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Summary

9th Commandment

MANAGEMENT MUST USE THE TOOLS
TO MANAGE THEIR BUSINESS.

Just as there was a separation between feudal lords and their serfs, so there is between sales management and their sales reps. It seems that what is good for the field is not necessarily good for sales management. For instance, a tool is deployed and its use is mandated: a contact manager must be used to track all business. But management fails to use the tool for reasons too numerous to mention. 

If management does not use the same tool to manage their business accordingly, the circle is broken, and the process grinds to a halt as manual processes and automated processes collide. This creates confusion, extra work and tremendous frustration between reps and managers.

One explanation for this problem tends to be the difference in ages of the people involved and their varying degrees of PC literacy. People under 40 have been raised in a PC-dependent world; people over 40 tend to be more PC-illiterate. For this latter group, computer studies were not offered during their school years, comfort with computers was not a required skill when they embarked on their career, and computing has never been mandated that they use it until now. You must be sensitive to these cultural differences, and address the varying training and support (hand-holding) requirements accordingly.

CEOs, if you are listening, make your sales management use the tools, too, or you are wasting a great deal of time and money. And by the way, Mr. CEO, this includes you, too!