If you ever had a boss who looked over your shoulder 24/7, you probably felt as though you were being buried alive. So why is it that some sales managers smother reps with call reports, forecasting reports, lost business reports, new business reports, business assessment reports, and more?  What makes them insist on nursing every project along by continually asking for updates and making every decision, from pricing down to the color of the proposal binder?

Sometimes micromanagement is driven by insecurity. Management does not and cannot know how sales reps are performing, since they are out of sight most of the time. There is a lurking suspicion sales reps are at the movies instead of making cold calls, or buying a new lawn mower instead of pushing product. Sometimes micromanagement is driven by loftier motives - a desire to instill organization and discipline in the sales force, qualities that are indeed admirable and hard to cultivate.

Whatever the motivation, micromanagement seldom if ever works. Here is why -

•    Micromanagement is oppressive. It saps morale. Regardless of their motives, micromanagers convey an attitude of mistrust. Victims of micromanagement usually react the same way – by getting defensive. They resent being thought of as incompetent; or worse, they may begin believing they are incompetent and start second guessing themselves. This is a disastrous outcome, because as we all know, confidence opens doors for sales people and self-doubt closes them.

•    Micromanagement consumes massive amounts of time - time better spent doing productive work. Sales is, after all, about people. When managers are fixated on metrics, they tend to disengage from the relationship side of sales. As a result, when problems occur that require an emotive rather than an intellectual response - such as a sales rep struggling through a divorce or a customer whose personality clashes with a member of the sales team - they are ill prepared to make an effective response. 

•    Micromanagement is impossible. No sales manager can digest, let alone act on, the massive amount of information available to him at the click of a mouse.  As the manager gets more and more caught up in the report-and-react process, his work becomes an exercise in futility – not a good place to be. Ultimately, micromanagement is as oppressive to the manager as it is to those being managed.

How to Escape the Micromanagement Methodology

•    Instead of reviewing everything, spot-check. If reps are doing a few things right, they are apt to be doing most things right. Ask reps pointed but open ended questions such as, “Why did you price the order this way?” or “Why did you decide to allow the customer to return this product?” If you consistently get well reasoned explanations, over time you will grow confident that the rep is applying the same good judgment across his entire book of business. If you receive an unsatisfactory response, you have a teaching opportunity the rep often can apply immediately.

•    Emphasize exception reports instead of summary reports. For many years I managed sales reps who handled 100 to 200 accounts to which they sold anywhere from a handful to more than 100 items. Trying to dissect a sales and profit summary by sales rep by line item was impossible. However, by running an exception report to review, for instance, all given products down a given percentage over a given period of time, I could isolate the precise activity or trend I needed to address.

•    Use the element of surprise. Tell a rep you’ll be accompanying him in the field today. Doing that once or twice will give you a far better idea of how the rep is performing than reviewing a year’s worth of call reports. When work-with days are scheduled in advance, they are still valuable, but seldom give you an accurate picture of how a rep conducts business in the course of a normal day. Reps do not like to be surprised in this way, but they will be better for it.

•    Talk to customers. I think of reports as a self-imposed buffer between the company and the customer. Reports measure activity and often provide insight, but reports cannot tell you how a customer feels about your company and your sales representation. Rather than spend hours interpreting data – just ask the customer! (She will appreciate hearing from you, too.)

•    Micromanage a microcosm. By staying close to a sales rep on one particular project that really matters, you gain a clear understanding of how the rep pursues and does business, including ways that never show up on a report. And as a huge bonus, you set the perfect stage for in-depth teaching and coaching. Giving yourself fully to a rep on one important project bears far more fruit than haphazardly checking in with him or her on 50 projects.

At first, stepping out of the micromanagement mindset will feel like stepping on to a high wire with no net. Indeed, if you abandon micromanagement without a management system to replace it, you may be doing just that. However, if you apply these techniques, and give yourself some time, you will see dramatic improvement in performance and morale - including your own.

By Brad Shorr © 2008