers and your company will accelerate growth far faster than it is now.
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