Stop Managing Sales Results. Start Managing What Produces Them.

You’ll never fix most common sales problems by focusing on the problem. There are three metrics (four if you want to be truly effective) that must be focused upon to maximize sales results. Leave one out or prioritize them incorrectly and it doesn’t matter how much leading managing and coaching you do. Your results will plateau at lower levels than what’s possible, and struggling reps will continue to underperform.

If you’re like most leaders and managers of salespeople, helping them grow sales is probably somewhere near the top of your daily priority list. The question is, what do you and your people focus on and track to get them from where sales are today to where everyone wants them to be?

This is where I see a lot of sales managers get it backward. They spend an enormous amount of time managing the number. Revenue is down, quota isn’t being hit, the pipeline isn’t big enough, there aren’t enough meetings, and we need more sales. Well…duh. Those things may all be true, but they aren’t necessarily the problem. They’re symptoms of something happening further upstream.

If you want to improve sales performance, you have to work backward from the result. In my experience, that means focusing on three things, and focusing on them in this order: behaviors, techniques and KPIs.

Start With Behaviors

Behaviors are the specific activities your salespeople perform on a regular cadence that are designed to produce sales. Making prospecting calls, sending emails, following up, conducting discovery conversations, asking questions, setting next steps and working the sales process are all examples of behaviors.

The important thing about behaviors is that they are things your salesperson can control. This is a fundamental concept in the Lushin philosophy, and it is one that sales managers would do well to keep front and center.

Your salesperson can't control whether someone buys. They can't control whether a prospect answers the phone, agrees to a meeting or responds to an email. What they can control is how many calls they make, how many emails they send, how well they prepare, what they say, what questions they ask and how they conduct the conversation when someone answers.

That distinction matters because it changes the conversation between a manager and a salesperson. Instead of asking, “Why aren't you closing more business?” you can ask, “Are you consistently doing the things that create the opportunity to close more business?”

That's a much more productive conversation.

Then Look at Techniques

Once we know whether the appropriate behaviors are happening, the next question is how well those behaviors are being executed. That's where techniques come into play.

Let's say a salesperson is supposed to make 25 prospecting calls every day. If they're making those calls, that's a good start. But what happens when somebody answers? What does the salesperson say? What questions do they ask? How do they uncover pain? How do they qualify the opportunity? How do they establish the next step?

If the salesperson is making the calls but doesn't know how to conduct the conversation, telling them to “make more calls” isn't exactly a brilliant coaching strategy. In fact, you're probably just giving them more opportunities to do something badly.

The behavior may be there, but the technique needs work.

KPIs Are the Canary in the Coal Mine

This brings us to KPIs. Obviously, KPIs matter. Revenue, quota attainment, new opportunities, conversion rates and other measurements tell us whether the sales organization is moving in the right direction.

But I think KPIs are often given far too much attention and used in the wrong way.

Think of a KPI as the canary in the coal mine. It tells you that something may be wrong, but it doesn't necessarily tell you what is wrong.

Quota attainment is the “what.” The behaviors and techniques are where you start looking for the “how.”

That's why I believe you should absolutely track KPIs but focus your coaching on behaviors. The KPI tells you what needs to be adjusted, tweaked or fixed. The behaviors and techniques are what you actually adjust, tweak and fix.

Let's Talk About Jesse

Let's make this a little more practical. Imagine we have a salesperson named Jesse who isn't hitting quota.

Is Jesse's failure to hit quota the problem? Not really. Quota is simply the KPI telling us that something isn't working.

So we dig a little deeper and discover that Jesse isn't seeing enough new prospects. That's useful information, but we're still not at the root of the problem.

Why isn't she seeing enough prospects?

We discover that she isn't doing enough prospecting. Now we've identified a behavior problem.

But telling Jesse, “You need to get out there and see more people,” isn't likely to solve anything. If it were that easy, every salesperson in the world would be exceeding quota.

Instead, we need to understand why Jesse isn't prospecting. Maybe she doesn't know what to say. Maybe she isn't confident in her prospecting emails. Maybe she is uncomfortable making cold calls. Maybe she hates rejection. Maybe she believes cold calling doesn't work. Or perhaps she simply believes prospects don't want to hear from her.

Now we're getting somewhere.

We've moved beyond the symptom and started looking for the cause.

This Is Where Management Becomes Coaching

At this point, the manager has to start asking some different questions. Does Jesse know what to do but simply isn't doing it? Does she know how to do it but lack confidence? Is she coachable? Does she respond well to accountability? Are there beliefs or attitudes that are getting in her way?

Those are very different problems, and they require very different solutions.

This is one of the things I appreciate about the Lushin philosophy. You don't simply treat the symptom. You diagnose what's actually going on.

If Jesse doesn't know how to prospect, train her. If she knows how but isn't doing it, coach her and hold her accountable. If she's afraid to do it, you've got a different conversation to have. And if she believes prospecting is a waste of time, you've got another conversation altogether.

The manager's job isn't simply to say, “Jesse, make more calls.” This is where the manager has a golden opportunity to coach Jesse to a possible breakthrough!

Manage What You Can Control

Think about it this way. You don't drive a car by staring at the speedometer. You glance at it to see what's happening, but then you drive the car.

KPIs are your speedometer. They tell you what's happening, but they don't drive the car. Behaviors are what move the car, and techniques determine how well you're driving it.

Your salesperson's beliefs and attitudes also matter because they influence whether the behaviors happen in the first place.

That's why the most important role of a sales manager isn't simply to monitor results. It's to help salespeople understand what is producing those results and then coach them toward the behaviors, techniques and attitudes that will produce better ones.

So the next time one of your salespeople isn't hitting quota, resist the temptation to start with the number. Work backward from it.

Ask yourself what behavior is producing, or failing to produce: the result. Determine whether that behavior is happening. If it is, look at the technique. If it isn't, find out why. And if the salesperson knows what to do and how to do it but still isn't doing it, then it's time to look at the beliefs, attitudes, motivation and accountability issues that may be getting in the way.

That's where the real coaching begins.

Because your job isn't simply to get Jesse to hit quota this month. Your job is to help Jesse become the kind of salesperson who can consistently produce the results the organization needs.

So, by all means, track the numbers.

Just don't manage the numbers.

Manage what produces the numbers.

Frequently Asked Questions

“How do I know which behaviors I should actually be tracking for each salesperson?”

Start with the result you want and work backward to identify the specific behaviors that consistently produce it. The goal isn't as much to measure everything your salespeople do as it isto identify and manage the few behaviors that have the greatest impact on sales performance.

“What should I do when a salesperson knows what they're supposed to do, knows how to do it, but still doesn't do it?”

That's when you need to look beyond technique and start exploring behavior, attitude and accountability. Instead of immediately labeling the salesperson as lazy or unmotivated, find out what's getting in the way and determine whether the issue is willingness, confidence, beliefs or accountability.

“How do I coach a salesperson without simply telling them what to do?”

Ask questions that help the salesperson diagnose the problem and discover the solution themselves. The goal is to develop their ability to think through and solve their own sales problems.

“How do I balance holding someone accountable for behaviors while still giving them enough autonomy to own their results?”

Set clear expectations around the behaviors they can control, agree on how those behaviors will be measured, and then hold them accountable for their commitments. Accountability means making sure the salesperson owns the behaviors that ultimately influence the results.