For Sales Managers Only: The Funnel Conversation

Written by Mark Sellers

I know it’s getting harder to find the desk through all the paperwork. Your reports have reports. You have meetings to plan for more meetings. You’re being pulled in several directions. Your sales reps are like your kids – you’d forget what they look like if you didn’t have pictures.

Let’s get you back to the good old days of sales management, and back to using the most powerful tool in your management bag – The Conversation. I’m not talking about that 1974 Coppola movie starring Gene Hackman (but I do recommend it). I’m talking about funnel conversations between you and your salespeople. Maybe you have them. But are they having the impact your salespeople need? What makes you say that? What would your salespeople say?

When they’re done right, funnel conversations are pivotal moments. Each conversation you have with your salespeople is a pivotal moment. Quotation Each conversation you have with your salespeople is a pivotal moment.
They’re your chance to make a difference, like a basketball coach who calls a 20 second time out to light a fire under his players’ feet. My funnel conversation last July with the CEO of a wealth management firm dramatically changed the course he and his salespeople were on and resulted in a dramatically better outcome for the year.

If your reps grouse and bristle every time you set up the funnel call, then maybe the calls aren’t as productive for them or for you as they could be. See if you answer yes to any of the following questions:

Do the calls take longer than you feel they should?

Do your questions focus mostly on learning about what’s going to close this month?

Do you look forward to the calls because they let you catch up on what your salespeople are doing day to day?

Do you have these calls as a group with all of your salespeople attending?

Do you have these calls on an inconsistent schedule?

You ever find yourself saying to yourself “I don’t really know why I’m having this call, other than because it’s part of my process.”?

Do you end the calls without a clear call to action identified?

There’s a threatening irony to these calls if they lack clear purpose and structure – they threaten the very credibility you’re trying to build with your team.

The Funnel Audit™ should be about developing your salespeople, not about the sales manager getting up to date. Quotation The Funnel Audit™ should be about developing your salespeople, not about the sales manager getting up to date.
Here are some best practices of Breakthrough® clients to help you provide the highest impact of these conversations to your salespeople:

Commit to a custom Funnel Audit™ program for each rep. Doesn’t this go against having a ‘common process’? Not at all. Each salesperson needs you to not just go through the process and the motions each month the same exact way. The Audits should fit the rep’s needs, not the other way around. For example, if the rep needs to do a better job of diagnosis, the manager focuses on that during the Funnel Audit™. Later in the year that same rep might need more coaching in setting effective action plans for funnel management.

Don’t let a Funnel Audit™ become a review of top opportunities. This is the biggest error I see managers make. A Funnel Audit™ is like a mini strategy session that diagnoses the entire funnel’s ability to hit quota at year’s end. It highlights the sales priorities that must be done today to achieve that goal at year’s end. By contrast, an opportunity review is a scrub down of the rep’s position to win a deal. Both are important, but guess which one usually gets the short end of the stick?

Keep the Funnel Audits to no more than 60 minutes. If you can’t finish the conversation in that time then you’re probably needing better structure. Your temptation is to use the Audit to ‘get caught up’ - but it’s not about you getting up to date on what’s happening – it’s about helping your salesperson get better.

Hold your salespeople accountable to the actions they come up with in each Audit. The shortcoming of funnel strategy sessions has nothing do with the strategy at all – the shortcoming is in listless execution. Help your salespeople follow through on the high impact actions you conclude are important right now.

No one said managing is easy. You’ve got plenty of distractions and more are on the way. Fight for these Funnel Audit™ conversations and prepare for them like they’re life and death.

Mark Sellers -
	Mark Sellers is the CEO and Founder of Breakthrough SalesPerformance, a sales consulting company focused on helping clients use the sales funnel to achieve quota and dramatically increase productivity. He is the author of the book The Funnel Principle, available at www.funnelprinciple.com and at Amazon. Read More >>
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