Are you managing reactively, or proactively?

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1 Are you managing reactively, or proactively? There are of course good reasons for managing reactively there are customers to respond to, crises to manage, this month s sales target to achieve, and requests for help & support from your sales team to respond to. And all these do indeed require the sales manager s time and attention. This edition of 21 st Century Sales Management aims to provoke some thought though about the proportion of your time that you invest in reactive activities such as these, and what proportion of your time is invested in activities which proactively manage the future The logic first of all There s a Japanese proverb that says: When you re thirsty, it s too late to dig a well. Very true! The message is that because you know you re going to need water in the future, it s sensible to source it now before you become desperate for it. A similar saying I ve come across is: The best time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining. Again, very true! If there s a hole in the roof and nothing is done about it until it begins to rain, the job to fix it is a lot more unpleasant than it otherwise would have been! You re also likely to put in place a quick and temporary fix so you can get back inside and out of the rain. After all, you can do the job again properly when the rain has stopped and the sun s come back out again. Shame the job wasn t done properly and done just once before the rain started All this may sound very sensible. How often is it though that sales managers need to urgently (and often stressfully) spend time sorting issues and problems that wouldn t have arisen if they d been proactively managed in the first place? Failure to proactively manage potential problems is partly down to the pressures of the job, and partly down to task focus being overdone. The inherent strengths we all have can actually become potential weaknesses when they are overdone. A strong task focus and motivation to achieve now is indeed a strength. When overdone though, it can prevent time being invested in proactively managing what s going to happen in six or twelve months time the inevitable future. There can be a blindness to anything other than the here and now. And when there s a feeling of accomplishment and reward for having sorted the here and now, this only serves to positively reinforce the behaviour. A difficult situation with a customer that s sorted today certainly does provide satisfaction. Reviewing the forecast against the sales plan in order to identify and address in advance potential issues, may not provide the same sense of satisfaction. It is just as important though. That s why self-awareness and self-management underpin success; it s important to understand your strengths and drives, and to keep control of them.

2 Managing the future In sales, fate is what happens when you don t create your own future; that s why pro-activity is so important. And again it should be emphasised that this doesn t mean investing no time in reactive activities at all, but ensuring that the right balance is achieved between reactive and proactive. If you ve read Steven Covey s book The 7 habits of highly effective people you will have come across the following four box model Very Urgent, not so Important Very Urgent and Very Important Urgency Not so Important and not so Urgent Very Important, not so Urgent Importance This is all about prioritisation of tasks. Not surprisingly, the first tasks to focus on should be those that are Very Urgent and Very Important, and then those that are Very Urgent and not so Important provided of course that they re worth doing in the first place! It s also important though to invest time on those that are Very Important, not so Urgent. Because they are important, they aren t going to go away, so sooner or later they are going to be promoted to Very Urgent and Very Important which are the stressful jobs that need to be reacted to and sorted quickly once they have become urgent. All the following are sales management activities which fall within this bottom right quadrant

3 Recruiting for roles not yet vacant This idea may initially appear strange why bother recruiting for a role where you already have someone employed? When working with a Group of sales managers I once asked how many currently had a vacancy they were recruiting for. The answer was none of them. So I asked a second question, which was how many of them expected to lose someone over the course of the next three months. Again, the answer was none of them. I then asked them to raise their hand if they d unexpectedly had someone leave their team in the previous twelve month period. Just over 50% raised their hands The simple point that I was aiming to make was that sooner or later, you re going to have an unexpected vacancy in your team. When that happens, it will be important to quickly find and employ a high performing individual who fits the culture of your business and your team. The longer the vacancy exists, the more damage there will be to sales. It makes good sense therefore to always be aware of who you can bring into your team when an unexpected vacancy arises. When managing a field based sales team (of 11 people), during my performance appraisal I was expected to know who I could approach to join the company in each of the 11 territories I was responsible for managing. And of course..what gets measured gets done! So for sales managers reading this I need to pose the question: How much time do you allocate to proactively managing unexpected vacancies in your team?. The fact of life is that sooner or later you re going to have one. Developing internal relationships An important part of the sales manager s role is to make things happen for the sales team behind the scenes, which quite often involves influencing colleagues in Head Office. There could be a need to ask Finance to increase the credit for a Key Account, or for marketing to increase financial and material support for a high profile exhibition, or for Production to change a schedule in order to help meet the needs of a key client. It s easier to influence people who you have a relationship with. Sure, you can always try to appeal to an individual s logic and hope that they will provide you the help that s required without any relationship being in place. But it s a lot easier if you know them and a (positive!) relationship is already established. Again, the fact of life is that sooner or later you re going to need to ask for help from internal colleagues over whom you have no power or authority. It makes good sense therefore to be developing the relationships in advance of when these needs arise. So again, I pose the question: How much time do you allocate to proactively developing these relationships?. This could involve simply taking time to meet colleagues when visiting Head Office, or you could even invite them to attend one of your sales meetings so they can learn more about your side of the business.

