I had a client with a crazy sales manager…that is the only way I can describe this person. You’d expect his character to be a regular on the popular television series “The Office.” In fact, whenever I watch the show I always think of him.
I had to deal with this person all the time and had to learn how to deal with his most intriguing quirk. Whenever he would ask me a question about ACT, he would invariably interrupt me before I finished answering the question. He would never - and I mean never – allow me to fully answer the question.
So what does this have to do with ACT?
His goal for ACT was to use it to track his salespeople using ACT sales opportunities, and he insisted that his salespeople meet with him on a weekly basis to discuss everything that was happening. Basically, it was rehashing all the data that was simply a click away from him at any given moment. On more than one occasion, I tried to tell him that he could utilize ACT more efficiently and in return not have to bother his salespeople with weekly meetings; but he never listened.
The dilemma that his salespeople faced was that they were using ACT in such a way that satisfied his need for information and not in a way that would help them sell every minute of every day. The way the sales manager managed ACT was ineffective.
This sales manager was getting in the way of his salespeople selling; I tried to get him to understand that he could run a report on a salesperson and their sales opportunities in about 10 seconds to keep tabs on his salespeople. But every time he asked me to show him how to run the reports he’d interrupt me and never fully learn how to do it.
Unfortunately, he was using ACT as a tool to control his salespeople (I can tell you that it was clear to me and to his salespeople that this was ACT’s purpose) and not as a tool to help them sell.
Ideally, all sales managers using ACT need to understand that they should never ask a salesperson to generate a sales report when they can do it themselves. Their focus should be on making sure that they help a salesperson and not get in their way.
