Middle Management: Why Investing in District Sales Management Training Is Crucial Sales Management Bryan Horveath VP and Managing Director Whether a salesforce totals 5 or 5,000, a sales manager’s ability to develop his or her sales representatives is more critical than ever. Good or bad, a sales manager’s leadership abilities directly impact the bottom line. Among the most important tasks are coaching sales representatives to think strategically and providing clear, measurable goals. According to a salesforce research report by The Forum Corp., most sales executives did not rate their managers as having strong management skills. In some cases, managers were top performing salespeople who were promoted because of their sales performance, not their management abilities. In other cases, the requirements of the sales manager’s role had changed, demanding a higher level of leadership and management skills than previously required. Most sales management and leadership trainers agree that their onboarding or new hire training processes are formalized and working. Many of these curricula even include skill development training. Furthermore, the marketplace is awash in management and leadership courses on such topics as delivering feedback, coaching, and counseling, to name just a few. Skill Development Then why aren’t your sales representatives getting the attention or skill development they need to be successful? One possibility is that the amount of time actually spent developing people has decreased significantly over the years. According to the Health Strategies Group, some of the barriers preventing sales managers from spending more time in the field are their vast administrative responsibilities, such as conference calls, meetings, special projects, travel, and HR issues. Most managers are required to be in the field riding with their sales representatives three to four days per week, with the fifth day allocated to administrative tasks. But the reality is that conference calls alone consume several hours of the day. Deadlines for data collection and reports further impact how managers prioritize tasks. This significantly affects the time for quality communication between managers and their sales representatives. Additionally, current market demands have had a serious impact on the roles and responsibilities of sales management teams. Sales managers today are tasked with new and evolving roles that go well beyond the day-to-day management and leadership of their districts. In some cases, field managers are taking on account and customer responsibilities, as well as serving a business intelligence role by filtering specific customer needs and data back to corporate headquarters. Here again, sales representatives miss out on crucial interaction time with their managers. Many managers chose a management career path not only for their own career development, but also for the opportunity to share their knowledge and experience with others. Managers can find it extremely rewarding to observe the career growth of their direct reports knowing that they have had a positive impact on each individual’s professional and personal development. Generally speaking, management teams have good intentions. The breakdown often occurs when they are unable to strike a balance between requests from supervisors and corporate headquarters and what is important for the long-term growth of the district. Develop People Skills If this is the case, then why can’t we mirror the top 5% of successful managers who inherently develop people skills on a consistent basis? Senior sales management, as well as management and leadership trainers, often assumes their sales managers are actively developing their people skills in the field. Therefore, they do not see the need to further invest in a continuous learning approach for middle management. But a quick assessment of a management team’s skills, experience, and time provides the data necessary to make a business case for advanced management training. What are some of the ways management and leadership trainers can raise the awareness level and sense of urgency about this valuable training need? Assuming that people skills development courses are included in initial sales management onboarding training, the next step is to verify that this knowledge can be transferred at the field level. Developing application exercises and real-life case examples enhances the ability to transfer these skills. Post-training observation and evaluation by the regional management team can further reinforce best practices. Whether this development is outsourced depends on such factors as the alignment of the initiative with the strategic direction of the training department, the capacity of the training team, and the overall training budget. Regardless of who actually creates the content for this training — in-house or external — a number of effective tactics are useful to consider when making this investment. In-Field Training Programs In-field training programs are conducted as a follow-up to classroom courses. Often referred to as “meetings in a box,” these live sessions are facilitated by regional or district managers and help reinforce key content and skills delivered in a virtual or home-study capacity. A secondary benefit of these meetings is that managers have an opportunity to level-set expectations and enhance rapport with their direct reports. A third benefit is that regional and district managers are reminded of the critical knowledge, skills, and behaviors that they should focus on when coaching their representatives in the field. Rapid E-Learning Another engaging tactic is the use of e-learning courseware. Rapid e-learning tools using voice-over PowerPoint presentations, audio tools, and video files can quickly push sales management training content out to the team. Interactive software programs using case-based learning and decision-tree technology create authentic experiences that allow managers to test their own decision-making processes before interacting with sales representatives. Nontraditional Online Evaluations Well-designed online evaluations are a cost-effective way to maintain regular “touch points” with managers. Rather than a customary “test” format, evaluations can be created to encourage peer feedback and self-evaluation — a process that can make managers conscious of and receptive to what they are doing well and not so well with their sales representatives. Building a framework that encourages peer support and self-reflection is a pioneering method that encourages accountability at all levels of a salesforce. To summarize, the key to increasing efficiency, improving quality, and raising productivity is to develop an action plan that focuses on addressing the ongoing training needs of the salesforce in a strategic manner. The investments made today in providing quality-driven district sales management training can lead to greater dividends in work performance. Using state-of-the-art training tactics in combination with increased awareness among sales managers about their role in developing a learning culture in the workplace can make a tremendous difference in achieving optimal outcomes for business success. May 2007 VIEW on Sales Training Ventiv Professional Development Group, an inVentiv Health company, Somerset, N.J., enhances employee performance with the development and delivery of customized training programs using the ASERT expertise in client content development and state-of-the-art technology, such as DialogCoach. For more information, visit ventiv.com/commercial/services/professionaldevelopment.asp. The investments made today in providing quality-driven district sales management training can lead to greater dividends in work performance.

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