Five Signs That Your Sales Head Needs To be Fired

A long time ago, in the land of Persia, there was a small business selling nuts and dry fruits, the owner, Emir Saladin was happy that the sales were picking up and he looked forward to growing his business to prosperous cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, Balkh, and Bamiyan.? To fulfill his dreams, he hired a sales manager called Zabala and started counting his chickens, hoping that the sales would increase and he would be the biggest fruit trader from his city of Isfahan. Time went past, winter came and went, and then the numbers started dipping, his old loyal employees were also unhappy, there was no passion left and customers had started complaining and not paying.

Emir Saladin had never tasted defeat and was known in the city of Isfahan as the best archer in the Persian Empire, so much so that the King of Persia wanted him to train his children on Archery. Emir Saladin, being a simple man with no love for power and fame, quietly concentrated on expanding his fruit business and moved to the city of Isfahan from Damghan, the capital of Persia in those days.

Things started going from bad to worse, and Emir Saladin became very depressed due to the turn of things, especially after Zabala had joined as the sales head. One day at midnight, he got up from his home and started walking towards The Maidan- The City Square.? It was a cold night, and he could barely see anyone else on the streets, as he got closer to the Maidan, he saw another person wearing a robe and walking at very slow pace; it seemed that he was an old man. Upon getting closer to him, Emir Saladin exchanged pleasantries and continued walking beside him.

Emir Saladin did not recognize him; he was Dann, the owner of best sales training firm in Persia, known to everyone as Platformax. After walking by his side for few minutes and as the light from the flames of minarets lit his face, Emir Saladin recognized him and burst into joy; he knew all his problems could be solved if Dann gave him his advice. His joy was short-lived as Dann?s charges were very high and he would not be able to pay it, considering the way his sales number were.

Emir Saladin?s teacher had taught that it?s always good to ask and see how the other side responds. If you don?t ask, you don?t get. Emir Saladin decided to ask Dann for a favor and use that advice to improve his business.

Emir Saladin asked, ? What are the signs which tell you that a company should fire it’s sales head?? to Dann. Dann took a heavy breath and said that a Sales Yoda from another galaxy had once told him this answer.

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He looked at Emir Saladin, and gave him an ear bud and asked him to clean his ears and then splashed water in his eyes and said, ?now that your ears are clean of wax and eyes watered, look for these signs.?

Your sales head practices micromanagement

Micromanagement is a common symptom of poor member leader relationships. A leader who practices micromanagement treats highly experienced and skilled salespeople as if they were novices, double or triple checks work, or places rigid and excessive restraints on the decision making of team members. To someone looking at the team from the outside, it would appear that all decisions and information are being channelized through a very narrow managerial portal. As the team leader frantically attempts to maintain tight control over an ever-increasing array of projects and problems, workflow slows down significantly.

Your Sales head has communication problems

Troubled sales team members and sales head relationship are sometimes characterized by the opposite condition, where the team leaders provide insufficient direction to their teams. Team members may receive vague or ambitious instructions on projects. They may also discover that the team leader has failed to relay instructions or provide an overall context that enables them to understand the larger work issues involved. For their part, team members conceal mistakes and fail to disclose difficult situations. Eventually, these small failures in communication may result in unpleasant surprises for both the team leaders and its members.

Your sale head has increased team stress levels

Team members depend on their leader for feedback, coaching, guidance and recognition. Deteriorating sales head and sales team relationship produce a high degree of stress. A tense and hostile relationship between team members and their leader may cause some members to view the sales managers office as enemy territory. Also, the sales manager plays a major role in guiding members through times of volatile organization change. Members who lack strong bond with their leader are less prepared to deal with such change and will regard it as a stressful, unmanageable experience.

In time, team members will begin to display all the classic symptoms of work burnout, such as low energy level and the inability to concentrate on complicated tasks. When conversing with other groups, they may appear tense and curt. A concurrent symptom is a rise in absenteeism among team members, which is usually characterized by frequent one-two day absences.

Lack of trust within the team

Sales team member and their leaders may experience increased levels of mistrust. When this happens sales team members will respond to their sales head?s suggestions or explanations of altered requirements with lots of skepticism and suspicion, while the leader may be dissatisfied with the sales team?s justification of poor performance or missed milestones. Both the sides covertly hide behind each other?s defenses to try to find out the real story.? As time passes, the sales team members and their leader may respond to the worsening situation by curtailing all communication.

It is our camp versus their camp

Eventually, when the relationship is in its last round, sales team members and the sales head will separate into opposing camps. In discussions with other work groups, both the sides will complain to their respective peers about the difficulty they are experiencing with the other party. In some cases, team members begin to view their leader as no longer being a part of the team itself. So much so that when the sales leader walks into the room, informal conversations will cease or become guarded.

Armed with excellent advice from Dann who ran the most leading sales improvement platform, Platformax, Emir Saladin breathed a sigh of relief. He had absolute clarity on what he needed to do. Zabala had to go and find another pasture.

This was in medieval ages; if you are still struggling with doing your sales number and keep on changing the sales team like diapers, give us a call. We will define and automate your sales process. I promise you, Dann, the Platformax guru will run it for you.

Sr?an Mahmutovi?