Mastering the World of Selling: The Ultimate Training Resource from the Biggest Names in Sales

Chapter 22. Manage Salespeople as You Would Invest

Jeffrey Fox

Fox & Co.

If, as an investor, you had the choice to invest your money in the stock of a growing, high-potential company, or invest in a stodgy, low-performing company, where would you put your money? You would probably invest your money in the company that is a high performer. Yet, every single day business managers and sales managers not only violate the "invest in performance" rule, they do exactly the opposite. Every day bosses spend more time with low-performing, problem employees than they do with their best people. Every day sales managers invest their time with the bottom sales people, and practically ignore their superstars. Every day managers cut the marketing, selling, and training budgets of their strong businesses and growing product lines to "offset" underperforming parts of the company. Just as the smart investor would never knowingly invest in a stodgy business, so, too, should managers not invest their precious time in low performers. Instead, managers should pour the coals to growth opportunities.

Managers should overinvest in businesses and products and people that have big potential. Sales managers should spend 60 percent of their time in the field with their superstar salespeople. They must spend 30 percent of their field time with their high-potential salespeople. They must invest no more that 10 percent of their time with low-performing salespeople. However, studies of sales managers' calendars show ...