" Sales Manager Asks: Should My Salespeople Be Able To Work From Home?" - 08/28/19 Edition
Stephen Says Column
Dear Stephen:
I am a professional sales manager who works for a major manufacturer in a metropolitan market. I was previously at a dealer, and in both jobs we used a standard CRM similar to SalesForce.com. I have always prided myself on being a good boss — one of the rare managers who respects their employees and tells the salespeople to work smart, not hard. I once believed fervently in that cliché, but I am having second thoughts about it.
I have a full staff of people, all busy and all meeting sales goals. I don’t have anyone not “making their numbers.” I hate to take any credit away from my team, but the reality is in today’s economy, almost everyone is doing good. I feel a sense that because of the easy selling environment, my salespeople are starting to get lazy. It seems that many of my salespeople are taking the “working smart” adage as meaning you don’t have to show up for work.
Sometimes I feel my salespeople are phoning in their jobs. Sales calls are always in the mornings, and people seem to take off early once those are completed. My daily inbox is flooded with no-show salespeople claiming to be “working from home,” yet as we all know, a salesperson has to be in front of customers to be effective. One cannot make calls from the couch or the pool. Like a lot of sales managers, I have a suspicious nature, and when an employee claims to work from home, I cannot help but imagine they are spending time at their gym, seeing their friends or dealing with their kids. I follow the calls on their CRM and while there is certainly outside activity, it doesn’t seem nearly enough to justify that half my staff is simply not in the office.
Even beyond this perceived lack of work ethic, my employees’ unwillingness to show up to the sales office is having a tremendous effect on morale and camaraderie. I do my best to create a team spirit and cooperation-oriented environment amongst my people, however, if they do not show up for work, this becomes impossible. My company spends a lot of money on a beautiful showroom in this city along with a work area for each salesperson who lives in the market area. All of these are entirely under-utilized. Moreover, sales meetings are not nearly enough face time for people to share strategy and progress. To me, it’s the daily, short interactions between employees that result in good things happening.
To be clear, I manage a group based in a major metropolitan area. In my region, all employees are expected to conduct work from a sales office. I have worked in other regions where we have had several remote salespeople, whose job it was to work from home but this not my situation. It isn’t as if we expect salespeople to punch in and out, but every person on my salesforce is expected to conduct work from the office and showroom.
Like I said, they are making their sales goals so I am not sure what to say. I do not want the team to see me as a micromanager or to feel that I do not trust them, but I also want to actually do my job and manage! I fear if I let this get past the point of no return and ask them to start and end their day in the office, it will only serve to create a morale issue. Will it? What’s your suggestion? How do I steer my team back in-house without affecting their morale?
Inside or Out?
Dear Inside or Out?,
The answer to your question is not so black and white.
First, if all of your salespeople are at or close to their assigned sales goal, then maybe the goals are too low. But that’s for next year — it would be a disaster to change them in the middle of the year. And you are right, hardly any salesperson is doing badly in this strong economy, so it is difficult to understand where to assign the success. Salespeople hate to hear that. You know as well as I a fussy group of sellers wants all of the credit for their triumphs. It is, however, your job to manage them and bring them back down to earth.
Let’s face it: Many outside sales-people choose that line of work in part because of the independence a lifestyle of outside selling affords them. It could be as simple as someone wanting to work from home, and it could be argued that it really is more efficient to do so. What you call a “cliché” may be authentic. Like it or not, it should not matter one bit to you as a manager whether your people are working hard, what matters is the numbers. If the numbers add up, you have done your job, and the day is done.
As for your salespeople being MIA: Be it the gym, preschool or stopping by their elderly mom’s to drop off a prescription, only you can decide whether these even matter. As the boss, it is your job to foster the culture you want to grow in your company. My experience is that the best salespeople thrive in a balanced culture of work and life. This means to me that a work environment should be grounded in trust and freedom with the backbone of strong communication. Creating this sort of environment may require you to extend a bit more leeway to employees in terms of how they spend their time. So, what if they need a little time for the gym? If your salesperson can make up for it on the other end by delivering the revenue goal you assign them, then there should be no issue.
Other parts of this equation, though, need to be considered. People in a non-sales role often come to resent the freedom salespeople have. I am, of course, talking about your sales assistants and showroom personnel. Never underestimate the degree to which a sales assistant can make or break the productivity of your team. By that token, don’t overlook how this same assistant can drag their heels out of frustration when you have their assigned salesperson calling in quotes from the Equinox sauna!
Working culturally together as a team is also important. Your people need to engage in dialogue by sharing success stories others can learn from, service problems they may be troubleshooting or customers the team should know about. Part of the answer is to continue your weekly sales meeting, but make it interesting, make it mandatory, make it first thing in the morning, and make sure everyone turns OFF their smartphone. One more thing: Make sure your expensive showroom has a flow of customers and potential customers visiting and using it. Setting goals for each salesperson on showroom visits by clients, dealers and design firms would be fair and reasonable for you to do. You have an important resource that many sellers lack. Use it!
The bottom line is you need to treat your salespeople with respect and mutual trust, and guide them into behaviors to benefit both them and the company. You sound like a good guy, who is torn about what to do. I hope my suggestions will help you resolve your “Inside/Out” conundrum.
Stephen
You can send your workplace questions to Stephen at: StephenSays@bellow.press
Questions selected to be answered, will appear in this column. Please use the Subject: Stephen Says for all emails. Stephen Viscusi is a bestselling author, television personality, and CEO of The Viscusi Group, global executive recruiters located in New York. Follow Stephen on Twitter @stephenviscusi; Like Stephen on Facebook; and follow him on LinkedIn.
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