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assumption is if I have an experienced sales team, I don't need a strong sales manager, and my people don't need coaching"says Pancero, a recent speak- er at the 2012 FEDA Convention. And by "strong, " he means "proactive or process-selling"managers,not"reactive transactional"sales managers—the two categories he uses to divvy up the skill sets and management styles of sales managers. Reactive transactional man- agers spendmost of their time onmain- tenance and sales support, says Pancero, while the focus of proactive managers is the development of their sales reps and selling processes through leadership and coaching. One guess as towhere he thinksmost salesmanagers fall? "Sales management is one of the weakest areas in the sales channel because of theway the position is struc- tured, " says Pancero. "That's why I believe it's also the competitive edge for most companies because there is so lit- tle proactive management across indus- try lines. " News &Views recently sat down with Pancero to discuss the sales philoso- phies he says are sabotaging the efforts of most sales managers, as well as prac- tical steps to help move your sales organization toward a more proactive approach to sales management. its members at the beginning of the summer.What general observations did you take away from it? (See page 14 for full results). whelmingmajority of those surveyed Q: Jim, let's start with the "Sales Managers Survey" FEDA emailed to spend their time on paperwork and problem solving.You'll note that when you look at the list of responsibilities for a sales manager—budgeting, paper- work, customer service calls, personal selling and even hiring and firing—most tend to be reactive responsibilities and demand a great deal of time. The only proactive thing on that list is future- focused coaching and it has to be initiat- ed. Less than 10 percent of those sur- veyed engage in future-focused coach- ing, and one of the reasons has to do A: Like most sales managers, the over- Are your sales managers focused on growing your sales revenues and profitability? If your answer to the following questions below is no, then it's highly unlikely, says sales pro Jim Pancero. Do you have a fulltime sales manager? "Over 70 percent of the sales managers I see also handle at least some accounts, acting like a sales rep in front of customer," says Pancero. Do you have a proactive sales leader? Proactive coaching leaders spend the majority of their day coaching and leading their sales team's skill development and account selling processes. How often do your sales team members receive "future-focused" coaching and account strategies? Do you have an established entry level sales training program in place? The majority do not, according to Pancero. "Instead, they wait for some- one to unexpectedly leave and then scramble for six months to cover exposed accounts," he says. Are you willing to start investing now to implement these "sales leadership best practices" within your sales force? Then invest in training to provide your entire sales team (outside reps, inde- pendent reps, service department, and sales managers) with the skills, tools, processes and selling structures necessary to increase your competi- tive advantage, uniqueness and value, advises Pancero. with the number of salespeople they carry.Thirty five percent of survey par- ticipants carry 10 or more salespeople. Most salesmanagers have somany other things demanding their time they do not have time to be proactive. Q: Before we get into specifics about key terms like future-focused coach- A:We have to step back and take a ing, I'd like to talk about the role of sales management and how it's perceived. What does that list of responsibilities say about how most sales organizations view the role of a sales manager? Secondly, what outside forces, beliefs, assumptions, etc., have helped to shape those perceptions over time? look at how sales and sales manage- ment evolved. Over the last 20 years, there has not been a lot of structure in selling, or what I call a predefined or multistep approach to sales. Instead, the focus has been on building relation- ships. Every salesperson has a unique sales approach and that approach even varies from customer to customer. It's that painter vs. printer philosophy. Painters believe every customer is unique, every selling opportunity requires a different approach and what worked to win one customer will most likely not help them to win the next. Printers follow a consistent multistep selling process, developed by lessons learned from previous sales. Painters view selling as intuitive art,not needing nor requiring any consistent selling structures. So because most sales organ- izations are filled with painters, they do not see the value in having an involved sales manager, or having a great deal of structure in the selling process to move the needle forward. Secondly, the assumption of "experi- enced equals trained" also has greatly influenced how the role of a sales man- ager is perceived within a company. Companies with experienced sales- people assume those salespeople do not need training, so the assumption is there's nothing the manager can do except handle reactive responsibili- continued on page 12 September/October 201 2 1 1