What's Lurking In Your Sales Culture?
Forrester, Tuesday, April 16th, 2024
Some time ago, I (Peter) witnessed a horrific interaction in a business environment. An individual-contributor sales rep walked up to their manager to ask for some tactical help on a particular deal that they were managing.
The rep only progressed as far as, 'Hey, could you please help me with . ' when their manager angrily cut them off. With one arm in a 'talk to the hand' position and the other pointing back to the rep's cubicle, the boss shouted, 'STOP. Just go back to your desk and 'expletive' SELL!' This is not an exaggeration.
The sales manager wasn't teaching their rep to fish nor giving them a fish to eat. They clearly felt no reason to coach or support their direct report, perhaps having already considered them a lost cause. Maybe the instructions had already been made clear and were being ignored.
Maybe the manager was just having a bad day. But does the reason even matter? They were as effective a manager as Alec Baldwin's character, Blake, in 'Glengarry Glenn Ross' (in other words, not) - yelling and fearmongering rather than supporting their employee. It felt more like a used-car lot than a B2B professional services provider.