“The watchword today is transparency, and if you are not being truthful with your sales team how can you expect them to trust your motivations?”

Our author interview this week is with Don McNamara, a certified management consultant and founder of Heritage Associates – a sales management training consultancy in Laguna Niguel, California. Don’s award-winning book, Visionary Sales Leadership, takes a hard look at how organizational leaders view their sales function, and how to reshape that view for greater sales effectiveness and profits.

Prior to founding Heritage Associates, Inc. in 1997, Mr. McNamara held a variety of field and staff management positions with Best Software, Pervasive Software, Rockwell International and Intergraph Corporation. He began his career with the Burroughs Corporation.

With an ever-tightening economy we called on Don to answer some tough questions about the role that sales plays in securing needed business and remaining competitive.

Don, needless to say, we love the book. What brought you to the realization that these leaders needed to hear what you had to say?

After 30 years in corporate America, and, at the time of finishing the book, about 8 years of experience consulting, coaching and training, it was clear that almost every CEO and president I had run into came from some other part of the organization than sales.Most likely they came up through the management ranks from operations, finance, engineering, maybe even marketing.

They really did not ever grasp the appreciation of what a superior sales leader does, much less what they need to know, have well grounded skills in, nor have the emotional and psychological package required to lead their sales organization effectively. Someone with the relevant successful experience in sales leadership needed to write this type of book.So I made it my mission.

You mention early in your book that the best salespeople will leave a company not for more money necessarily, but for a company that “gets it”. Can you expand on that for us, and how it is more important than ever that the sales leadership does indeed “get it”?

Communication is key.The watchword today is transparency, and if you are not being truthful with your sales team how can you expect them to trust your motivations?I experienced it over and over again while under the employ of others.While it is not necessary to disclose all the deep inherent secrets about the business, it is vital that you share the concern of its leaders.

Just look at how the American population is looking at the Wall Street meltdown and the financial crisis we are in.Everyone who is staying current and leaving partisan politics aside, sense that we have been deceived royally throughout by our government and this is not just one or two administrations back.This has been going on for a long time.I find it ironic, sad and even a little amusing that congress enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley act in an effort to put governance into business, yet there has been a severe lack of governance, oversight and prudence among our elected officials.No wonder we are suspicious of the motives of those wanting our legislators to enact bail outs.

More to the point, salespeople have well developed radar for nonsense and half truths.If executive management wants the sales force to take a reduction in pay, then they should take one too.It’s when the sales force takes the hit and no one else in the organization has to share the pain that they get disgruntled and start updating resumes and listening to head hunters more closely. In short, senior executives too often have taken an elitist attitude that their income is protected, while everyone else feels the pain.

Over the years it’s been my experience that the sales department becomes the whipping boy for their companies.When things do not go as planned the sales department gets the finger pointed at them.What about a solid product that performs as advertised and as the sales team was told it would? Or how about the shipping dept that didn’t get the product shipped properly or the bill of loading correct? Or what about the engineering dept that said it would do a certain thing and all along it was a future fix?One cannot expect the sales team to perform miracles, one should expect and hold them accountable for results that can be measured and are realistic.

As a consultant to leadership, how do you stop an organization from practicing faulty long-term forecasting and producing quotas that are determined by company desires rather than reality?

Now more than ever before, companies must listen to what all parts of the enterprise are telling them. And without question the most important piece is what the customers are telling them.If quotas were built on faulty assumptions to begin with, then the sales results will show it.This is not a sales problem; it is an executive issue because they were not listening closely enough to what the markets were telling them.

When your customers are experiencing softness in their sales, you can expect softness in yours.That’s reality and special incentives to order aside, it means that getting orders is more difficult than when economic times were better.

Forecasts need to be tempered with the reality that many factors make up an accurate forecast; none the least of which is what the customers are telling us with regard to their business cycles.If I am to err, let it be on the side of conservatism and leave Pollyanna expectations out because when these hopes and dreams do not materialize, everyone in a company feels the consequences.Good market research is vital to at least indicate where a market sector can be filled, although that may not necessarily be what a company can provide to plug that hole.

