How do you make sure? You leave them the fuck alone unless they specifically ask for help/guidance (after onboarding).

No one likes to be micromanaged.

@InQ5WeTrust has some great advice on this.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

Coaching and enablement needs to be an active, bi-directional effort. You don't just toss coaching/feedback at them, you have to develop a plan together that helps them build up weaknesses...just like you would for an athlete.

Also, generic bullshit feedback is worthless. Be prepared to give action items or don't have the session at all.

Incognito

WR Officer

Master of Disaster

oops, I should have known that @poweredbycaffeine would also have some fire advice.

Thank you kind sir!

InQ5WeTrust

Arsonist

No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL

@poweredbycaffeine knocked it out of the post as per usual.

Makarium

Politicker

Sdr

Absolutely right!

justatopproducer

Politicker

VP OF SALES -US

Amen, me telling you everything I did during my lunch hour doesnt get me any closer to closing the deal. Just like in a meeting with a prospect/client if you’re not adding value you’re wasting time.

BeatCancer

Fire Starter

Account Executive

The best managers I have had has used this approach.

"I trust you know what you are doing, if you need anything let me know." seems to go quiet far.

Incognito

WR Officer

Master of Disaster

.....but, you literally preach the opposite? I'm confused

BeatCancer

Fire Starter

Account Executive

I understand you can interpret what I wrote that way.
Again I am "top producing rep", and have been offered to manage at two companies and kindly declined.
"IF I had a team"
I like that OP mentioned listening to calls.
I like that he mentioned feedback, though as you mentioned to those who ask. Else I Stfu. From experience if it's not asked for it has the opposite effect.
I like to listen to other top producers to see what they are doing and if I can apply to my game.

My manager have half an hour coffee a week erry friday where we go through my notes/stats. Sometimes we don't cause we always have the same POV anyways.

You mentioned guidance during onboarding. And I think these principals or similar should be a part of onboarding. All the places I have been where it's been applied the ramp has gone from ex. 6 to 3 months. Most places they have product training, however they never really teach to break it down week by week, day by day.

I mentioned I like a morning walk or working our with a few teammates. I mention to my team anyone can join if they miss some social aspect in their life.

I never wrote about a manager sitting a viewing my forecast asking: "Hows it going with Shell?" "What about o2?" That shit annoys me.

Are you still confused?

LordBusiness

Politicker

Chief Revenue Officer

but everyone needs to be managed. 99% of what is perceived to be "micro managing" isn't.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

Monthly call reviews are a crucial component of coaching & enablement for me. I have the rep pick a call, we both listen to it independently and take notes.

During our monthly coaching 1:1s we will dissect the call and build action items to work on ahead of the following month's coaching call.

They do the same with their manager on a more regular basis when they break down deals in pipeline reviews.

hh456

Celebrated Contributor

sales

I make them watch Angels & Demons and pay attention to the part about Opus Dei. Then I tell them that’s what’s coming if they don’t hit quota. So far we’re 300% to goal this quarter.

Incognito

WR Officer

Master of Disaster

….or it’s straight to @paddy ’s liquor cabinet for retraining!

Makarium

Politicker

Sdr

lol that is a good one haha

Kinonez

Celebrated Contributor

War Room Enthusiast

I lead by example. I only step in if they ask or need help, and trust the shit out of them!

Makarium

Politicker

Sdr

Word

BeatCancer

Fire Starter

Account Executive

I like everything you mentioned.
If I had a team I would get everyone to remember the 3, 5, 8 steps and impulse factors (check my thread) and apply them to their everyday. That way it also becomes easier for new teammates to get onboarded and start making it rain faster.

Makarium

Politicker

Sdr

I will definitively check that thread, thanks for sharing :D

BeatCancer

Fire Starter

Account Executive

Anytime. My pleasure to share.
Else team cardio in the mornings I also like, however for some it's a bit too much

salesVP80

Opinionated

VP Sales

It's a fine line - you don't want to micro manage but as most of our markets continue to evolve, you want to make sure reps are incorporating training into their sales process.

I'm a fan of the Sales Management Simplified principle of look at the numbers first - if they're there .. give space. If they're not there, dig into pipeline - is it healthy? Are there opportunities for deal strategy? If the pipeline isn't there, let's look at activities.

Collective feedback is appreciated - slack can integrate with most CI platforms where you can share good calls or moments of calls with your teams that help reps steal what others are doing well.

My advice is to give those that are consistently doing well grace but hold all accountable to a level of progression so that they don't plateau in keeping up with the market.

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

Sales

There’s a lot of good info here, one thing I recommend is that you speak the same language on deal review. Pipeline review goes so much faster and is better if they can answer your questions before you ask them. I use: Where are we in the selection, who is competing, is there a compelling event, contract status and risk. Nothing else matters. Answer those questions even in 3 or 4 word answers and I have all I need and pipeline review zooms along.

ChunkyButters

Tycoon

I'm not sales leader, but perspective from an AE.

We get A LOT of coaching/enablement sessions. I'm talking like 2-4 times a week we rinse competitor trainings, customer stories, talk tracks, and prospecting lines. It's a lot, but the entire team here has had noticeable improvements in the way we talk with customers and clients.

These are pointed 15-30 minute meetings in the beginning, lunch hour, or end of day to avoid disrupting market hours. If we need to skip due to another meeting, we are free to. We are also free to voice opinion on usefulness of meeting to adjust style/agenda of the training, which has allowed us to pivot easily and gain more value.

We're a smaller organization so my manager is on most of my client meetings. We sell as a team, and give constant feedback to each other. The AEs will all help each other out when needed or if we notice something, and we all work with our SDRs to improve them. None of this feels like micromanagement.

sellingsellssold

Politicker

SDR

making sure everyone is hitting their goals each week and if not then sitting down with them and finding out why and then providing them with any information that they may need to help them be successful

LordBusiness

Politicker

Chief Revenue Officer

Process. I build repeatable, executable processes that have been proven to drive revenue at scale. Sales is math and science folks. Some of you are likely talented, you have abilities that allow you to read people well, or natural tone/inflection/cadence that resonates with prospects - but from a leadership perspective truly talented sellers only represent 10% of the population. If I depended on that 10%, we'd have crashed and burned years ago. If you are one of the 10%, and your leader enables you with proven processes, you can go from great to $7 figure commission years. Be coachable folks, there is always more to learn/grow.

cw95

Politicker

Sales Development Lead

Make them do what you do, if they don't, change the way you do things to satisfy them.

MontyMoose

Good Citizen

Chief Commercial Officer

I frequently go on calls with my team. I’ve been on more than 100 this year. Why? Because we’re a team. I might be their manager, but we’re also all trying to hone our craft. What better way than in the moment? We do it so often that it’s not awkward. In many calls I don’t do much more than introduce myself and take notes - mostly notes about the customer, sometimes a couple of points to discuss afterward with the AE. We are comfortable enough that when one of my AEs isn’t sure, they give the signal and I’m ready to say some words. When I do this, I’m perfectly happy for us to discuss this too in the debrief. Sometimes I learn things on calls from my team, often I smile when they ask damn good questions. But sometimes I’m there ready to make a save. Another example would be cxo conversations; many AEs have never been anything else. They don’t necessarily understand how a business operates and get nervous. The best way to coach can be to show the methods live. Why shy away from live examples? I think many managers really too much on the theory and never roll their sleeves up to show their team the practical application..

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Makarium

How are you making sure that your team is killing it?

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