Sales Leaders, It’s Time to Focus on Your ‘B’ Players
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Who are your top sales reps — your undisputed “A” players?
You know who they are without even thinking. And most of the time, the “A” sales reps have the best and biggest accounts and get the most attention from their sales leaders.
The other group that typically gets a lot of attention is the “C” players — the sellers who are struggling and need a lot of coaching and support.
But the people whose performance is in the middle of the bell curve? They kind of float along on their own. Their sales are decent, they don’t have any fires to put out, and they essentially get ignored.
That might work in normal times, but in the extended COVID environment we’re in now, I think it’s time to shift your management focus to the “B” players.
We’re all living and working during a pandemic, and our available time has shrunk in new ways. While every employee deserves full support and care as a human being, for sales managers who are struggling to get everything done, the management and coaching focus has to be on the middle of the bell curve. Here’s why.
“A” Players Already Know How to Thrive
Your very top salespeople already know how to perform at the highest levels. They have either the natural talent, the learned skills, or the right combination of tools to hit their goals and make an impact.
They’re also most likely to be able to pivot, innovate, and get creative. They have deep relationships that they can nurture to weather the current storms. They will be OK.
“C” Players Have Limited Potential
At the other end of the spectrum, salespeople who were the lowest performers before the pandemic likely aren’t going to suddenly become sales masterminds. They need your care, but it doesn’t make sense to give them an outsized share of your coaching.
“B” Players Will Sink or Swim. Your Job: Help Them Swim.
That’s because you should be focusing your coaching, attention, and mentorship on the middle of the pack. During the pandemic, your “B” players have three possible paths:
They improve and become “A” players.
They stay where they are.
They suffer and fall down to “C” status.
Your job as a sales manager is to keep your “B” players at “B” level, or move them up to “A”s. Your biggest priority should be making sure none of them fall down to the lowest end of the performance ladder.
Sales Coaching Ideas During COVID
If your team is working from home for the foreseeable future, not traveling to see customers, and not meeting face to face, how can you coach your sales reps?
It’s time to get creative as a sales manager.
First, adjust your sellers’ development plans. Whatever you planned before COVID is basically moot. Everyone will need more inputs to help them deliver the same outputs.
Next, coach your “B” players closely. Your “A” players will adapt to a new way of selling, without their normal touchpoints with customers. They’ll figure out how to connect with their customers and end-users without lunches and meetings and in-person feedback. But “B” players will need help understanding how to connect, how to get feedback, and how to establish and nurture relationships. Coach them closely. Brainstorm, talk through their challenges, and lend your own creativity to the cause.
If your team is missing the camaraderie of the office, like monthly team lunches, could you have virtual team lunches? Order sandwiches to your employees’ houses and meet for a Zoom lunch celebration to review the big wins of the month and talk through major opportunities coming up.
If your sales team needs inspiration, could you plan a virtual book club? You all read the same sales book (here’s my favorite book about selling), then schedule an hour to talk about it. These book club meetings could be for the whole team, or one-on-one with the “B” players who need your coaching and direction the most.
Could you find new ways for salespeople to mentor each other? Try pairing “A” players with “B” sellers. Give your “A” team the job of being peer mentors and sharing the sales techniques that are working.
Motivation can be tough right now. How could you inject some fun competition and celebration into the virtual environment? Could you virtually recreate your leaderboard that used to hang on the office wall? Could you find a way to signal new sales, even if you’re not in the office to ring a bell?
We all thought COVID restrictions would be over by now. But we can’t keep hoping that we’ll be back to normal soon. We’re living in an altered way for the long haul, and now the challenge is to adjust the way we work, coach, manage, and sell to meet this moment. There’s a lot of gravity that can bring people down right now. As a sales manager, your top priority should be keeping your people moving forward — especially your “B” players.