Question

Topic: Other

Motivate An All Male Sales Force To Cooperate?

Posted by Anonymous on 10/12/2004 at 4:15 PM ET 110 Points
Since being promoted I have now taken on the responsibility of managing certain aspects of our company's sales force, which happens to be all men. Why does that matter you ask? Because I am a 20 something woman who is viewed as a secretary. I work in the construction industry so our men are not the typical white collar salesmen. I have tried everything to try to get them to cooperate with what I ask of them, but nothing works. Everything from asking nicely to having our Sales Manager threaten them and everything inbetween has been done. I hate not being able to have a working relationship with them, but I am constantly ridiculed and blatenly ignored. I am looking for advice or solutions that some other professionals might have found helpful. Thank you in advance.
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  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 10/12/2004 at 6:44 PM Member
    Hi cfeldner22,

    Good input so far. I agree with Vevolution, your job should be over after providing the leads. But I’m wondering about the quality of the sales leads. Are you buying the leads from a service or generating them in-house? What’s the lead to close ratio? Whose job is it to further qualify the leads?

    In similar situations, sales people might believe they should be getting highly qualified leads and not have to spend most of there time doing the qualifying themselves. The sales people could be lazy and just want the easiest path to sales opportunities handed to them or they could have a legitimate issue with a process that isn’t producing good leads. Which do you think it is?

    Hope this helps,

    - Steve
  • Posted by telemoxie on 10/12/2004 at 10:28 PM Accepted
    If I were in that situation, I would first assess my ability to quickly get another job if things don't work out. If I felt I could get another job quickly in an emergency, I'd talk with both the Sales Manager and the Company President about the following plan:

    1) Phase 1: I would provide leads to everyone on an equal basis, and ask them to provide simple and reasonable reports.

    2) Phase 2: I would assess which of the sales team was following procedure. If no one was following procedure, I would identify the three who were the closest to following procedure.

    3) Phase 3: I would implement a program to generate more leads, BUT ONLY FOR THOSE SALES FOLK WHO ARE FOLLOWING PROCEDURE.

    4) Phase 4: The sales people will whine and cry. They will tell you about their mortgage payment, their medical bills, their car payments. They will bad-talk you at the water cooler. They will go over your head to the VP sales. They will go over your head to their old buddy, the company President. They will pursue every avenue possible to avoid filling out your simple, well designed forms (95% of which is probably a big waste of time, by the way). (If you do not have the support of the President you are dead. If you take a strong position with the sales team, and the VP of Sales and/or the President refuse to back you up, your only reasonable option is to immediately resign).

    5) STAND YOUR GROUND. Help those sales folks who play ball to hit their numbers, and to meet their quotas. When the rest of the sales team sees that following procedures will put money in their pocket, when they hear about the folks who are buying new cars and scheduling vacations to Hawaii, you will be AMAZED at how fast they learn to follow your easy, simple, helpful procedures.

    If you are unable to gain the support of first, your VP, and then the CEO (get buy-in from the VP first, have the VP in the room when you meet with the CEO or you will probably be fired) then let them know that these sales people do not report to you, and that you will be unable to insist that they fill out these reports. (They say the nice thing about banging your head against the wall is that it feels so good when you stop).

    If you do this, call me in 6 months (check my profile). I'd love to hear what happens. You will either be respected in the organization and running a tight ship, or you will be working elsewhere.

    Good luck.

    p.s. Have you had these reports reviewed by an experienced salesperson outside your company? If you email them to me, I'll be happy to offer a quick opinion, no charge.
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