Do you remember being a sales rep and dreading Monday morning because you knew your manager was going to greet you with one of those nagging questions… You could feel the tension in the air. It was just stewing in his head until he finally blurts out, “Why isn’t the report finished yet? It was due last week!”
You were feeling pretty good with that first cup of java until you walked into the conference room and came face to face with your boss knowing that he was going to pounce on you about a task that should have been completed. But heck, you had a good reason as to why it wasn’t done. You finally closed the Jones account Friday evening while all the other schleps went out to happy hour. But he won’t let you get one word in about your success and how it’s going to rock the sales numbers this month. A great opportunity to boost morale was just deflated.
It’s Time to Break the Cycle
As the sales manager, you need to break the cycle of negativity and help your team to look forward to coming into the office and getting to work. How can you do that? Change your tone and ask better questions.
Don’t ask, “Why isn’t this done yet?” or comment, “You said this would be completed weeks ago” or “How many times do I have to tell you?” in an angry, judgmental tone.
Help Me to Help You
Instead, why don’t you ask the help me to help you question? It basically goes like this: “Can you help me to understand what the issue is so that I can help you achieve your (our) goals?” Rather than creating resistance, you’re setting a positive tone. You’re creating dialogue to identify what’s causing the hesitancy or anxiety so you can help your rep confront it, overcome it, and move on.
Stop Nagging to Start Seeing Results
Is changing your tone and asking different questions all that’s needed to get your team to meet their deadlines and produce better results without you having to nag them? Read Getting Employees to Meet Deadlines Without Nagging to find out now.
