Why Sales Manager Enablement is Such an Important Building Block!

Hey, Enablers, Happy Friday. Mike Kunkle here. Welcome to this week’s edition of Sales Enablement Straight Talk!

Today, I want to talk about why Sales Manager Enablement is such an important building block.

VIDEO

Video is back this week! Here's this week's 17+ minute video. Click the image to watch it on YouTube, and if you haven't subscribed there yet, I'd appreciate your support. The written newsletter continues below.

• DOWNLOAD the deck used in the video here: Why Sales Manager Enablement is Such an Important Building Block! (NOTE: You'll want the deck to be able to review it later, click links, and explore the additional resources.)

NEWSLETTER

I'd like to share some ideas about why Sales Manager Enablement is such an important building block.

Introduction

Of all the building blocks, there are two that influence and impact almost all the others.

• The first is Buyer Acumen. This is a deep understanding of your buyers and customers. Buyer Acumen influences the content you create, the training you design, the coaching your managers deliver, your sales process and methodology, and almost everything about your sales force and your go-to-market plans.

• The second block that has this same kind of a widespread impact and influence, is Sales Manager Enablement.

Sales Management Enablement

This will be our focus for the remainder of the newsletter, for the many reasons that I'll share. I’ve often joked that:

"If I only had a dollar to spend on sales training, I’d spend 75 cents on the frontline sales managers."

Why? Simply put, sales managers have the greatest potential impact on the sales force, for a variety of reasons.

• First, they are a performance lever and a force multiplier, meaning, they foster a sales effectiveness faster than any other way. This is true because they influence every single sales rep in your company, through the way that they hire, train, coach, and manage. Improve one manager, and they influence 8-12 sellers (on average).

"Frontline Sales Managers are an accelerant for change."

• These frontline sales managers are also the frontline for change management, and can drive change across their teams, and influence the entire sales force. I’ve often said that sales enablement is really a change management job. I still believe that – that hasn’t changed. But if we go one level deeper, we are really the change catalysts or change support. The frontline managers are truly the accelerant and drivers of change.

• One of the ways they do this is through sales coaching. (More broadly, I'd include, under that heading of "coaching," the appropriate use of feedback, field training, and effective sales coaching.) Sales coaching is one of the most effective ways to improve performance and no one is better suited to coach then the frontline sales managers to whom your sellers report.

• Because of their close interactions with their employees, managers greatly influence organizational culture and how employees view the company, as well. Renowned management consultant, Marcus Buckingham, once said that:

“Employees don't leave companies; they leave their managers.” 

• The reality is a bit more nuanced, but bad managers and toxic work cultures are two of the top reasons that people leave companies, according to multiple sources. Lack of opportunity and lack of development are also often cited, and managers play a part in both, especially with coaching and development.

For all these reasons, frontline sales manager and sales enablement leaders must be partners and collaborate closely together.

But even beyond that partnering, the sales enablement team, as well as the company’s senior leaders, must invest in enabling, developing, coaching, and supporting managers to maximize their potential and therefore maximize the capabilities and performance of the entire sales force. We must engage, enable, and empower these frontline sales managers.

What to Do

So, knowing all of this, what should you do?

As I’ve said, sales enablement must get managers engaged and partner closely with them.

• You should involve them, seek their opinions, gain their buy-in, understand their challenges and what they are trying to accomplish, and do everything you can to support them.

• You should also work with the senior sales leader(s) and managers to implement the Sales Management System from the Building Blocks book, which includes the Sales Management Operating System (smOS) and the Sales Coaching System.

Let’s look at those systems now.

The Sales Management System

My book details this Sales Management System and what I call the Sales Management Operating System. There’s a lot to unpack here with this system and this image, but if you take it from top to bottom and one bullet point at a time, I believe the concepts are very clear.

Remove Barriers to Frontline Sales Manager Engagement

And you must start, as the top box in this system suggests, by removing any barriers to frontline sales managers engaging appropriately and effectively with their teams.

It's unfortunate, and often unintentional, but many organizations put so much on the shoulders of their frontline sales managers, that these managers simply don't have time to fully engage with their teams, to diagnose performance, and to field trained and coach to close performance gaps. This is the primary job of a frontline sales manager, yet we very often get in their way, and then don't enable them to do the things on this chart and in this system, as effectively as possible. Don't be in "The Sales Prevention Business" or the "Growth Prevention Business." Remove those barriers.

