There is a piece of building a sales organization that is widely ignored in the security industry. It gets some attention during the planning stages by manufacturers and some integrators, and maybe a little more in January. However, as the end of January approaches and the urgent items become more important to you than the important items, this piece fades away until next planning session in November.
If you want an edge over your competition, then become a coach. For many reasons that are mostly driven from the top, sales managers in the security industry have become spreadsheet masters. The statements “I need you to bring in $100k next month” or “You need to get in front of more new prospects” should be printed on t-shirts because they’re so common. However, when is the last time you used a statement like “Let’s roll up our sleeves and figure out why you can’t find time to hunt for new customers. Block off two hours on Friday and we’ll develop a strategy together”?
It’s hard. I know it’s hard. I was a VP of Sales for many years and I’m embarrassed to say that I became a spreadsheet master. However, you can’t excel at sales management if your sales people don’t excel at their jobs… the math is simple.
I was lucky enough to have a coach that told me to stop trying to find the time to work with my team and just do it. The analogy I like to use is the 401(k) behavior of paying yourself first. Block off time with your team before anything else during the week … anything. I promise the numbers will increase and your fires will decrease.
