You’re a manager, now what...

Congratulations! .... Now you actually have to do this.

It’s one thing to prepare and interview for the role, it’s another thing entirely to perform the role as a manager. Don’t get me wrong, all of your planning, attention and study of the process is going to be integral in your success, but you also have to implement that knowledge. You will need to pass your knowledge to your reps, instill confidence in your leadership and get your people to perform. Today,  I’ll give you some tips that will help you build a foundation of success and keep it going long term.

Know your people and help them hit their goals.

First things first. It is extremely important to get to know your people. Set one-on-ones with everyone on your team week one to get to know them, what’s important to them, what are their goals (motivation), and set expectations on how they will expect to be coached.

If someone on your team has a weak set of goals or no goals at all, help them see their potential and inspire them to push their limitations of what is possible. Tie your coaching action items directly to how it will help the accomplish their personal goals.

If you can give your team members guidance and feedback that are producing results, they will keep listening to you with little exception. Make it about them. Make it about their motivations and celebrate with them when they hit their goals and benchmarks. Then help them reset and keep pushing them to improve themselves. Build their career and bank account and you will develop a strong relationship and a strong foundation of respect.

Aim small, miss small

You have a lot of talent and knowledge about sales, otherwise you would not be in this position. That said, you can’t expect people who are at a lower level of proficiency to understand, implement and habituate loads of complex  ideas and processes all at once. Don’t overload your people. Instead focus on small improvements that make the biggest difference and build on them week by week.

Use the KPI’s during one-on-ones with your team members to guide which improvements should be made and only give them one or two things (MAX) to work on each week to improve their performance. Make sure you don’t just tell them to do it and send them off to their own devices. If you tell one of your reps that you want to hear stronger expectations when they’re setting a demo, then you need to go listen to their sets and make sure they are implementing your coaching. If they are not implementing the coaching, let them know you are listening and sit next to them and coach them.

The goal is to instill good habits so that even on their worst days, they are still leaning on the best habits to help themselves stay consistent.

Don’t just tell them to do something either. People are much more likely to perform tasks if they understand the reasoning for doing that task. If you tell someone to go dig a hole, they will only dig so long. If you tell someone to go dig a hole because there is a box of diamonds 8-12 feet down, they’ll dig.

Trust your data

You should be using your data as a guide always. The KPIs and metrics being captured are invaluable indicators for your team and should guide your individual coaching sessions, morning huddle education, your lunch and learns, and training. This should tell you the areas each member on your team stands to improve the most individually and as a team.

Your data should be the map you use to help you hit your quotas and really excel. It will tell you who to call and when It will help you develop best practices that make your team the most money. Again, if you give your team guidance that works, they will listen to you and follow you.

Being a manager is not an easy job and you're going to have highs and lows just like you did in sales, but I promise if you stay with it and you make it about the people you work with,  this will be endlessly fulfilling and lucrative.

Good luck out there.