Inside Sales Managers: You're Only As Good As The People On Your Team
Sales Prospecting Perspectives in pleased to bring you a guest post from one of our Managers of Client Operations, Mike Ricciardelli.
When I landed my first sales job I reported to the owner of the company. He had nearly 70 other agents working for him, just like me, and he treated us all the same way, like a person with a number stamped on their back. He had eyes like a shark and ran his business like a dictator. In the truest sense, he had the blood of a ruthless closer. He preached Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" but I think he was more interested in the latter part of the book’s title. He would always say "sales is a numbers game, so go out and do more."
I haven't really reflected back on his operation since my move to the management side of inside sales here at AG. In my current role it's not solely all about the numbers because sales is also a game of people and every person represents a unique variable that can skew the numbers, up or down. The goal is to help find, or create, the synergy between your team and their projects - each side relies on the other.
Many of the lessons I learn throughout life have come from watching other people screw up. Now, I'm not so sure my old boss screwed up anything in particular and I know he's making plenty of money, but the fact was – he didn't care enough about his people. That company churned and burned faster than any business I'd ever been with, to the point you were hesitant to say Hello and start a conversation with a new hire because the reality was they'd most likely only last a month or so until they disappeared from the office. I want the people at this company to be the priority - their success and happiness is in the best interest of AG and our clients. The morale is what drives us to get the best leads possible and to maintain those positive relationships with our clients.
Stepping into this new role, my priority was to learn, as quickly as possible, what type of management style each person would benefit from the most – some thrive on their freedom while others do better with a more hands on approach. I was at an advantage because I already had established relationships with most of my colleagues from working in the trenches along side them. I’ll never manage people in a fashion that conveys I have all the answers, because I don’t – we work as equals and have constant collaboration with one another. I don’t believe growth can come from ignorance or believing all your answers are gold, but rather from having an open mind and an ability to understand both sides of a conversation. Our most successful projects are the ones where everyone has a voice and everyone is heard. These are the projects that have spawned the best approaches as a group and the ones that prevent problems before they could even affect any part of the game plan. I am measured by my team, and so I believe the truth is that sales is actually a game of people and that you’re only as good as they are.