Corporate executives and sales managers are always telling sales professionals that they should strive to be “trusted advisors” to their customers. Fair enough.
However, if sales pros are supposed to be “trusted advisors” why do so many sales managers treat their employees like wayward, lying children? I’ve seen:
- CRM systems that track the sales pros’ every move — and managers who call the pros on the carpet the minute something doesn’t happen on time.
- Policies that treat contact data as “corporate” so that sales pros lose their business contacts if they leave the company.
- Cell phones with GPS features that track the sales pro’s every move, with reports sent to management of where the sales rep has been.
- Work schedules that require sales pros to make sales calls from 9 to 5, and expect unpaid overtime to enter data into the CRM system…
Maybe it’s about time that managers inside B2B firms start putting their trust where their mouths are. It’s a pretty sad day when sales pros are more trusted by the customer, than by their own firm.
