I heard the story one time of a university president who had a long-term goal of being the president of the university. After he was promoted, and about a year into the job, he was having lunch with a friend and the friend says to him:
"You don't seem happy. This has been a life-long goal of yours. You've had this university president gig for a year and you don't seem happy."
And he looks at his friend and says:
"You know what? After a year, I’ve realized something. For all this time I’ve wanted to BE the university president, I actually didn’t want to DO the university president."
This story is a great example of when the title is what people are chasing, not actually the habits and activities they need to do to succeed.
I don't know how you were raised in sales, but I was raised that you didn't even question it. You sell for a certain amount of time and then ultimately the goal needs to be you want to be a sales manager. When I was first made a sales manager (if I’m being honest with myself), I was just after the title. It was the prestige. It was that ‘cool to get’ promotion. And because I didn't have the best mentors as sales managers early on, I didn't even know what DOING the role of sales manager really was. I’d go to some lunches and I’d go out with some clients and I’d have this cool office in the corner.
I want you to ask yourself:
Do you really want to DO sales management in Chicago or do you want to BE sales management in Chicago?
Being is the title, doing is the behavior kind of stuff. Stuff like:
• Coaching
• Pre-Call Strategy
• Debriefing
• Recruiting
• Hiring
• Onboarding
• Accountability
• Difficult Conversations
• Ride Along’s
• Mentoring
• Training
• Roleplaying
When I talk to managers, I say, "Okay, if you want to be an effective manager, this is the kind of stuff you’ve got to work on. These are not always your most fun activities every day, but it's kind of like exercise. If you're going to be effective at it, if you're going to be healthy, you need to exercise. If you're going to be healthy as a sales manager, this is the exercise you have to do on a regular basis.”
Take an inventory of where you're at. Ask yourself the honest gut-check question. Do I want to BE sales manager or DO sales manager?
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