Inevitable Structural Change That’s a fairly common question asked by many industry players. Unfortunately, many of the people that ask that question seem to believe managing activity is the “be all to end all.” I hate to be the contrarian, but what I will say is that if my life as a manager was spent driving phone calls through my team I’d find a new job, and fast. Maybe I take an overly simplistic look at things, but if I need to tell somebody that they need activity to sell I believe I have the wrong employee. Let’s face it, if you have to tell somebody on a daily basis that they need to work wouldn’t you consider that a hiring mistake? More importantly, the myopic focus on making phone calls distracts the manager from the more important metrics of revenue growth, pipeline growth, and employee development. Believe me I get it—the more (quality) appointments somebody has the more revenue they should produce. That’s a good message. Nevertheless if you as the principal or your sales management makes phone calls or cold calls the primary measurement of success, I’d tell you you’re missing a great opportunity. Forget about complementary prospecting such as e-mail, social networking (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc), webinars and lunch and learns (How exactly did you come across that activity expert anyway??), you aren’t focused on outcomes, which is revenue. You are also missing many opportunities to measure future results. I think you at least understand my position, whether or not you agree with it: If you don’t want to put forth the effort to get appointments, you simply don’t want to work on my team. If you put forth the required effort and don’t get appointments, it is my job as a manager to help you identify why you aren’t getting those appointments and to put in place the training to get you proficient in account development. More broadly to the point of this article, it is my requirement to manage you as you ask me to manage you. Now unfortunately for many, that statement may not have the same interpretation for me as it does for the subordinate. How do you ask to be managed? By what you accomplish and how you accomplish those goals. If you hit quota quarter in and quarter out, your revenue is growing year on year, you are a leader in the bullpen and you readily adapt our new offerings and attend all meetings without complaint, I meet with you once a month. That meeting will be almost 100% focused on how I/the company can support your efforts and on how I may be able to use your skills to help me with the other sales professionals. This person, although rare, is an absolute dream to manage. There are various levels below the aforementioned, from the accomplished rep that is simply a train wreck in the bullpen and needs some coaching and counseling, to the journeyman who maintains a positive attitude but can never seem to quite write quota, to the rep that is struggling badly and doesn’t seem to want to put in the effort. That “put in the effort” characteristic is critical to me as a manager in that it is a requirement for me; I am not in the babysitting business and strongly recommend that as a manager you don’t put yourself in that role. Therefore, we are going to assume that if the sales professional is on your team they have the desire, ability, and motivation to put forth the effort to be successful. Back to the journeyman, whom we already know does not achieve quota. What do we do with this person? The first issue is we need to identify the problem. We could over simplify that analysis and tell him he needs more appointments, so therefore, he needs to make more calls, but maybe he has a significant time management issue and even if making calls were the issue we haven’t identified what is precluding him from making the calls or provided the help in removing the impediment. But I am getting ahead of myself. One truth is that more prospects, all else being equal, will result in more revenue. Therefore, the measurement immediately following revenue is pipeline growth. Is the rep growing the value of their pipeline month over month? If they are, and their revenue isn’t growing, I know to look at the quality of the appointments and further diagnose from there. If they aren’t, I look into why pipeline isn’t growing. There are many possible issues in this category. Again, resist the simple solution of “make more calls.” The rep could be a stud at making the calls but he (she) may be terrible at monitoring his base of accounts. Leases may simply roll into month-to-month or the customer may exercise their buyout while the rep makes 50 calls per day. The ironic aspect of this situation is the harder you drive the rep to make calls, the higher the probability that current accounts will roll into month-to-month or exercise their buyout because the rep will have even less time to work the base. I’ve already disclosed the measurement after pipeline growth—is the rep properly managing their base of accounts; do they monitor lease expirations, large variances to minimum period billing, excessive service calls, etc. A simple review of these metrics in their customer base will give you your answer. How about this one—do they have too many customers to manage? How is that possible? It usually occurs when a tenured rep “inherits” all the accounts of the terminated reps. Over a few years that tenured rep can inherit quite a few accounts, and next thing you know he doesn’t need to work very hard to earn a decent living. You could whip on him like a rented mule to make more calls but that won’t happen because he can make all the money he wants flipping his (your) base. I believe by now you have the point of this article, but just in case I’ve lost a few of you along the way I am going to make it explicit: Stop looking for “miracle cures” to your sales issues. Miracle cures are extremely rare in any aspect of business—or life for that matter. Success requires a focus on the drivers, working backwards. As you work backwards an issue can take you in many directions, so think holistically. If you take the time to diagnose your problem, really take the time not over simplify, there will be far less chance of you driving people toward an activity or event that can actually have detrimental outcomes.u Tom Callinan is the founding principal of Strategy Development, a management consulting firm for the technology and outsourcing space, and the leading MPS consultancy specializing in business planning, sales effectiveness, advanced sales training, and operational and service improvement (www.strategydevelopment.com). From 1998 – 2005, Callinan was an executive with IKON Office Solutions, most recently vice president and general manager of IKON’s largest business unit with revenue of $1.4 billion. Prior to IKON, Callinan was the founder and CEO of Copifax, Inc, a copier dealership that was recognized with numerous awards including inclusion on the INC 500 list of fastest growing private US companies. Copifax was acquired by IKON in 1997. Callinan graduated with high honors from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Tom can be reached at callinan@strategydevelopment.com or 610.527.3317