Explore the Table of Contents, Tips Index sampler, and a few random Mega Tips.
Publisher: Mentor Press LLC
Hardcover ISBN:
978-0-9768999-0-7
$34.95 US
Softcover ISBN:
978-0-9768999-1-4
$29.95 US
6" X 9" X 5/8"
279 pages 2006
Author's Note:
MENTOR was created to help sales managers and salespeople get ahead in their jobs. It has no hidden agendas and is not trying to sell you seminars or workbooks.
My goal is to deliver practical tips to you that have worked in the real world. I believe this is better than giving you academic theory alone.
The book is reasonably priced and new editions are not created just to make the old ones obsolete and make more money.
This book was created with pride and integrity and I hope you enjoy profiting from it.
- Jeff Lehman
"MENTOR is a comprehensive 'must read' for
anyone who has to tackle sales management issues head on."
Ronnie Lott
Founder, HRJ Capital
Former San Francisco 49'er and Pro Football Hall of Famer
Table of Contents
Foreword:
Marc Benioff, Chairman & CEO, salesforce.com
From the Author: 1. Recruiting About the Author
Who Needs a Mentor?
Chapter One
Making the Transition
Chapter Two
The Revenue-Focused CEO
Chapter Three
Ineffective Sales Managers
Chapter Four
321 practical career-advancing tips and real-life insights on sales leadership
2. Interviewing
3. Hiring
4. Human Resources
5. Sales Pitches
6. Sales Training
7. Sales Meetings
8. Sales Tools
9. Motivation
10. Listening
11. Managing Salespeople
12. Quotas and Commission Plans
13. Managing Everyone Else
14. Managing Yourself
15. Career Management
16. Personal Selling
17. Personal Finance
18. The Reality of Bad CEOs
Chapter Five
Future Trends, Second Opinions, and the Emergence of the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)
Tip Index
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Tip Index Sampler Below is a listing of the tips covered in the section on Managing Salespeople.
Chapter Four, Section 11: MANAGING SALESPEOPLE
MEGA TIP - Focus on leading, not just managing
MEGA TIP - Give ‘til you get
TOP TIP - Give full credit to the sales team
TOP TIP - Develop natural leadershipskills and personality
TOP TIP - Give the sales team your next raise
TOP TIP - Sizing up a new (to you) sales team
TOP TIP - Stopping the “new boss” negotiations
TOP TIP - No public condescension
TOP TIP - Taking “bullets” for the team
TOP TIP - The “first hit” theory
TOP TIP - The “need to know” rule
TOP TIP - Stealth planning
TOP TIP - Earn respect by resolving issues immediately
TOP TIP - Fear vs. support-based management styles
There are no keys to the executive washroom
Dealing with sales bullies
Personal expense agendas
Frequent flyer miles and hotel points
Teach product usage
Typecasting salespeople
Don’t just tell them - show them
When to help, when to yell
Avoiding lowest common denominator management
Late bloomers
Full customer contact
Balancing out-of-control sales types
Attending trade shows
Customer events at trade shows
Ego management
Efficient managing
Managing an independent rep firm
Transitioning salespeople into sales management
Knowing when a salesperson is playing hooky
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These are taken from throughout the book. There are hundreds more just like them in The Sales Manager's MENTOR.
MEGA TIP: Creative Reference-Checking:
Most people aren’t going to give you references that are potentially damaging to their job prospects. But chances are that you will have to check references as part of hiring them, so make this process work to your advantage.
There are two ways to use references:
The first way to check references is to find other people who may know the person through the reference that the candidate gives you. In most industries the “six degrees of separation” rule applies (i.e., someone will always know someone who knows who you are talking to). Ask the reference what other peers your candidate worked with and what they thought of this person and how they ranked compared with other peers. Ask if you can get their contact info (if they don’t work there any longer) and contact them to see what they think. Ask those secondary references for similar input.
The second way to use references is to assume that they will give you a good recommendation and tell them that, “should the candidate be selected,” would they give you balanced input on the following:
• How can you best manage this particular person?
• What do they like or dislike about selling and managing?
• What should you look out for?
• What are their hot buttons, landmines, and opportunities for growth?
• How did the person giving the reference manage or work with the candidate?
• In what kind of environments does the candidate excel or become frustrated?
• Would they hire the candidate again, and in what capacity?
Answers to these questions will give you a strong insight and a better base to start with when it comes to managing this person.
MEGA TIP: Focus on Leading, Not Just Managing:Occupying a management position doesn’t automatically make you a leader. Focus less on the pure act of management and more on leading the team forward. Most people prefer to be led, not managed, anyway. Although throughout this book, it’s assumed that good management is the same as leadership, the truth is that you won’t get anywhere as a manager unless you do a fantastic job of leading people.
REMEMBER: Salespeople have to work for a sales manager, but they want to work for a sales leader.
MEGA TIP: Treat People Below You Like Kings and Queens:
There are many managers who pride themselves on managing “up” the corporate ladder often they don’t realize that sometimes the real support or resistance to someone’s management success comes from below them, not above them.
Here are simple rules for managing people whom you work with in an organization (even if they don’t report to you):
• Treat everyone the way that you would like to be treated.
• Treat the people who are below you in the organization like Kings and Queens,
• Treat those above you like regular everyday people.
• Treat everyone as a peer.
MEGA TIP: Always Maintain Personal Integrity:The most important asset that a salesperson or sales manager has is integrity. It has to be protected at all costs. It’s the single most important skill that moves with you from job to job in your career.
Integrity can be defined as doing the right thing for the company and the customer while maintaining high ethical standards. If you are asked to do something that just doesn’t feel right or doesn’t seem fair to all parties involved, then your integrity is being compromised. If you feel uncomfortable your integrity “trigger” is working properly and you should call it as you see it (and possibly refuse to compromise).
A short-term compromise might not seem like much but could have a long-term effect on your career. It might come back to haunt you at a future date. The unfortunate thing is that what we see as being completely ethical today may not be viewed as being completely ethical in five or ten years. If you are in doubt, and the issue is high-level enough, consult your peers, accountants, lawyers, or someone else you trust, and get their opinion. Don’t assume that because competitors are doing something, 1) it’s legal, and 2) that you should be doing it, too.
Some people can get very creative in the gray areas that surround integrity. If you are comfortable pushing the envelope without having to rationalize why, then by all means go for it. Just remember that it is generally true that “what goes around comes around.”
MEGA TIP: Help Create More Customers for Your Customers:
It has been said a few times in this book that at the end of the day, sales is all about helping your customers create more of their customers. If this is your focus, it will also create better customers for you.
Here’s why this makes sense:
• No business-to-business customers will come back tomorrow if you haven’t helped them create more of their customers today.
• Or, in the case of business-to-consumer sales, if you haven’t made the ultimate “retail” customers happy, they won’t be back either, and they will tell all their friends multiple times over if they weren’t treated well, or the product didn’t perform.
Sometimes, the link between your involvement as a sales manager in the process, and how it helps your customers create more of their customers might not be readily visible inside your organization. Take the time to help people in the company understand this.
If the way you are managing the sales organization doesn’t support adding value in customer creation for your customers, you will have an uphill battle trying to be successful. This is true even if you are selling parts to another company that are hidden away somewhere inside a bigger product. If those parts fail your customer, you could cause them to lose their customers, and you could, in turn, lose yours.
