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- All Aboard - Should your Sales Manager Sell?
Hey everyone, and welcome back to another weekly edition of the All Aboard Newsletter!
This week, we’re tackling a common question that comes up time and time again—Should my sales manager sell?
As agents all over the country are investing in their sales teams to hit new growth targets, many people are installing a sales manager for the first time ever.
Well, the answer isn’t as simple as yes or no — it really depends on your specific situation.
There are times a sales manager should be off the phones, and other times where they should act as a player-coach leading from the front. I’ll explain both and help you decide.
Lets dive in!
Should my Sales Manager Sell?
If the embedded link doesn’t work, you can access the video here: Click Me (LINK)
For the best experience and most information, I highly suggest you click the video!
What we do at Peachy Insurance
From the day that we opened our doors at Peachy Insurance, our Sales Managers have not been on the phones. They’ve not had sales goals.
There are two reasons for that:
1.) When I was first prepping our sales manager, I watched him, in real time try to both sell and manage. It didn’t work because I didn’t have the experience or wisdom to figure out HOW to make it work.
2.) When you immediately hire 8 new salespeople and need to train them, that is a TON of work. Because the process worked out, we just always stuck with it. This allowed me to delegate more to the sales leader and do less of the sales leadership myself.
However, there are times, like now where our sales team is down some members. When that happens and a manager’s team is smaller than normal, we’ll ask them to jump in and help throw some items on the board.
Instead of producing, we set our managers up to act as a bulldozer out front, eliminating anything and everything that could slow a producer down.
Call Gaps Dashboard from NCC Analytics
What does it look like to find and eliminate inefficiencies? Well it starts by figuring out what keeps our salespeople off the phone.
Above you’ll see a dashboard that shows our producer’s call gaps on a daily basis. We’re in a fully remote environment, so a lot of people might think a gap indicates someone isn’t working. Instead, our managers ask the question: What is keeping you off the phone and how can I take it off your plate or help you be more efficient?
This can mean helping with underwriting, calling the company for guidelines/markets, dealing with a rewrite, or helping calm down an irate customer.
Removing these barriers along with the traditional management tasks like training people, call scoring, and doing 1:1s is what the managers focus on daily instead of selling.
Instead of selling 100 items, their goal is to get 10 people to sell 10 more items each.
The Player-Coach Model - Does it work?
But what if you can’t afford to have a sales manager who doesn’t sell?
Maybe you need their production, or maybe you cannot yet afford the money required for their salary. If so, you’re going to be looking at the “Player-Coach” model.
It is important to understand that this can work, it requires some planning and work on your end as a leader. It is tough to juggle both roles effectively. The key is to block time for each role. Here’s how I recommend you approach it:
Sales First: In the morning from 9am to 12pm or 1pm, the manager should focus on hitting their own sales goals—just like any other salesperson.
Management in the Afternoon: In the afternoon (after lunch), they can focus on managing the team, coaching, and handling administrative tasks like one-on-ones, analytics, and team development.
By making separate time for both, with separate goals and responsibilities, you help your manager focus on the most important thing for that part of the day. Having them switch after lunch is a perfect separation of roles and responsibilities. It helps them “mode switch” if you will.
People cannot multi-task, even if they think they can. Typically, a player-coach will over-index one way or the other. They’ll either sell too much and spend no time with the team OR they’ll spend too much time on back-end admin work and management and never get on the phone.
Very important note - If you’re going to run this model, I highly encourage you to think about the incentives you’re putting in place. Don’t put your manager in a place where they’re competing with the team they’re set to manage for resources. Either make their sales count towards a team goal OR have them work a different lead source. There are other ideas out there too, but this is something to watch.
This week’s edition of All Aboard is brought to you by:
The Conviction of a Leader Podcast
Beau Vincent’s Conviction of A Leader Podcast is a podcast about the intersection of leadership, entrepreneurship, and being a good person.
On the show, Beau has deep conversations with both Insurance Agency owners, and entrepreneurs outside the industry.
Whether you’re an experienced leader, or brand new, there are lessons to be learned.
I was on his Podcast last year, and will be joining him again here in the near future. If you want to hear my episode, here it is: Click Me
Check out Beau’s Podcast here:
Closing Thoughts
Have less than 6 Salespeople? Consider the Player-Coach Model: If you have a small team (less than six), the player-coach model can be a good way to balance managing and selling. But as you grow, it’s important to hire a full-time manager who can focus on leading the team while others focus on selling.
Respect and Likeability Matter: If your manager isn’t respected and liked, it’s going to create friction and challenges in the long term. A great manager needs to build trust and advocate for their team, so they can get the best results. Focus on building trust first, then work on the accountability. Trying to hold people accountable without a foundation of trust is doomed to fail.
Make Sure Your Manager Can Walk the Walk: If your manager doesn’t have a strong sales background or isn’t willing to help the team when necessary, it can be difficult for them to earn trust. Occupational experience and expertise matters. You don’t have to have a sales background, but it takes a special type of person to earn buy-in and trust without it.
In short, a strong sales manager is crucial to scaling your agency. Whether they sell or not depends on your structure and goals.
If you need advice on hiring or training your sales manager, don’t hesitate to reach out—I’m always happy to help! Just shoot me a reply.
Catch you next week!
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