I love reading Harvard Business Review's daily blogs, hints, teasers and management ideas.  The magazine articles, sometimes yes, sometimes no, but I do believe that their comments on most management issues on marketing, and, most recently, on the science of sales are both stimulating and very thought provoking.

But, not so much in this morning's blog post on "When You’re Better Off Skipping a Difficult Conversation".   The author's comments, which you can read here (Adapted from “When to Skip a Difficult Conversation,” by Deborah Grayson Riegel" are summarized as...

Every leader needs to give negative feedback to their employees. But not every conversation needs to happen immediately — or at all. To determine whether you can avoid the conversation, ask yourself a few questions: If I have this conversation, what will I realistically achieve? Do I tend to look for problems in this individual? How committed am I to being “right”? Is there a reasonable solution that I can offer? What is my role in this situation? If your answers indicate that the situation will likely be resolved on its own, that you intervening is not necessary, that you’re more focused on being right than listening, or that it isn’t the right time to bring up the issue, then don’t schedule the meeting. By choosing which conversations not to have, you’re making sure the messages you do communicate are delivered for the right reasons and generate the desired results.

In all respect to Ms, Grayson Riegel, she's simply wrong for any management discussion, and most certainly wrong for any sales manager/sales employee interaction.

The Most Important Discussion Topics Right Now

Here we are right at the beginning of the second half of the sales year.  

• A couple of solid quarters of experience under our belts.  
• Lots of deals won, some lost and more that were just not ready to close
• Opportunity pipelines that are maybe full and maybe not quite yet ready to pop.

As a result, this then is the perfect time for an objective, polite, but very direct assessment on the part of all of us as managers involved with our sales and marketing teams to have 'The Big Boy & Big Girl Talk'.   Quite frankly, this is the most important and most critical job of any Manager-Coach.  It's where the rubber hits the road, and it really is the essence of what it takes to become a successful sales manager at any level.   

In these half year, one-on-one feedback assessments, it's absolutely essential to get everything out on the table and assess what's there both in facts and also in perceptions.  

Then most importantly, you need to construct a definitive agreement as to personal improvement plans and as to the expectations in all of Q3 account and territory plans.

1. Here's where we are on all the metrics against your 2016 sales plan, your quota plan and your forecasts over the past six months.   Three separate measurements of a positive, but direct discussion both in terms of the numbers, but, much more importantly, in terms of the planned tactics and activities that led to creating and accepting those numbers.    
2. Here's my observations on your performance during the first half of the year.  This discussion should be less about overall sales strategies and more to the specifics of account planning, territory management and executed (and not executed) tactics and activities over the past six months. Hopefully you had this same discussion at the beginning of April, but, if not, this is the perfect time to summarize observations and discuss the details of sales plans for this quarter and for Q4.
3. Here's my thoughts on your communication levels with me, with your peers, and with the sales and marketing team overall.   If I look back at failed salespeople, (both my failures and theirs), the mistakes that occurred over time were rarely made on skills and selling competencies. Sure, there were failures on sales process and tools skills or maybe on the abilities to negotiate or close deals, but, by in large, the overwhelming failures I've experienced have been due to the lack of direct communication and coaching between the salesperson and their manager.
4. Here's a few "Best Practices" that I've noted where you excel, and a few practices where I believe that you can learn from other members of the team.  Give direct examples taken from the metrics of others on the same team.  This concept of sharing "Best Practices" among peers on the sales teams is the single best tactic for improving specific sales skills.  On one hand, the manager could bring in a sales consultant (God forbid!) and provide a lecture on skills...that everyone would forget in less than five days, so the hard data on sales retention rate point out.  On the other hand, our own data says that sales people do proactively learn...and want to learn...from their peers more than any other source.
5. Here's what it takes to win H2.  It might appear from the tenor of some of my comments here that I'm drinking from the glass that's half empty.  Quite the opposite.  The majority of our companies have had an excellent first six months either making or being quota.  The primary point I want to make this morning is merely that in order to win in the second half of this game, this is an absolutely critical time over these next two weeks to have an open discussion, from both sides of the table, about what worked and deserves an "attaboy"/"attagirl" , and what needs to be improved on in order to score even more points in the second half.

Good Selling!

Have a great weekend!  

THINK ABOUT A "WHITEBOARDING SESSION"

You may want to think about working through a half day "Whiteboarding Session" with us now that the quarter is over.

Similar to six month and annual health checkup, in a highly interactive four or five hours, we'll take everything apart and put it back together again probing, questioning, listening and pushing just a bit in order to provide you with an immediate assessment of what we see along with a number of immediate recommendations.

Depending on your focus, we can look at the company as a whole strategically or financially, or take a much more specific view into the inner workings of your sales and marketing departments.

  
Head Coach