Help Wanted

Even top-rated sales professionals need help from the boss when problems or special needs arise. Sales coach Michael Galante, president of training firm Galante & Company International, says there is no better way to evaluate your salespeople’s abilities than by going into the field with them from time to time. Reports, sales meetings, pep talks, and sales literature have their purpose and place, but no coaching assistance helps more than jumping into the trenches with your salespeople. Smart reps second this. There is much to be said for do-it-yourself independence, but overdoing it often backfires.

But if you’re a sales pro, how and when can you benefit by inviting the boss into the trenches with you? Consider the following situations:

• • You are running into problems managing your time and territory.

• • You could use help planning your sales strategy and spelling out your selling objectives.

• • Your technical and/or selling experience dealing with high-level customer executives leaves something to be desired.

• • You’re unsure about the results of some sales calls.

• • You need higher-level backup for some of your ideas and proposals.

• • You feel a prospect or customer wants the status boost that can be achieved from higher-level attention.

• • You’re facing a group of buyers and need your boss’s support in responding to the challenge and their questions.

• • You need your boss’s feedback on your job performance.

Face the reality: while independence is laudable to a point, the bottom-line objective is the name of the game.