A few years ago the business I was working in was looking to recruit a new Sales Manager; I asked the General Manager what he was looking for - a Coach or a Rainmaker. He replied that he was looking for both; I suggested to him he needed to decide on one or the other as the skill sets and personality traits required are fundamentally different.
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A Coach seeks to achieve results through their team whereas a Rainmaker is (as defined by Wikipedia) “….a person who brings in new business and wins new accounts almost by magic”.

I have worked with both during my career and at a very basic level my experience is that a Coach is Selfless and a Rainmaker is Selfish.

Clearly a “Coach” is motivated by the achievements of his or her team and working with them bit by bit to improve their performance and results. Their pride and sense of satisfaction comes from when their employees achieve budget, convert a difficult client or close a new deal; their shared satisfaction of achieving what would not have been possible on ones own is where the magic lies.

Conversely, a “Rainmaker” is far more concerned about getting their deal across the line. Guiding and pushing the opportunity through the pipeline (often at the expense of all others) to ensure their deal gets over the line. The Rainmakers strength is their single minded ability to focus on what they want and close the sale.

 I am not saying that one is better than the other but most certainly it is critical that companies be honest with themselves, identify what need in the current situation, whatever it is and ensure that is what they recruit.

There are significant challenges for businesses and individuals who get this wrong. Coaches can struggle to convert their own opportunities and Rainmakers can burn others out of the team by inadvertently making them feel inadequate.

At one point in my career, I worked with a Rainmaker who was desperate to become Sales Manager because he thought he had earned it. After the company rewarded him with the promotion, he struggled to get the team behind him and they subsequently lost three solid performers. Luckily for him he recognised where his skills were and was able to move back into a purely Business Development role but the organisation took some time to recover from the loss of the other team members.

I have also been in companies where they were desperate for short term revenue wins; the company hired a Coach because he came with a good reputation and references but he couldn’t convert quickly enough – his career was disrupted and the company lost more time and money on their next search.

The reality is that whilst most businesses are looking the perfect employee they can’t find them because like unicorns they don’t exist. 

It is imperative that individuals and organisations are honest with themselves about what they are good at and what their team needs at that particular point in time to avoid these costly mistakes.

**Charlie is an expert in developing external sales teams and people, particularly where relationships and solution selling are the key differentiators.

As Henry Ford says, “Nothing happens if no one sells anything”, the managers of external sales teams play a crucial role in the success or otherwise of their people and company they work for.

In 1992 at the age of 22 I finished university; I am not sure which of those, or perhaps it was both, that lead me to thinking I knew everything though it only took me a couple of days in sales to realise that I knew nothing.

Luckily for me I went to a three-day sales training course which changed my life; I remember thinking at the time how critical interpersonal skills are and how they could be both learned and applied with immediate effect.

I recall the sales trainer saying, “there is a dearth of good sales people in Australia.” It was like he planted a seed in my brain and it became my life long journey to work out why, it has taken a few years, but I reckon I have it nailed:

1. Recruit - We’ll look at someone and say “I’ve got a vacancy, he / she looks like a sales person, talks like a sales person, lets give them a job”. I appreciate it is not quite that simplistic but thorough processes including multiple face to face interviews, profiling and reference checks are available to all though are rarely used with any discipline. Additionally, I have worked in organisations where HR have got in the way and sabotaged the hire using “process” as an excuse for their ineffectiveness – please.
2. Induct - Most induction programs go like this…. “here are your keys, here is a phone and customer list now off you go and sell.” Often this is called the sink or swim mentality but for me this is like throwing a brick to someone who is drowning. I did this many years ago and ruined some great possible careers in sales and it still sits with me poorly – at best this is incompetence and laziness and at worst it is demonstrating a total lack of empathy and disrespecting people’s careers.
3. Train - Richard Branson said a few years back, “Train people so they can leave, lead them so they don’t want to.” Too many companies don’t train their people and the ones that do are most often ticking a box, spending what is in their budget regardless of the relevance or sending them on some generic cost-effective workshop (read ‘cheap’).
4. Coach - An apprentice electrician has a foreman looking over his shoulder saying don’t touch the red and the blue wire because you will go “bang”. Likewise a graduate accountant has a finance manager looking over their shoulder. A sales person goes from prospect to prospect hoping that someone will speak to them and be interested in what they have to offer. No cosy desk, no fridge to put your lunch in, no support from someone in the next cubicle when you have had a tough conversation; they just have to get on with their next call. Good coaching is fundamental to sustained success in any profession, it is even more important for external sales people but too often overlooked.

A few years back as I reflected on this puzzle which took many years to complete, I came to the realisation that all of these things were under my control as General / Sales Manager.
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As Sales Managers, we can’t half do this, and three quarters do that – it’s an “all in” game. It is our responsibility to respect the careers of those we attract and motivate to stay in professional sales, it is a no brainer that we and the companies we work for have the most to gain.

**Charlie is an expert in developing external sales teams and people, particularly where relationships and solution selling are the key differentiators. www.charliepidcock.com.au

I wrote a few months ago about the concept of leading and lagging indicators when measuring sales performance which you can reread by clicking here.

More recently I read “Cracking the Sales Management Code” by Jason Jordan & Michelle Vazzana called which I highly recommend if you have the time.

The concept is fairly simple but as outlined in the book and based on the challenges faced by most businesses these days is by no means easy. The premise is based on AOR which stands for Activities, Objectives and Results, like I said, sounds easy right?

Their analysis of over 300 companies found that only 17% of metrics are highly manageable in terms of their activities and 24% deal with business results – it really makes you wonder what we are doing to ourselves.

Good companies, who are clear about their Objectives only measure Activities that ensure these goals are met. Nothing. Else. Matters.

It is critical for organisations to be clear in their objectives or they risk running around in circles in measuring themselves to a standstill, it’s like swimming against a strong current.

As John E Jones said “What gets measured gets done, what gets measure and fed back gets done well, what gets rewarded gets repeated”.

When your team are clear about what to measure in terms of their activities, made accountable and then managed well it they will surely achieve the results or something else is wrong….

If you would like a summary of the book please click here.

**Charlie is an expert in developing external sales teams and people, particularly where relationships and solution selling are the key differentiators. www.charliepidcock.com.au