Down Times Demand Different Approach to Managing Sales

By Rick Harris

January 18, 2010

More about: MDM Blog, Sales & Marketing

A different set of skills is needed.

It takes a different set of skills to manage salespeople through a down time.

Without question, sales managers have the toughest job in a sales organization. When sales are up and going well, the salespeople get the praise. When sales are down it is the sales manager's fault. When margins are up, it's the salespeople. When margins are down, you guessed it, it's the sales manager.

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A sales manager needs to be an accountant, a salesman, a therapist, a teacher, a leader, a motivator and a few others, and most of the time in the same conversation.

So what is the main difference in managing in good times versus bad? The needs of the salespeople. The salespeople are the engine that drives sales through the company, and if their needs are not being met the company will fail. So what do the salespeople need? We all know what they need, and it is no different in good times than in bad. They need job security, a future, and enough compensation to provide for their family.

The problem is that in good times those things are taken for granted. Salespeople may look for greener grass in good times, but in bad times salesmen just want green grass. So how do we give our salespeople green grass when there is not enough water to keep the grass green? Easy, don't try to water all the grass, and don't use paint to color the brown grass green.

Let's start with the paint, or as I like to call it: TRUST. Be upfront with your salespeople, tell them how the company is doing, and keep them informed. The less they know about the company's health, the more they will make up on their own.

And salespeople talk. Yes, that is right. They talk to everyone. As much as we as managers want to control that we can't because that is what we hired them to do: Talk. Knowing this, make sure they all have the same message, and that message is yours: the truth.

Also do the things that instill confidence, not those that distract from it. For instance, implementing call reports for the first time during a down time is the worst time. That says "I don't trust you." But holding a weekly or monthly "state of the company address" is the right thing to do and instills confidence in the sales force that management cares about them.

So what do we do if we don't have enough water for all of the grass? The hardest thing to do, but the right thing to do is to let some of it go brown. Laying-off employees is always the hardest, but it is always better than running out of water for all.

Be strategic in your watering. If compensation is going to be reduced in one area, raise it in another. Never leave the salespeople with more negatives than positives even if the bottom line is a reduction. Salespeople need motivation from their companies now more than ever, and that motivation can be used to direct their sales activities to fit the company's strategic plan.

My father use to say to me, "A great sales manager could cut your pay, and you would thank him as you left his office." That is what we need to keep in mind in these difficult times.

Rick Harris is Upper Midwest Manager for the Prism Division of DECO Tool Supply, Davenport, Iowa. He may be reached at rharris@decotool.com.

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