The concept of shared sales management, while far from the standard, represents an opportunity for smaller companies to approach sales leadership innovatively to achieve the revenue and growth goals they seek. For traditional CEOs, this business model might be a big leap. It requires them to consider hiring someone who is not captive to the firm and who may be sharing sales techniques with other companies, even though they are not competitors or active in the same marketplace. In many cases, the shared sales management archetype provides growing companies with a viable solution to a common sales management dilemma—the need for a top notch, proven successful sales manager without breaking the bank. With this scenario in mind, a shared sales management approach just might be a workable solution.
The role of a sales manager
The overarching role of the sales manager is to facilitate the attainment of sales targets through the people and sales channels for which they are responsible. In smaller companies, one of the secrets of sales management success is not to become overly involved with other departments and to avoid the temptation to wear different hats in order to help get products out the door that the sales team had promised.
While the role of a sales manager and the skills required may not have changed much over the past few decades, the same is not true of sales personnel. Before the explosion of the internet, salespeople were once the primary source for product information. Today, much of that information is easily available online. If prospects and customers already have product knowledge, then the shift sales managers need to make is to spend more time training their staff on how to interact with prospects and customers, becoming industry experts and thought leaders, as well as teaching an effective and professional approach to winning more business. Also, sales managers are tasked with identifying and using the right metrics to measure productivity, since just tallying up cold calls is outmoded.
There’s no question about it. Potential clients aren’t waiting breathlessly for a flyer to arrive in the mail or a salesperson to walk in the door with information. They’ve seen it, perhaps read reviews for the product, maybe compared pricing with a competitor. Yes, it is more difficult for older school managers to keep on top of the evolving role that technology plays in the sales equation. But it is a must. They need to make sure their personnel are using online resources and apps to the greatest extent in order to penetrate the market because the competitors will be too.
Finally, it’s important for sales managers to know how to grow a team, which goes beyond just coaching to get the numbers up. Believing in the team members, even when they might have hit a dry spell, is crucial and can help get them back on track if their confidence remains intact. That doesn’t mean enabling ineffective habits. The goal is to find ways to extinguish them.
Shared sales management
The foundation of a shared sales management model involves an outside person who comes in to conduct productive sales meetings, to train and motivate the rank and file, and to help identify the personnel who have potential to develop into true sales leaders. By definition, a shared sales manager is not a full-time employee, but rather an independent contractor who agrees to a set number of hours per week or month with the sales team. It’s a growing concept that has been in play for over a decade that is producing rewards for the companies that adopt the model. For example, Mark Copeland, CEO of WeidnerCA, a signage and graphics company, who bought into this model, says, “Today our sales process is very effective with all departments working together.” In today’s ultra-competitive global marketplace, it may be time for smaller firms to think outside the box and explore this option.
When to consider a shared sales manager:
- The company has a supportive sales culture, but it’s been difficult to lure or retain talented, proven sales management full time. Often, looking at the sales management role through a paradigm of difficulties, owners or CEOs don’t realize the job as portrayed may not be challenging enough for the most talented prospects.
- The company has hit a ceiling in growth and is now prepared to do something different to push past it.
- The company has expert product knowledge that resides throughout the company or via a trusted vendor, not just in the head of one person.
- The company doesn’t have a true champion who focuses on sales conversations, attitudes, activities, root causes and department culture. As Peter Drucker once said, “culture eats strategy for lunch.” If you can’t change a culture, then any other improvements may be short-lived before employees fall back into bad habits.
- The company owners are prepared for a high trust level arrangement with a key leader of the team not working in the office.
Growing trend
Similar to using an outside resource to perform essential internal management roles such as a chief human resources officer or a chief financial officer, a shared sales management model is a growing trend. Yet, taking advantage of a shared sales management system requires CEOs to be innovative. Why? Because it necessitates a mindset shift and creative approach to addressing a company’s inability to pay professional sales management personnel adequately or retain them because the job is just not challenging enough to keep high-powered personnel around. For these reasons, the concept is gaining traction.
Shared sales management has been proven to be ideal in many cases for several reasons. First, it is cost effective and second, it takes the burden off a CEO. Steve Quirk (Quirk’s Marketing Research Data) went the shared route three years ago and says it has “brought more professionalism, a greater sense of trust and a stronger team vibe,” to the company. Shared sales management has also helped companies develop true “sales systems” with sustainable best practices. For businesses of a certain size and financial strata, it may be just the ticket, even though letting go of what is normally a totally in-house function may require the greatest sales job of all!
