Advice to Software Sales Managers from the CEO of SAP America

By Geoffrey James

Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP America, recently shared his experience as a top sales manager at the Selling Power Sales Leadership Conference in San Francisco. Here’s some of what he had to say:

"Sales managers should be intolerant when it comes to sales reps who can’t perform. If a rep doesn’t figure out how to sell a product or service in 12 months, that rep is never going to figure it out. It’s a mistake to try to get people to become sales professionals when they’re not cut out for this kind of work.

"Sales managers make a big mistake when they push sales professionals to perform non-sales functions. Most sales reps aren’t ever going to be great mathematicians or great proposal writers. You should build an infrastructure around them so that they don’t have to do things that other people can do better.

"Thinking globally and acting locally is a foolish strategy. In the software business, you need to think globally and act globally. Everyone wants to grow so in this business you need to speak to the CEO’s vision for growth. Remember, though, if the CFO or CIO can’t meet the vision because of an outdated legacy system, the company gets stuck in quicksand and can’t grow. So the software must ultimately close the execution gap between the CEO’s vision and the CIO’s ability to deliver.

"You can’t succeed in this business without listening to customers. Not talking to them–listening to them. I learn something that makes me better and smarter every time I have a conversation with a customer.

"Sales reps that bring in major business deserve to make more money than sales management. The purpose of sales management is to enable the sales reps to succeed big. It’s primarily a service function. If you want high performance, you need to reward high performance.

"CIOs need technical architects that can build blueprints that make sense and will be usable going forward. Even great software sales reps can’t do this alone. Every account needs a relationship plan that’s part of a strategic account management process. The salesperson functions as the quarterback, coordinating the team on the field.

"Being a sales manager is difficult. You have to continually build the team, a process that is like a race with no finish line. You need to know the customer completely and understand the customer’s business. Finally, you have to always know what your numbers are. It’s not easy to constantly juggle personnel, customers, and results.

"Cultures make and break companies. Some companies are only motivated by fear and greed. In those cultures people make money but are seldom happy with their jobs. At the end of the day you need to be able to ask yourself — do I truly believe in my company or am I just a pawn in somebody else’s game? Am I really doing what I want to do? Ideally you want everyone thinking: what do we want to be like when we grow up?

"Being a sales manager means building new strategies all the time. When you’ve succeeded for six months, give all your secrets to your worst performer and send him to work for the competition, because that’s the old strategy that won’t work any more."