Sales Manager Skills: Knowing Your People

You’ve recently hired a new sales agent. During the interview process, they demonstrated a high achievement drive along with strong coachability indicators. You’re excited to see them get started. Now it’s time to do the work.

Let’s focus on three crucial ideas to ensure we are getting to know our new sales agent well enough and setting the right expectations from the start.

• Creating a Partnership
• Leading by Example
• Empowerment

Start Building that Relationship – How to become a trusted advisor, mentor, and coach.

At Shore Consulting we believe that if we know our buyers well enough, they will partner with us, and show us how to sell them the right home. It starts with building a relationship with the goal of becoming coffee-worthy, where after a few minutes of conversation with our buyers they would be willing to go and have a cup of coffee with us.

Think about some of the characteristics of someone you would go and have a cup of coffee with – someone who is friendly, fun, interesting, and interested. The idea here is that if our buyers like us, they will trust us, and if they trust us, they are more inclined to buy from us.

I believe we can adopt that same mindset and philosophy with our sales team.  Just like we should take a genuine interest in our buyers, we should also take a genuine interest in our team members.  Become coffee-worthy with your team. If they like you, they will trust you, and therefore will be more open to your coaching and development strategies.

Everyone learns and grows differently. Everyone has different motivations and goals. Let’s get to know them well enough that they will show us how we can partner with them to help them grow into their full potential and become the salesperson that we know that they can be.

Start With Why

Get curious. Why did they decide to get into new home sales? Simon Sinek introduces “The Golden Circle” in his book Start With Why. He drives home the point that most of us know the “what” and the “how” as it relates to what we do and how we help others but often don’t emphasize the “why” behind it. This is critical because knowing why someone is doing something allows us to gain clarity on purpose and belief.

Ask your sales professionals why they chose new home sales vs. a different career path. There isn’t really a wrong answer here, but an explanation that demonstrates a focus on a positive customer experience would be ideal. Anything that says they are interested in helping people improve their lives, and in our case, helping them find the right home.

It’s a beautiful thing when the organization’s why, our why (sales leader), and our sales agent’s why align. There’s no better partnership.

Lead by Example

The best salespeople are those who embrace training and practice. They train and they practice, and then they practice some more. It’s that desire and passion to be their very best. Hands down, the best way to promote this mindset and behavior is by consistently doing it ourselves. The keyword is consistent! We all have numerous demands of our time.

The good news is, when it comes to time, we are our own keepers. We have the power to set aside an appropriate amount of time for training and development with our team members on a regular basis, whether during our sales rallies, or during planned one-on-one meetings in the field. This is important. And let’s be clear and call it like it is, your beliefs and efforts related to training will be adopted by your people. 

So go first, jump in the trenches with your people and lead by example! Be willing to do what you are asking them to do. Teach. Show. Do. Teach them how, show them how, and then it’s their turn to demonstrate their understanding of the skill. Let them shine!

Create Superheroes

Hop in your vehicle and head to the nearest thrift store; we need some superhero costumes! Everyone loves superheroes, right? My intentions here were fictitious, but the more I think about this, the idea is really growing on me!

At any rate, I’m not fully suggesting you ask your sales agents to dress up and wear capes. However, you should very much want them to feel like superheroes and that they can accomplish amazing things. Empower your people by:

• Providing clarity on goals and the expectations you have for them
• Making sure they have the necessary tools and resources in place
• Holding them accountable
• Being their biggest cheerleader

This is what being a sales leader is all about. Helping your organization achieve growth goals, while helping individuals grow and realize their full potential. Can it be stressful at times? Absolutely! Does it require your time and effort? Absolutely! But when you do this right, the results will speak for themselves.

Investing in your people is your superpower. Don’t hold back!