4 It s also worth asking them what their challenges are and how your team may be able to help; this builds something called The Goodwill Account like a bank account, it s difficult to make a withdrawal unless you ve deposited something into the account to begin with! Your next role personal development Do you know what the next role is that you wish to aspire to? If so, what are you doing to increase your skills and knowledge in advance of moving to the role? There are two reasons for doing this the first is that once you ve acquired this role, you will be better prepared to succeed in it more rapidly. The second is that you will be enhancing your chances of acquiring the role in the first place; those recruiting are more likely to select the candidate who already has the skills and know-how rather than someone who doesn t. And of course doing this demonstrates initiative and desire for the role which again will count in your favour. Some sales managers want to continue to simply do a great job of what they re doing now, which is fine of course. BUT the same argument is just as applicable the world, your industry, and the world of your customers continues to evolve and change, and so therefore will the challenges of the role. Are you preparing for potential changes proactively? It s inevitable that some reading this article will find their organisation merging with another, or simply being purchased. This is, again, a fact of life. As organisations change their structure, those who are selected for roles (in our case the sales manager roles) will not be those who are managing the way that was effective in the 1990 s, and who have failed to grow and developed their skill set. So, how much time are you currently investing in your own Personal Development in order to prepare yourself for the future? Your next role personal branding It s often said that people buy on emotion, and then justify through logic, and even in high value B2B sales I m told by sales teams that there is a large element of truth in this. If you accept this, then it s going to be equally true of decisions that are made about who s selected for future roles within the business. It is, after all, simply a different type of buying decision. So as well as acquiring appropriate skills and knowledge, it s important to consider how to develop the personal brand that Positions you as the person who s most desirable for the role. In sales, we know that it s not the most appropriate solution that wins it s the solution the customer perceives to be the most appropriate that wins. That s why we need sales teams! In just the same way, it s important to be the most appropriate person for a role, but it s essential that you re perceived to be the most appropriate person for the role!

5 Involvement in high profile project Groups, volunteering to represent the company at external events, and proactively (there s that word again ) proposing ways of increasing efficiencies within the business are all examples of activities which will influence the perceptions of decision makers. So have you identified who is likely to make the selection decision and / or influence that decision? Do you know how they perceive you now? Do you know how close this to how you should be perceived in order for you to be the favoured candidate for the role? And of most importance: Do you have a plan in place to influence perceptions in order that you achieve your goal? Summary The role of sales manager is both busy and challenging. In order to be successful, sales managers need to be high energy, enthusiastic, and have high task focus. However, any strength can be all too easily overdone, and when overdone can actually begin to inhibit success. Overdoing high task focus can result in too much emphasis on the present, and an insufficient focus on proactively managing the future. There are a number of activities which can be considered as Very Important, not so Urgent, such as recruiting for future vacancies, developing internal relationships, and personal development (and this list is far from exclusive). Sooner or later these tasks will become Urgent. Even though they may not provide the gratification and personal satisfaction the more exciting reactive type tasks can do, they should be considered high priority - and time should be allocated to them. It s said that Fate is what happens when the future is not created the challenge for sales managers is to ensure that sufficient energy is being allocated to proactively creating the desirable future! Considering proactively growing yourself & your team for the future? Thinking of engaging with a partner who can help provide an understanding of what to consider and the solutions available? For a non-pressured, no obligation conversation about a no cost, no obligation meeting with us to discuss how we can help, either call +44 (0) or us via hello@highcleresales.com Next edition The next edition of 21 st Century Sales Management will be circulated during June, subject TBA. If you re not already on the circulation list to receive notification of when new editions of 21 st Century Sales Management are posted, simply drop us a line via hello@highcleresales.com with 21 st Century Sales Management yes please in the title.