You cover in your book one of the most highly destructive yet unbelievably commonplace mistakes in sales management, namely; taking your best salesperson out of the field and giving them a management position. In economic times where managerial stability may be seen as attractive for a salesperson that is used to being rewarded on commissions and incentives, what do you suggest companies do to keep their best sellers selling?

To my mind there are two pieces here.The first is the reality that companies right-size an organization according to the expected cost of sales relative to the expected revenues and profit margin.It happened in my career too, when times were not the best my position was eliminated or I was offered a position back in the sales force.Everyone needs to remember this, having a job in bad economic times is probably worth the loss of position power and ego, especially if you have mouths to feed or children in college.

The second piece is this:nothing happens until something is sold.If you are producing sales you are in a relatively safe position because those not producing revenue are expendable.I recently had that same conversation with my son, who is a top producer in the financial services sector.Making oneself economically whole should be everyone in the sales ranks first goal and selling is the best way to ensure that outcome.

These two pieces need to be communicated effectively and sincerely to the sales person seeking promotions.

Additionally, if someone has been identified for a sales leadership position, let them know the ‘no’ they are receiving now about a promotion does not mean “no not ever.’If anything this provides the company time to develop these people further so that when there is an opening for promotion they are ready.In my experience real true sales leaders are not brought along or developed, much less trained. They are taking positions ill equipped to take on the leadership challenge that they encounter.

Gen Y sales stars want, make that demand, to be managed differently… Is it your assertion that specifically with the younger generations an organization’s leadership will need to tailor its practices to the needs and wants of the best people?

What a magnificent question.Let’s use an old bromide here.Results are what count.Let’s not confuse style with substance. Executive leadership needs to remember that they probably did a little swimming against the current a few times in their career too.To make the point here is an anecdotal story.

A few years ago when writing my book, I asked my Gen Y son how he likes to be managed.The answer didn’t astound me; in fact it was what I would expect of a self motivated, well directed sales person regardless of age.He said, tell me my job, what you expect, when you expect it, how you like data given you, give me the resources necessary when needed, and I’ll let you know when I need your help.Bear in mind this is from a successful sales person, unfortunately many sales types are not as assertive, which usually shows up in performance issues.So what’s the net?Gauge results not style.But it is sales leadership’s job to teach them style, which transcends generational boundaries and is universal.

Leadership needs to be aware they have the crown and bear the heavy weight of it when results are not there.Which reminds me of a lesson in my career. I had a sales rep who demanded I stay out of active participation on a very large sales campaign.No matter what suggestions I made, he was adamant and headstrong in his conviction he had control of the sales situation.It was clear we were not in a winning position, so I let him go on.Of course he did not win the business.Afterwards, I told him, OK we did it your way this time, next time we’ll do it mine.He later became a top producer in the company.Sales leadership has a responsibility to lead and not abdicate; however, we must always remember we are dealing with strong personality types in sales people too.

Combining both the art and science of the sales process in order to have a high-functioning unit is a theme in your book, but it is also the point at which most sales departments typically fall into one category or the other. In a climate like the one we may be approaching, and if you were forced to choose, would you rather a sales leader who is highly passionate or highly organized?

Why should they be separated anyway?What makes one think it is an either or scenario?In my mind they are not mutually exclusive. This much is assured if sales leadership is not passionate about their business and believe that it gives their customers real value for what they offer in the marketplace, how can you expect the sales force to believe it?

Being highly organized does not mean command and control orientation; and it certainly is NOT micro management, although, unfortunately because of lack of experience and knowledge of a better way, you’ll see lots of that now because of the economic climate. To me it means we know our sales process thoroughly, understand the steps of that process, know where and why we are in every activity of the steps, gauge the buying motivations properly – including the ability to order and pay, and keep our management truthfully informed about the sales opportunities before us.

That seems to be sound sales management principle, don’t you think? Look, in these uncertain times it is necessary to be as vigilant as ever in knowing where our business will come from, because as mentioned before; nothing happens until something is sold.Everyone up and down the sales chain of command will be living with increased pressure now, so they had better be very knowledgeable about their sales practices, policies, procedures, programs, products, prices and processes.Otherwise everything will come unraveled and my phone will ring off the hook to come figure out how to get the train back on the tracks.