Leverage Weekly 1:1's to Nurture and Mentor Salespeople
On the surface, the weekly 1:1 between sales leader and each salesperson is a great opportunity for each person to leverage each other's knowledge and creativity for the purpose of closing more deals and having them close faster. Personally, as a sales leader, I relish the 1:1's, because they provide a regular opportunity for me to mentor salespeople, while at the same time give me a chance to get current on pipeline activity and how to positively affect it.
Salespeople, on the other hand, tend to fall into two camps: the high performers, who welcome the chance to get the sales leader's guidance and express their views on how to improve sales processes, and the under performers, who dread their weekly hour of reckoning without any place to hide.
For the sales leader, supporting the high performers is relatively easy, as all that is needed is gentle redirection and support while eliminating internal noise that can be distracting for the salespeople. Supporting the under performers is where the real sales management skill is needed; diagnosing why the people are not performing up to expectations and how to motivate them to consistently deliver to meet expectations.
Avoiding the weekly "beat down" of the under performers is critical, as the salespeople will likely tune out eventually (even try to cancel the meetings) and, ultimately, leave the organization, creating a severe cost burden on the company (approximately $300,000 per attritted salesperson). Too often, the sales leader is so focused on the quarterly results that he/she misses the chance to truly nurture the "C" student into becoming a "B+" student. Moreover, creating a "safe space" for the sales leader to coach the person to sales health takes motivational skill and effort on the part of the sales leader.
Frankly, some sales leaders don't focus enough on what the salesperson is doing right, and only focus on the areas that need improvement. The 1:1's are a great opportunity to help the salespeople better understand what they are doing right, what needs to improve and how to accomplish the improvement. Redirection followed by empowerment can be a very effective method of improving the confidence of salespeople (similar to parenting). After all, confidence breeds enthusiasm and success, while uneasiness tends to produce poor results and costly sales turnover.
Ultimately, weekly 1:1's are the best way for sales leaders to support their salespeople. However, these meetings must be managed in a way that operates more like a tutoring session than a lecture or interrogation. Finding ways for the salespeople to feel empowered and confident in the sales process is critical to overall team success. Balanced scoring is always preferred over having one superstar and all others being low performers — even if the quota is consistently achieved.
From a financial viewpoint, having 50% sales turnover per year for a sales team of six salespeople costs the company as much as $900,000 in lost ARR per year, not to mention the negative impact on team morale.
Teaching the benefits of following the existing sales process (versus going rogue) is needed, as the sales leader can't be everywhere at all times. The salespeople need to feel empowered to use good judgement, validated by the sales leader. Creating a democracy isn't the answer, it's more like a benevolent dictatorship. Those sales leaders that leverage these weekly 1:1's to truly nurture and mentor their salespeople will be rewarded by enjoying the improvement of the sales team and their associated improved quarterly results.
If your sales team struggles with getting the most value as possible from weekly meetings, please email dave@moicpartners.com for details on how to structure optimal 1:1's. Learn more about making your sales team better 30 days from quarter's end (apply here to test your hand at getting better).
