When it comes to understanding the role of sales and how to maximize sales performance, not too many business cultures “get it”.

Here is a recent email from Dick Benbow, Vice President of sales, Walters Wholesale Electric Company. Here is an unedited email from (with permission) from Dick - an executive who clearly “gets it”:

Paul, you mentioned managers "governing" from afar. They have their people filling out sales call sheets, contact reports, expense reports, projections, marketing reports, etc. Nothing but stumbling blocks to success. They do these things because they don't trust the system. They don't trust the people they hire. We are fortunate when our competition goes to market that way. I contend, hire the right person, get accounting people to make out all the reports you want.

Have your salespeople on a commission program that rewards high achievers, SUBSTANTIALLY. You can't be afraid of overpaying them. A sales manager is lost as soon as he feels no one salesperson should make as much or more than he does. I pride myself in claiming I have a number of salespeople that have higher incomes than we V.P.'s of our company. The more they make the more we make. For the life of me, I don't see how one manages people by not being with the people you are responsible for. How can one manage people when you aren't in the field seeing first hand what they are up against. How many of these managers woke up one morning and found out that one of their high achievers just left the company. Probably wouldn't have happened had he/she had been out there in the trenches with that individual, at least it would not have come a surprise to that manager.

There is an associated article (Executives Who Get It Managing Sales) which gives more examples- Russ Lesser, President of Body Glove, and Los Angeles Business Journal CFO of the Year for 2008, Dennis Eder, CFO of SCAN Healthplan. Also, there is an article on Richard Teerlink, CFO mastermind turn-around artist of Harley-Davidson with a similar theme.

Here is the fifty-cent question: Why do so few executives and managers “get it” when it comes to how to manage a sales force effectively?