Joint Sales Calls

by Dave Kahle

One of the fundamental principles that I’ve held to for my career in sales is this: One of the best things a sales manager can do is make joint sales calls with his/her sales people.

While I continue to believe that, I received an email from an Ezine subscriber some time ago that made me think a bit more cautiously about this.

He identified himself as a buyer, and wrote me about the practice from his point of view – a person on the other side of the desk. He began by observing that joint sales calls with the sales manager often caused more harm than good.

Here are some of the observations he made, followed by my comments.

• The sales managers often come in with a patter that is all positive. I saw it as B.S. …. in that they did not really believe it themselves, and both the sales person and I [the buyer] knew that he was ignoring a lot of negatives.

DK – Transparency and honesty are always preferable to B S. The days of expecting that your overtly positive patter will gloss over real issues and enamor the customer (or the sales person) are long gone.

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• The sales managers were often not open to taking suggestions, or, if they did, there was no follow up back to the customer.

DK – Could it be that some sales managers are so concerned with their view of themselves as the all-knowledgeable person that they come across as not being open to suggestions from the customers? One of the reasons for a sales manager to make joint sales calls is to hear it directly from the customer’s mouth. Sales managers should develop the habit of listening carefully to the customers.

• There was often a tension visible between the sales manager and the sales person. It gave me, as the customer, a feeling that the relationships were rarely what they should have been... READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.