“Why are you making yourselves irrelevant?”

I thought this was an interesting way for the national sales manager to start a recent sales management meeting. As I looked around the room no one was smiling. It wasn’t a trick question.

She went on to say:

“My gut feeling is that many of you are actually managing your team in spite of yourselves. Here is what I mean. On average, our sales representative (SR) daily call rate is seven. So over a month, if you do two in-field coaching days, that works out to be 14 sales calls with you, and 126 calls without you. In other words, for every call your reps make with you, they make another nine without you.

“And many of you would be lucky to actually have two full in-field days with each member of your team. That means the numbers become even scarier.”

She then paused, took a sip of water, and stared at the sales managers in front of her. I could tell she was trying really hard to be diplomatic as she continued sharing her thoughts with the group:

“Some of you just don’t get it. Seriously, if you think that great selling, managing, and coaching is about what happens when you’re there in-field with a sales rep, well, you’re wrong!

“Great selling is defined by what happens when you’re NOT THERE. Great managing is defined by what happens when you’re NOT THERE. Great coaching is defined by what happens when you’re NOT THERE.

“It’s what the SR does in their 126 calls that’s critical. Not what they do in the 14 calls. There’s nothing worse than spending a day with a SR coaching and managing and the next day, when they’re by themselves, NOTHING CHANGES.

“Are you positive, that your in-field days create some change, no matter how small?”

The question was rhetorical. Too many managers were looking anywhere but at the national sales manager. Then, in a soft voice that had a razor sharp edge to it, she said:

“Your people create results. Not you, not me, and not the company. Your people. And those results come overwhelmingly from the 126 calls they make without you!

“Here’s the bottom line: Without a customer, the company is irrelevant. BUT without a high-performing 126-call SR, you’re irrelevant.”

Needless to say, we were all a little relieved when the morning tea break was called. Not surprisingly, there was very little chit-chat about next weekend’s plans.

Back into the meeting the sales manager introduced the next session by asking, “What needs to be in place for you to be relevant, always relevant, to your sales reps?”

No one was really game to speak up, so she eased back and said:

“A few of you mentioned over morning tea that you think I was a little too harsh. You said that you can manage and coach your reps via email and phone calls and such.

“In fact one of you told me that you have complete trust and faith in your reps to get the job done, and that frees up your time to get on top of your administration and other tasks and projects.”

 “It’s interesting that that team has both average results and the highest turnover rate.”

She addressed the group one more time:

“Now let me ask that question in another way. Imagine that we let our reps go and sell to our customers via email, social media, hard copy post, and so forth. Would our sales climb or fall?”

One brave soul stood and said, “Fall. Selling is human-to-human contact, and the most effective contact is face-to-face.”

The manager applauded the answer and added,

“I’m asking you to do with your reps what your reps are doing with their customers:  influencing their behaviour ethically and respectfully AND face-to-face.

“Here’s the thing. You expect your reps to start this via a deep understanding of their customers and their needs. I expect that you will do this via a deep understanding of your reps and their needs. Influence is, after all, a function of, or better still, the outcome of relevant service.

“How do we know if we’ve been influencing successfully? It shows up when we’re not there.

The path to a high-performing, 126-call sales rep means being with them regularly, talking with them about their aspirations (not yours), enabling them to make the valuable links between their personal and business goals, and to listen—really listen—to them. How else will they be able to function and perform at their best when you’re not there?

She concluded:

“We have been seduced into thinking that success comes from following a process, like a sales model or a coaching model. Rather, most of what we think of as processes are, in fact, outcomes. Relevance may well be the least appreciated aspect of sales management. It comes about by never losing sight of your big picture--preparing them for what happens when you’re not there.

“The good news is that you are always relevant when you understand your people and meet their needs.”