For a group of people to remain consciously competent at optimum performance levels, they require frequent injections of stimulation, motivational guidance, prompting and directing, otherwise they can easily lapse into becoming unconsciously competent or worse, unconsciously incompetent.
The primary objective of a professional Sales Manager has to be:
'To achieve consistently superior results, through the performance of every key individual.'
The Acid Test: When thinking about your own sales force,
- Do you understand their motivatorswhat is driving them?
- Do you have visibility of their numbersyear to date, forecast vs. required performance?
- Activity levelsare they working hard and smart enough?
- Engagementare they talking to the right level in their prospects/accounts?
- Messagingare they capable of delivering an appropriate message at the right level?
- Qualificationare they only spending time on deals where they can compete and ultimately that they can win?
- Closingare they constructing successful campaigns and closing business?
Controlled Management:
The basis of Controlled Management is to provide a means of effective management by adopting different approaches in different situations with different people. Studying the approach and methods of great leaders in history, shows a variety of styles and proves the point. Compare for example, the styles of leadership displayed by say, Montgomery at El Alamein, Pope Jean-Paul II and the Roman Catholic Church or Bob Geldof and Live Aid. All three proved themselves effective leaders but in totally disparate situations and with very different groups of people. Controlled Management is a model, which provides guidance on the most effective management style to adopt in certain situations, with different types of people.
CM is a model, not a theory. The difference is that a theory attempts to explain why things happen, whereas a model is a pattern of events, which can be learnt and repeated.
There are four management styles: Directing, Coaching, Supporting and Delegating.
Each style is appropriate in certain circumstances and they can be illustrated as follows:
Directing - Low Supportive, High Directive.
Delegating - Low Supportive, Low Directive.
Coaching - High Supportive, Low Directive.
Supporting - High Supportive, High Directive.
CM is a way of describing and analysing leadership styles. It is a combination of directive and supportive behaviours.
Directive behaviour involves telling people what to do, how to do it, where to do it, when to do it and then closely supervising this performance.
Supportive behaviour involves listening to people, providing support and encouragement for their efforts and then facilitating their involvement in problem solving and decision-making.
Top performing Sales Directors and Managers understand instinctively when a situation requires them to Direct, Coach, Support or Delegate but learning these skills takes time and practice and underpinning this advanced approach to management must be a range of core competencies..
The moral right of the author, Jonathan Farrington, has been asserted.All rights reserved.This publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system or otherwise, unless this notification of copyright is retained. |
| Author: Jonathan Farrington |
| |
Author Bio:
Jonathan Farrington is the Managing Partner of The jfa Group To find out more about the author, read his latest articles or to subscribe to his newsletter for dedicated sales professionals, visit:www.jonathanfarrington.com
You can also now visit Jonathan's Blog at: www.thejfblogit.co.uk |
| This article can be searched using: business sales, small business sales, sales leads for business, sales business plans, sales business |
|
 |
|
