This is the sixth in a 10-part series, How to Be a Better Sales Manager. It’s my belief that the sales manager is underserved. There’s plenty of training and coaching available for sales people, but managers, the unheralded heroes of sales success, are all too often left to their own devices. These posts are designed for sales managers who want to do better and are looking for ideas.
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A colleague of mine used to say, “Problems don’t get better with age.” For sales managers, truer words were never spoken.
It certainly is tempting to put off unpleasant work -
- Dealing with a chronically underperforming rep.
- Resolving a touchy dispute with a customer.
- Delivering unpleasant news to a customer.
- Delivering unpleasant news to a superior.
- Terminating an employee.
No fun, no warm and fuzzies in any of this. Just the same, by postponing the inevitable, you are sure to make the inevitable even less fun. Problems and anxiety escalate in the absence of conversation. A customer with a mildly irritating problem will become incensed if you wait a week to address it. Nothing aggravates a boss as much a lingering issue – and “lingering”, in today’s fast paced world, might mean a couple of days or a couple of hours.
Sad to say, postponing terminations can have the most dire consequences of all. A sales rep who is unsure of his status, who is worried about where he or she stands with management, might begin to speak negatively about the company to customers, or do something worse.
My feeling – don’t engage in wishful thinking and hope a problem will go away by itself – nip it in the bud. What do you think? Have you ever regretted addressing a problem at the earliest opportunity?
O-o-o-o-e-e-e-e, do problems ever fester when we put them off. Procrastinating sales managers are the very ones who avoid nipping problems in the bud. Likely “take care of it later” managers cause failure in the system and a wise CEO would root them out. Brad, do you sense the trick to “nip it in the bud” might be to turn around a life time habit? This piece makes us think more about what we might be putting off! We all prioritize.
Hi Robyn, please remind me to use o-o-o-o-e-e-e-e for my Words for Nerds column! Procrastination is definitely a mindset, and it does require a life adjustment. The causes seem to vary. Some people just don’t like confrontation. Sometimes it’s laziness or chronic indecision or fear of making a mistake.
Hi Brad, like you, I’ve been thinking much about what you said here, and eventually it led me to post a blog on Dancing with Your Strengths since performance reviews often leave us feeling defeated rather than exhilerated. When we’re told how to fix something it is a real deficit model. There’s no empowerment somehow. So that led me to write the post on Dancing with Your Strengths. However, I awoke in the night with the realization that life isn’t flat… it’s paradoxical and ambiguous. So I’m crafting a follow-up to bring a bigger picture. Hmmm… not black and white for sure!
That was an excellent post, Robyn. I’m looking forward to your follow-up.
Old fish do not stop smelling over time, they smell worse. Unaddressed problems are like stinky fish. They take up time, energy, emotion and impact all who come in contact with the problem. Swift decisive actions of correction are hallmarks of a confident leader.
Hi Kelly, thanks for visiting. The stinky fish image says it all!