Are you leading or just towing the corporate line?
Managing up has become a more popular topic of discussion with sales management and sales leaders as we progress into this recession period. Most sales managers and senior sales leaders are feeling the heat from both sides.
As a sales leader our team needs to know we have their back. If we are just passing on the corporate mandates and not managing up, or pushing back and sticking up for our team – we will lose credibility and trust with our team.
When we are selling in tough economic or recessionary times it’s natural for senior executives who are detached and unaware of the frontline to make knee-jerk decisions that defy logic and context. If those decisions actually work against the success of the team, it’s our job as a sales leader to use our sales, influence and negotiations skills and make the business case against the marching orders – they have hired us for our expertise.
It’s easy to move into self-preservation mode and just say “yes sir” – and then relay the new mandate or change to the team. The challenge is, if it hurts the team or has no sound reasoning behind it, then our team will wonder why we didn’t stick up for them – or why we don’t understand the logic of the new direction.
This scenario creates lack of trust and credibility for the sales leader, the team starts to second guess everything. Productivity and motivation slows and then we are in the position we were trying to avoid in the first place – a disappointed senior management team.
Sometimes when we deliver bad news to the team and we share with them how we managed up even if we were unsuccessful we are still okay, they know we tried. Where we get into trouble is when our only reasoning is “Times are tough, we are doing this because management says so – end of conversation.”
It’s a tough spot to be in but it’s better to push back early and often then to lose the trust of our team and be left with nothing but excuses later on.
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