If you’re a sales leader — and by that I mean a person who leads salespeople — then the last thing you should be doing is closing sales.
Your job is to lead the sales team and coach your salespeople.
Your job description doesn’t say anything about closing sales.
I speak often on the topic of the “4-legged sales-call.”
This is the call where you as the leader goes with the salesperson to make a sales call. Nothing wrong with that and in fact it is what you should do.
How else are you going to know how your salesperson is doing unless you see them in action? Secondly, by you going along on a sales call, you’ll be in a position to help find out information the salesperson might not have had the ability to learn otherwise.
There are a host of reasons why you should be making “4-legged sales calls,” but closing the deal is not one of them.
Closing sales is the job of your salesperson.
The second you step in and close the sale, you have now told the salesperson their job is to merely drive the car and carry your stuff.
When you step in to close the deal, you’ve told the customer the salesperson isn’t worth anything, and if they want anything done, it needs to go through you.
If you’re an ego-filled idiot who has a very low self-esteem and a lack of confidence, then go ahead and close all the sales to get your strokes. As you’re getting your strokes, you’ll be doing a great job of killing your business and encouraging anybody with a brain to not want to work for you.
You’re laughing that there could be these types of managers out there. Well, there are. Worse yet is 90% of the people who are exhibiting this behavior don’t even realize they’re doing it.
Your job is to coach and develop your people and work with them to help identify and capitalize on opportunities.
Your job is not to do what your salespeople are tasked with doing, which is closing sales.
Copyright 2013, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