It's impossible to say which building block is most important or which system is most important, out of context. But based on experience, I am very comfortable saying that if you can implement this Sales Management System with the Operating System and the embedded Sales Coaching System, effectively, it will absolutely move the needle for your organization. At the bottom of this slide, in the deck you downloaded, there is a link to download a deeper presentation on the Sales Management System.

As I've said, as part of the Sales Management System, there is also an embedded Sales Coaching System. The coaching system includes a framework, a process, and models, all of which combine into a coaching system that will allow you to create a cadence of continuous improvement, which will lift sales results. And it starts by training, developing, and coaching the frontline sales managers, so they can do this. This is part of enabling then, to better enable their teams.

How to Get Started

Now I know I have given you some assignments here, and things to review, but one of the questions I get asked most often is, “Mike, how do I get started?” The best option is to work like a physician:

Diagnose First, Before You Prescribe

The advice is already out there, in multiple places.

• I wrote a newsletter edition about how to get started with sales enablement. It's titled, Let’s Get Clear About Enablement’s Role with Strategy, but includes the process to get started.

• And I wrote an entire eBook on the topic: How to Develop a Sales Enablement Plan That Delivers Results

• It's also a chapter in the book: The Building Blocks of Sales Enablement

I realize, however, that in the beginning, all of this might seem somewhat overwhelming. I am somewhat of a hardnose about it, but I am not without empathy. So, there is an alternative if you don't want to (or can't) start with a full diagnostic approach.

Buyer Acumen + Sales Manager Enablement

For this alternative, I highly recommend that you ensure that you:

• Get your Buyer Acumen correct - that you truly understand the challenges and opportunities faced by your buyers and customers. Get that foundation firmly in place.

• Then you can start working with your sales managers.

Of course, I recommend implementing the full Sales Management System, or at least the Sales Management Operating System (smOS), but if they seem like a lot to get started, then at a minimum:

• Start by teaching coaching skills.

• And then, set expectations for coaching and implement a regular coaching cadence and communicate those expectations to your managers.

You should do everything you can to support your sales managers at becoming great coaches. This is one of the best ways to get started, because it helps your managers become a force for change and continuous performance improvement in your company.

Closing Thoughts

If I had any final thoughts, it would be this “tough love” advice. When starting a sales enablement program, I see a lot of people looking for the easy way. Sales enablement is not easy. Leadership, cross-functional collaboration, diagnostics, selling your ideas, change management, and improving organizational performance, are not easy tasks. You're in the deep end of the pool now, my friends.

My advice is, don't look for the easy option. Just dive in and get started and do the hard work. If you do that, I promise you, you’ll never regret it. Just like you will never regret engaging, enabling, and empowering your frontline sales managers.

There is no Easy Button for Sales Enablement. (Sorry, Staples.)

But there are some Power Buttons. And Buyer Acumen is one of those, and so is Sales Manager Enablement. Consider this newsletter edition, dive into the many resources I've provided, and take action to close any gaps you may have in your approach to enablement.

RESOURCES

Lastly, I want to provide some additional helpful resources, because I know I have left you with an assignment and some work to do.

Chapters in the Book

• Chapter 13: Sales Manager Enablement

• Chapter 6: Sales Training

• Chapter 7: Sales Coaching

• Chapter 16: How to Get Started

Related Articles

• Two Enablement Shifts That Can Produce Huge ROI

• Radically Improve Sales Results With a Sales Management Operating System

• How Enablement and Sales Managers Can Partner

• Your Sales Managers Think They’re Coaching, But They’re Probably Not

• How to Maximize Opportunistic and Developmental Coaching

• Feedback (from AI or Humans) is NOT Sales Coaching!

Documents

• The Sales Management System Overview (ungated download)

Well, that's it for this week, Enablers! Did you learn something new reading/watching this newsletter? If you did, or if it just made you think (and maybe chuckle from time to time - bonus points if you snorted), share it with your favorite enablement colleague, subscribe right here on LinkedIn, and check out The Building Blocks of Sales Enablement earning Experience. Felix Krueger and Mike Kunkle are both Building Blocks Mentors, and we hope to see you there! For other courses and content from Mike, see: https://linktr.ee/mikekunkle

Until next time, stay the course, Enablers, and #MakeAnImpact With #Enablement!