Day one. You’re the new sales manager at a rapidly growing tech company and you’re tasked with leading the best sales team west of the Mississippi. Here’s the kicker though. You couldn’t care less about this team or whatever it is you’re selling. You’ve checked out years ago and as far as you’re concerned, this gig is just one more obstacle between you and the fishing lodge. That’s when you decide it… You must destroy this team.
But how does one go about destroying an entire SaaS sales team? Hell, you don’t even know the difference between Java, Jira, and Salesforce.com in the first place. How should you be expected to navigate the waters of a modern-day sales environment? How can you impede efficiency, process, and speed?
Fear not my friends. In this guide I’ll break down 6 ways to easily destroy a high performing sales team.
1. Impede professional development
Selling is selling is selling. Doesn’t matter what it is, a good salesperson can sell almost anything. You don’t need to waste your time teaching people about your product or industry-specific knowledge. As long as your team members have a pulse and a phone number, any time spent other than making calls is time wasted.
2. Monitor their every move
People can’t be trusted. That’s why we hire managers to watch our people like hawks. Make sure you have a bird’s eye view of your team at all times to keep them on their toes. One easy way to do this is to construct a stage, or a soapbox of sorts to have eyes on everyone’s monitors at all times. Don’t forget to sneak up on them in between calls with unsolicited feedback. They’ll love that.
3. Muddy the waters
Consistency is complacency. When a customer or a rep on your team has a question, make sure you never give them the same answer twice. Moreover, make sure you never put anything in writing. Emails take too long to write and the internet doesn’t forget things. The less things you have in writing, the less things people can use against you… especially once your business practices catch up with you and inevitably lead to litigation. Stay vigilant out there.
4. Targets? What targets?
Wouldn’t it suck if you actually had to pay people’s commissions? I mean like actually have to pay them real money. One way around that is to set unrealistically high targets that are impossible to hit. The benefit to this strategy is that even if the team has a hot start and looks close to hitting their quota for the quarter, you can just change the numbers halfway through. After all, the numbers are all made up and the targets don’t matter. Forecasting is overrated.
5. Rip and don’t replace
Since we’re on the topic of forecasting, let’s do away with it all together. Numbers are hard and the only ones you really care about are the 16 on the front of that credit card. Let’s take it back to basics and get rid of all these fancy apps and CRMs. Leads, accounts, contacts, and opportunities – nobody needs em! Go with the simplest CRM with the least amount of distractions.
6. You shall not… collaborate?
A collaborative team is a team that talks too much. Make sure everyone stays in their lane to avoid distraction. Do not let sales and marketing interact or share data. The less people know about each other’s business, the better.
Is that new lead an existing customer? Are they part of a wider hierarchy? Who cares! Integrated data allows sales and marketing to work together to close more accounts. The more siloed channels we have to confuse our customers and staff, the easier it’ll be for you to sneak off to the fishing lodge – and that’s a win in your books.
Now, obviously this list is far from exhaustive. There’s still a smattering other strategies one can take to systematically destroy a sales team. If, however, you’re looking to take a more productive strategy in building up a modern, efficient, and collaborative sales team, we’d be glad to help. Get in touch to learn how Traction Complete helps teams solve these modern managerial gaffes.
