![]() Also, 79% of managers agree that “when I support a corporate or leadership initiative, it is easier for me to drive relevant behavioral change among my team members.”īut here’s the disconnect: Of these first-line managers telling us that having the right intel, tools, and gadgets can drive the change they need to be successful, only 59% feel that they are getting the training and development support they need. In fact, 78% of sales managers feel that, when they have the resources and support from above to advocate for their team members’ needs, it helps support their own success. In turn, first-line managers tell us that they are craving support to help their teams. Bottom line, reps tell us that their own personal success is deeply rooted in their relationship with their direct manager.įLSMs also act as a first line of support for reps to help establish priorities when too much is coming at them or to assist with any internal hurdles, such as knowing where to find what they need, figuring out who can assist with getting a proposal over the finish line, or determining who can cut through the red tape of pricing exceptions, as a few examples. You can relate, right? Like when sales operations had to define a new opportunity review process with managers because the sales forecast was radically inconsistent … or how about when sales enablement needed to build a new coaching program because the feedback from sellers on career development was, to be polite, less than stellar? And not to mention an oldie but a goodie: when you had to work with managers to retrain reps on your new sales methodology because adoption was abysmal.īut there’s a critical element that’s missing from our analogy: Sales managers often don’t get the deep intel, or cool gadgets, that help them be successful.įorrester data tells us that first-line sales managers (FLSMs) are crazy important to reps - reps who are not going to come to work for your organization or stick around if their direct manager isn’t inspirational to them. They’re often asked to step up and right the ship when change initiatives start to go off track or when their sales teams don’t seem to put the same weight behind the different priorities coming their way from company leadership. ![]() There’s a parallel here with first-line B2B sales managers. When major change is disrupting some portion of humanity, a government force quietly sends in their top agent to resolve the issue, mitigate the risk, and get things back on track.īut even in movies and books, the best agents accomplish nothing without a great supporting team behind the scenes, providing deep intel, detailed plans, and - let’s face it - really cool gadgets.
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