How do you help sales managers deliver effective feedback?

Employee Engagement Mentoring & Coaching Personal Development+1 more

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Founder and Chief Sales Energizer in Services (non-Government)a year ago

Remove the emotion and stick with the facts. Managers get frustrated and don't know how to have a constructive conversation that may include some conflict or delivering difficult information. It's because they get emotional about it. Remove the emotion and state the facts. You have been doing this . . . to succeed you need to do this . . . can you do that starting now? What help do you need to do it. Proceed and provide what is needed and at the end of the next day you are very matter of fact. Yesterday we talked about you doing . . . and you did, Yay!! or you didn't and I want to understand what got in your way. Ok, so tomorrow you can, great. Rinse and repeat. Three days in a row of saying they will and not complying becomes a chat between the manager and HR to determine the next steps. Coach your people up or out. Either way they should feel good.

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Content Editor in Services (non-Government)a year ago

Thanks Alice, I love the really specific guidance here. Is there a framework for delivering feedback you prefer?

Would also love your thoughts on this question. Your "coach your people up or out" comment reminded me of this: https://www.gartner.com/peer-community/post/remove-low-performer-even-if-have-open-positions-to-fill

Founder in Services (non-Government)a year ago

Managing emotions is key (to Alice's point) and giving feedback can feel confrontational for the manager and the team member- which is why it is also important for the manager to manage their need for approval. Often when we are worried what others will think in this type of situation, we beat around the topic and are not direct and specific. When I see this happen with managers, they tend to ramble and start giving lists of things the team member needs to do. So keep the feedback specific. One way to do this would be to ask the team member why they believe they got a specific result- then continue to ask questions such as "What would you have done differently?", "What got in the way?", "How will you work through it or ask for help next time?" and offer feedback by saying "What about this way, how would you do that?"

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Founder in Services (non-Government)a year ago

Oh, one more thing- this framework works best when the manager understands the personally meaningful goals of their seller- because that is what will help them both drive behavior change. This way any feedback given is to help the seller bridge the gap between their personal goals and where they are now. (Quotas not personal goals- FYI). Also, establishing a coaching action plan with each seller that is evaluated each quarter (or the length of your sales cycle) for focus areas of improvement. This is a plan that should be done first by the seller, not more work for the manager!

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