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Why sales managers must protect their calendars

Posted by Carole Mahoney on 5/18/22 7:45 AM
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Well, for first-time sales managers, this applies to whether you're adjusting to the pandemic. Because now, you might feel like a first-time sales manager. Again, like, a lot of sellers are feeling like first-time sellers, because everything's changed. I would recommend that you protect your calendars. You are the only person who has the right to say where your time goes to.

I understand that there's "company" this and that and that and meetings that have to happen. However, let me just share a little bit of information with you... Or data, I should say. Now, this data comes from the Objective Management Group of which we're licensed partners. They have over 2 million sales professionals with 21, different competencies. 

The Data

I ran an analysis a few years ago because I wanted to understand the impact that coaching had on sellers directly. We had the data that talked about like after three hours of coaching. There was like a 17% increase in Quota, but I wanted it like really dig down into the skillsets in the mindsets. 

So I ran a sub-analysis of those 2 million data for sales professionals. And I looked at the sales managers and the salespeople that directly reported to them. And what I found is that when those managers spent 50% of their time coaching and they had been trained on how to coach, their sales teams were upwards of 30% stronger than their counterparts.

 think it was closer to 50%, actually. I believe it was 49% more skills and stronger than others on their team.


Now if you think about the amount, of revenue that gets impacted by the increasing skill set of your team to be for every 10% of the increase. There's a 33% increase in revenue. That's a HUGE number. 


The only way that you're going to impact the skills of your team is by coaching. 

When you protect your calendars, you're prioritizing and making time for one-on-one and group coaching with your team. So they can apply the things that they're learning in their training to their day-to-day jobs. That is the single most important thing that you can do as a sales manager, new or otherwise, pandemic, or in person.

And that means you have to get a schedule like a religious routine scheduled on your calendar. Like when you eat, breathe, sleep, and drink water... on the calendar. 

Coaching your sellers

The other thing that I would say, that's really important for managers, and this is also something that comes from the data

We look at the coaching time with your sellers. But then we also look at things like making sure that you're understanding what motivates your team as a manager, your job is to manage behaviors, and a lot of times to help them to change their behaviors. 
And in order to change their behaviors. You have to know what motivates them to do so. 

So, one of the best and easiest ways to build rapport and relationships with your team members is to share what your motivations are: 

  • What are your personal goals?  
  • What drives you?  
  • What gives you Joy?  
  • What puts your feet on the floor every morning?

When you open yourself up to them, they're going to open themselves up to you. And now you have a working relationship that's based on, “How do I get you to your personal goals?”, not, “How do I get you to hit your numbers or you're fired”.

 I'll see you next time. Until then, keep learning and keep sharing out there.


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Topics: sales coaching, sales leadership, time management