Take the Boss for a Ride

You say your manager wants to come along on your next sales call and you suddenly feel like getting that root canal you’ve been putting off? Don’t go off the deep end. Consider the positive possibilities. There are times when you should invite your manager along for the ride – times when a manager can really clinch a tough sale.

Ask Hannah Acton. Acton, a global strategic account manager for AMR Research in Boston, says she involves her supervisor early and often.

“Some salespeople are hesitant to invite a sales manager with them on a call, but I look at it as two heads are better than one,” says Acton, who is responsible for sales accounts of approximately $10 billion and more for the strategic-advisory firm. “Involving managers doesn’t necessarily mean they have to go on all sales calls with you.” For example, when Acton started at AMR, she invited her VP of sales to role-play with her and to listen to her pitch.

When should you invite your manager to come along? Acton suggests inviting managers to go on sales calls when the client’s senior people want to meet your manager or when negotiations are getting tough and you need extra support.

Regardless of the reason your manager is going with you, there are rules of the road. First and foremost, there should be a clear reason for your manager coming. “It’s your responsibility to discuss with your manager the history of the account, meeting goals and the meeting process,” says Acton. “Let your manager know what you expect. You need to set an agenda.”

Brad Lawson, national director of sales for WellMed, an award-winning online health products and services company, agrees: “I want to know what objective a salesperson wants me to accomplish by going on a call. I need to know what value I’m supposed to add.”

Lawson says that salespeople should do their homework before a manager is called upon. “Before I step in, the salesperson should be able to clearly diagnose the client’s business problem and be prepared to offer appropriate solutions,” he says. “I need to see an action plan outlining where we are in the sales cycle and what we still have to accomplish. I don’t want to be asked to go on a sales call until the salesperson has established his or her value in the sales cycle.”

Lawson doesn’t like to go on first sales calls with his salespeople. “I want them to be able to learn how to get to the person in power and how to establish a relationship first,” says Lawson. “Why? It’s human nature to gravitate to the person with the biggest title in the room. If I go into a prospect meeting, the salesperson will never get a chance to establish himself in the value equation, and that salesperson ends up being the gopher. I don’t my salespeople to be gophers, because they will never develop. You’ve got to let your salespeople grow, even if there’s a chance for failure.”

Once the agenda is set and everyone knows what his or her responsibility is, it’s up to the salesperson to keep control and establish that he or she is the clear leader of the meeting.

“You begin the meeting, you drive the agenda, and you close the meeting,” says Acton. “If you don’t take control, especially if you’re meeting with a senior executive, the two seniors will start engaging. You will lose credibility.”

If you find the meeting getting away from you, Acton suggests using strong body language and interjecting appropriately to get the meeting back under your control. Sometimes she goes as far as giving a little cue to her manager. “If I feel the manager is going in a bad direction, I may start tapping my pen quickly,” she says. “A manager should pick up on this, but if he or she doesn’t, it’s your job to have a curbside conference with that manager after the meeting.”

Finally, even though your manager is there to give assistance, you know that he or she is probably evaluating you during the call. But, Lawson says, it’s a two-way street. “Every sales call I go on, I’m evaluating, but the good salesperson should be evaluating me, too.”

Acton adds, “If you have a clear-cut agenda, it won’t feel like someone is sitting there analyzing you, because you both will be rolling up your sleeves to do the work. Remember, if you have the right kind of manager, he or she is totally invested in your success. If you feel insecure, keep that thought firmly implanted in your mind.”