Why do companies spend money training their salespeople, but fail to give any level of training and development to their sales managers?
If I could only invest in one person, I would invest in my sales manager long before I invested in a salesperson.
The gap I see is huge, and I don’t care what the argument is about not wanting to invest in sales managers.
The poor level of sales coaching I see time and time again has to end. When we invest in our sales managers, we’re investing in our salespeople, as they are the ones who will feel the benefit.
People don’t quit companies. They quit managers, and the failure to invest in managers only serves to make that situation worse.
The sad reality is this is not an issue only in the sales department, but it also exists in most other departments too.
I can’t walk into a company and not see hanging on a wall some statement about how much the company values employees. To me that statement is a red herring.
If we’re not willing to invest in our managers to ensure they have the skills necessary to lead the employees we value, then what gives us the right to make such a bold statement?
Copyright 2016, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.
One Response
Totally agree, I made this mistake a few times early on. You think you can fix the problem quicker by training the reps directly at scale… It just doesn’t work that way. Your front line managers have much stronger influence over you sales professionals.
You want to scale your training, you need to train the managers!