In this Expert Insight Interview, Eric Reed discusses the outdated approach we have to manage, getting the most out of your team and the effects of the COVID-19 epidemic on the way we do business. Eric Reed is the founder and CEO of Reed5group, and host of the Rethink Marketing podcast.
This Expert Insight Interview discusses:
- The role of the sales manager in the post-COVID world
- Effective ways to get the most out of your sales team
- Advantages and difficulties of working from home
COVID and the Evolution of the Sales Manager
We seem to march in the same line and follow the same rules without rethinking things as much as we should. The post-COVID world, with its many challenges, provides the perfect opportunity to rethink some aspects of how we view sales and management in general.
The sales manager role isn’t that well defined, to begin with. Sales managers in different organizations operate in different ways and have different priorities. With more and more people working from home, today’s sales managers are in danger of becoming observers, rather than leaders.
So, in what ways does the role of the sales manager need to evolve?
Playing to the Strengths of Your Team
Many people are unconsciously competent and don’t really understand what makes them good at their jobs. We need to begin embracing people for what they’re capable of achieving, and let them become a valued asset on the team.
Since nobody is the same, a competent sales manager should be capable of stepping back and allowing his team to develop. It might be more difficult to leverage each person’s strengths to create a cohesive team, but it will undeniably lead to more effective results in the long run.
Zoom vs Personal Interaction
A lot of sales nowadays are done virtually, out of necessity, which has proved to require a different skillset in salespeople. The people who are great at working a room don’t always have the same level of presence when communicating through Zoom, and vice-versa.
If you’re a “relationship seller,” it’s all about the human contact, the laughs, and the physical presence, this “work from home” market is going to be extremely difficult, but it could make us all better salespeople.
Lasting Change
Even when the coronavirus pandemic is over, it’s unlikely that we will go back to “business as usual.” Companies have now seen the potential of online meetings in terms of productivity and savings, and are going to be reluctant to return to past habits.
This is the time for the sales manager to be more intentional in reaching out to each individual within the team, since the opportunity to walk the floor and organically catch-up with your team members is no longer there.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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