My son and I attended a Boston Bruins - LA Kings ice hockey game yesterday evening. As a former player and coach, I recognized the source of the Bruin's malaise -- they were not playing as a team, but rather as a group of individuals who just happened to inhabit the same patch of ice.
The Bruins blew an early 2-0 lead over the Kings and the Bruins' goalie was peppered with some 30+ shots over the course of the game, double the number of shots taken by the Bruins. The Bruins' forwards didn't pass to one another and the defense let too many opposing players stay in front of the Bruins' goal for too long.
So what's going on here and why is this relevant to the science of selling?
The Bruins did not act as a coordinated unit on the ice and their results showed it. Only once during the game did I observe a Bruins play that appeared to have been rehearsed. The Kings, on the other hand, worked as a unit, got many more shots on goal, and ended up winning the game. One of the Kings' players accounted for two assists. Clearly he had been practicing plays with his teammates!
Selling is much the same. Many sales people do not practice their craft. They do not follow the same steps for each opportunity, instead "winging" it each time. Their sales results will reflect this lack of preparation, and their interaction with their sales team members frequently reflects a lack of preparation.
It's not the fault of the player or sales person, but rather the fault of the coach. It is the coach who decides what drills the players or sales people will use in practice, what muscle memory they will build. A "well-oiled" team, one which works together flawlessly, gets that way by many hours of practice.
The first line sales manager is the sales rep's coach. It is the responsibility of the first line sales manager to work with his or her team practicing the selling motions, helping them to prepare for client engagements, and ensuring that reps, sales engineers and other specialists each understand the role to play in a given sales situation.
There's plenty of room for improvement. IDC finds that over half of all sales people are either somewhat or completely unprepared for individual sales calls. Unfortunately, most sales organizations don't understand the role of the first line sales manager or how to hire, retain and support them, and as a result, sales people will continue to perform below par.
IDC can't help the Bruins play better. That's not our chosen battle ground. IDC can, however, help sales organizations to develop better sales managers and to find higher sales productivity. The IDC First Line Sales Manager presentation, below, provides some highlights on our recent best practice research on this critical sales organization role.
A full research document outlining our findings and recommendations will be available to clients shortly.
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