Here are some excerpts from OOH Sales expert Kevin Gephart’s conversation with Chris Lytle who has trained sales professionals for 44 years. Last week Kevin and Chris discussed the OOH sales management trap. Today they explain the importance of sales manager courtesy calls.
Kevin Gephart. Somebody had a comment after I had written about sales managers carrying a list. They believe sales managers have to know what’s going on in the marketplace. Absolutely they do. Vince Lombardi won a few football games in his career, but he never once scored a touchdown himself. He had the right people on the field with the right game plan, the right coaching, and he won by being an effective manager. In the billboard business you don’t have to hang off the end of a crane to understand, appreciate, and manage people that go put billboards up. You need to have an effective system of keeping in touch with the market. One of the best, and I think I got this idea from you Chris, is the whole concept of courtesy calling. You do it in conjunction with the salesperson so it’s not a behind the scenes “gotcha” kind of a thing. You explain to your salespeople you are going to be calling on the accounts on a regular basis. “We’re going to work at this together so that together we can grow the business.” The sales manager gets on the phone to ABC Hardware store and says, “How are we doing for you? What can we be doing better?” “What are your biggest challenges coming down the road?” and “Is there anything we can do to provide you with better service?”
When I would get stuck on an account, I would say to my manager, “Hey, would you courtesy call this guy, I feel like I’m stuck in the mud here. See what we’re doing right. See what we’re doing wrong.” You get insights from those conversations that you won’t get any other way.
Chris Lytle. If you do it every six months for four or five years, they the clients expect your call and they’re starting to think “what can I tell this guy?”
Sales managers need to avoid competing with their team
Kevin Gephart. There’s “co-oper-tition” (cooperation and competition) (in a sales department)…and if the sales manager is also taking a book of business that throws that dynamic completely out of whack. “Now the sales manager is part of my competition for business” and of course they’re going to take the call ins, they’re going to take the easy business. They’re not going to block out an afternoon for cold calling. I think it really sabotages the overall culture of the sales department.
But sometimes a sales manager needs to carry a book of business
Kevin Gephart. Any company with more than four sales reps should have a dedicated sales manager. Sometimes I work with some very small companies that, out of financial necessity, have to have a selling sales manager. So that’s one exception. The second exception would be what I call legacy relationships between sales manager/general managers and a client. You don’t want to inject a sales rep into those situations because it’s not going to go well. The third one is, as you say, developing some territory to hand off because financially a company may not be able to withstand the investment of bringing in a sales manager (paying a salary, benefits, etc) until the account list is developed. Those are the only three exceptions. Do you know of any other exceptions Chris?
Chris Lytle. Here’s the thing about growth, you’re never going to grow unless you get everyone to the level of the top sales rep. It is kind of a vicious cycle because you say, “well we’re going to push this growth” and then there’s only one person pushing it.
Next week: talk about the client’s business, not advertising. If 2024 is your year to sell more OOH faster, I may be able to help, contact me at KevinJGephart@gmail.com
About Chris Lytle: Chris inspired and educated countless media advertising sales professionals for 44 years. He is the author of the media sales bestsellers, The Accidental Salesperson and The Accidental Sales Manager. His company, Instant Sales Training, continues to deliver sales training in easily digestible knowledge bites. Contact him at InstantSalesTraining.com
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