Creating a Self-Sufficient Sales Force

What is the main goal of sales management? Typical responses range from growing the business to proper reporting of data to being a leader of my people. The answer is simply two words: self-sufficiency.

The earlier answers will happen if you have created self-sufficiency. The challenge is many managers think they are helping their people, when in reality they are hurting their people. One example of this all too common problem shows up in managers who find they need to close business for their reps. A lot of managers don’t allow for failures to happen because they don’t want to lose the business and hurt the company. In reality, the opposite is actually happening. When a manager is closing business for their reps they become a crutch. It doesn’t matter what size team the manager leads, if they become a crutch you will find your 50 hour week workload quickly turn into a 70 hour week workload.

One piece to help create self-sufficiency in your people and avoid becoming a crutch is establishing the criteria they must have before helping them. If they must know A, B, C, D and E about their prospect before you will help them, guess what will happen? They will start to close more of the business on their own. This is what a coach does, helps create self-sufficiency. A crutch delays the inevitable and compounds the problem.

If you are a manager reading this in the middle of your 70 hour week, ask yourself the difficult question: Am I creating self-sufficiency in my people which helps everyone or do they have good numbers because I am coming to their rescue and I want to ‘help’ them?