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I’ve always reveled in the energy I felt out on the sales floor when I worked corporate. It always felt as though we were constantly training for the next big game, you know? But, just as with football, not all players on your team will be created equal. We’ve spoken about what to do about employees with bad performances, it’s now time we focus on your first string, your top salespeople. Why? Well, they’re the ones that win the games, they’re your Tom Brady, Jerry Rice. You need the best of the best to inspire and lead your team to victory.

Why Focusing on Your Best Salespeople Matters

first-string in American English
(ˈfɜrstˈstrɪŋ)
Adjective informal
1. Sport that is the first choice for regular play at a specified position.
2. First-class; excellent.

Ok, so the good ol’ Collins Dictionary gives a great definition of first-string. You see those last two words, “first-class” and “excellent” — those are attributes of any great salesperson. People with these traits will excel at whatever they set their mind to achieving. However, it doesn’t mean you get to leave them to their own devices. In fact, that’s quite possibly the worst thing you could do.

As with sports, great LIMs (leaders in the middle) know that it is still important to coach their top-tier sales representatives. You see, focusing on the first-string players sets tangible goals for all the other players to follow suit. Remember, “If the third-string players want his attention, they have to work for it! If the first-string players want to keep their coach’s attention, they have to work hard to stay the best! In sum, this program requires every player to desire and pursue excellence.”

By nature, and in business, great salesmanship is tied to your ability to always strive for more and to excel at it. You need clear targets that force your team to move forward. This means less successful team members are not limited to quantitative goals. They are also coached to aspire for more, to be just like that great first-string sales representative sitting just one desk over.

How to Be a Better Coach to Your Top Salespeople

As I state in my book, The Salesperson Game Plan, “Many companies have a culture in which managers leave the top performers alone and focus on the bottom performers. It is very common to hear a sales manager or leader say, ‘Oh, Bob is one of my top guys, so I leave him alone and let him do his job.’”

That is a big, terrible, horrible (pauses to consult thesaurus), awful, dreadful idea! Leaving your first string alone means they’re wide open for the taking. In the business world, that means lost clients, missed targets and profit losses. Again, bringing it back to nature, persons who love to excel require recognition and challenges. Your priority as an effective leader should be to constantly coach these invaluable team members so they can maintain their status as the best of the best. This in turn will make your company best of the best in your industry.

Here are my main two tips to help you coach at a champion level:

• Step 1: Make the commitment.
• Step 2: Spend your time with the top performers, conducting ride days and practicing role-plays with them.

Let’s break it down some.

Step 1: Make the Commitment

You’ve got to fight the tendency to focus on the worst sales representatives. Yes, they require training, but they mostly need prodding and aspiration. If that doesn’t work, this probably isn’t even the right job for them, truly.

Just stick a pin; I really want you to think about it for a minute. Parents and caregivers know you can’t reward your kid’s bad behavior with constant attention or misguided praise. Nope, that will only cause them to act up more. Instead, you’ve got to strike an important balance. This means knowing you need to attend one child’s champion debate match versus sitting at home to keep your other child from video gaming too much.

I’ve said this before, leaders are like parents. You’ve got to commit to coaching the top performers or committed performers and manage the bottom performers up or out.

Step 2: Spend Your Time With the Top Performers

I’m going to keep this short and spicy: at this point, I’m sure you’ve been picking up what I’ve been putting down. As a leader, you must carve out time — in your admittedly busy calendar — to pass along your knowledge. To truly commit to developing your best team members, you’ve got to dedicate the hours.

Set aside some extra hours to personally hone your top performers’ sales skills. They’ve worked for it; they deserve it; and they need it. Coaching winners requires your personal investment in their growth.

Final Thoughts

Successful sales leadership comes from focusing on the program or process that gives the greatest return on investment, much like successful retirement plans, marketing efforts and finances.

If you don’t spend time with your first string and invest in their success as much as they invest in the organization, someone else will.

MANA welcomes your comments on this article. Write to us at [email protected].