- January 10, 2007
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I met with four very bright people last week, two of them PHD’s, one a statistics expert and one a very talented business manager. Three of these people are writing Objective Management Group’s newest Technical Manual.
A question was posed as to why sales managers don’t view their salespeople the same as we view their salespeople when we evaluate them. It’s a great question too. And I wish I had the answer. I have some theories…
Sales Managers develop relationships with their salespeople – they get emotionally involved – and so they don’t see their people objectively. If they did see them objectively, they would have to replace most of them and that would negatively impact the relationship they developed.
Sales Managers don’t have a very realistic way to gauge how much better their salespeople could perform so they don’t know for sure that they are underperforming.
Most Sales Managers still perform as salespeople, haven’t been trained to manage salespeople and don’t know how to evaluate their people beyond the numbers on the spreadsheets.
Sales Managers are protective of their people and don’t want them to be harmed.
Most Sales Managers don’t have a comprehensive understanding of sales core competencies, best practices, strengths and weaknesses and don’t recognize them when they see them.