I worked for a company in the late 1990s and early 2000s that grew exponentially for years – like many technology businesses during that time. When the tech bubble (and automotive bubble everyone seems to forget) popped, we were sucking wind. Like most successful leaders, our VP of Sales was trying to determine why this happened – what did we do and how could we turn around? Regardless of the bad economic environment, he wanted to determine what we could do.
Since I worked out of the headquarters and was one of the three sales managers, I was asked to participate in these studies – which was incredible for a young professional like me that was hungry to learn. One of the conclusions was that our sales team had become too technical and not aggressive enough. We were enjoying so much success riding the wave that we thought we were smarter than everyone else and didn’t need old fashioned sales grit. Even I lost my edge, and I was the guy they tried to calm down when I started. (I came into this job as a 20-something with a somewhat unhealthy competitive spirit combined with two years of selling copiers – what did they think they were getting?)
My boss made a comment that I thought was a bit superficial and meaningless about the titles of our sales people: “We call them Product Specialists. Why wouldn’t they lose their salesmanship with a title like that?” So, we changed our sales titles to Area Sales Manager… and it stuck. Our attitudes and activity started to change. Our discussions were about overcoming objections and closing business, not about ones and zeros. We became sales professionals again. It wasn’t just the title – we had other initiatives too – but the title change definitely made an impact. Which brings me to our first strategy on making Account Managers better hunters…
Strategy #1: Change their title to Account Developer.
Does it sound superficial? Does it appear to be a band aide? Well, maybe it is. Maybe changing your Account Manager title to Account Developer is a superficial band aide. Do it anyway.
First of all, it’s more accurate. Do you want you sales people managing accounts or developing accounts? Do your clients want to be managed or developed?
Secondly, this change will send a message to your current Account Managers and attract different types of talent for future hires.
Finally, it’ll make a difference. If titles weren’t important, we wouldn’t have them. This one word modification will absolutely make a difference in the way your Account Managers act and perform.
What do you think? Am I making too much of the title, or could this change help? Looking forward to your comments.
