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70: The first 3 things a newly promoted manager should do · Cyber Go-To-Market Talk: The Cybersecurity Podcast About Cyber Sales, Marketing & Revenue Growth

• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: You're promoted from a rep to a manager, and the fire hose starts.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Everything comes at you quickly and from all sides.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And in these situations, it's way too easy to be overwhelmed, and many of us have been in that situation.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: But you shouldn't be overwhelmed if you focus on just these three things.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Bite-sized sales podcast, where we believe that you don't need to take time out of the field or off the phones, stuck in a classroom in order to get great sales and sales leadership training, and that taking bite-sized steps each day to get better at your craft is the best way to improve your results.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: I am your host, Andrew Monahan, and I'm using my 20 plus years in B2B sales to bring you simple, actionable ideas that you can use every day to help you get better.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Before we get to the tip for today, this episode is sponsored by Sales Bluebird.
• 1:36
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• 1:43
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• 1:59
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• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to episode 70 of the Bite-sized sales podcast.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And this is all about that first time when you're promoted from a rep to a manager and how you react to it.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: I remember when I was first promoted, I was in the team, and then the the first line manager left and I was asked to step up and take that role.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: And what was interesting was I was asked to take the role, and the next breath, the person who hired me into it said, Oh, by the way, I'm just way too busy right now.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to figure this out on your own.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you're okay with that.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I wanted the role, so I took it, and then suddenly, you know, you're bombarded from all sides by people with demands of time, access to team, you know, the team members need things.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it I remember in that period, the first few months, it was kind of tough to figure out what do I actually work on that's gonna have high imp high impact here and get me the right sort of focus.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone seems to have an opinion on what you should be doing, right?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it's usually orientated towards towards what they want you to do and what's important for them, not necessarily what's important for you.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And everyone around you is judging you.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: You're in this situation and they're looking at you going, is this person working at?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Have they done the things that we expect them to do?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it's important in these situations that you recognize that and have a plan about what you focus on and go through these first few steps to be effective and build the trust all around you.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: So for this episode, if you're recently promoted, this one is for you.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you think you're about to be promoted, this is gonna be very helpful to help your planning and your thought process.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been in that first level or above for a while, is there someone in your network you forward this to to say, look, you know, go go go listen to this, it's gonna help you get some clarity around what it is you're doing.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: So these are three things to focus on.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is the business.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: And this may sound a little bit obvious, but understanding the business, understanding the the pipeline, the deals, things like that.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because what's happening at this point is people above you are looking at you for the answer to two questions.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is, what is the reality behind this region?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: If the previous manager was moved on or left or whatever, there's always that concern to say, is the picture they were painting the reality of what's in play?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: So they're kind of looking to say, you know, I hope it's as good as they said it was, or a lot better than they said it was that the person was really struggling, right?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the first question they're asking or thinking about.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: The second one is, are you the safe pair of hands that they want in that region, uh, managing this team?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the main way they're gonna judge you on both of those is what you learn and can articulate about the business and what you can do quickly to do that.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, time frame may vary on this one, but I would think about it if I were you in the standpoint of saying, I'm gonna set a two-hour meeting with my boss and my boss's boss in the sales leadership hierarchy for 30 days' time, and I'm gonna talk about what I've learned and know about this business having spent 30 days in territory in the region, right?
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Working with a team, learning about all different people in their territories.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And hopefully you get 30 days, it might be a lot less, depending on a number of different factors, but whatever time you have, set that and give yourself that deadline and then figure it out along the way.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because you want to be able to show, give the reality, because if it's not, if the reality is not what they believe it is, you need to reset their expectations early.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: And also you need to be able to prove to them that you have a good idea of what's going on in the region.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing you should be doing is learning about your team.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, they're looking to you to say, is this person gonna be value add for me, or is this person gonna not be value add?
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And you need to build the trust and knowledge to help them as soon as you can.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: So even if you came from inside the team and know some of them already, you want to be able to go deeper.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I would suggest you do this informally over lunch or dinner or drinks or whatever, but really kind of dive in and say, you know, what's this person all about?
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Why are they working?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: What I know they want to make some money, but then what?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: What's the money gonna mean for them?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: What's the big aspirations they have for their career?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: And therefore, how can you help them get there?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: So really digging in and understanding your team is what's gonna build a relationship and trust and knowledge between you and them.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: So you can always have that in the back of your mind that you know that the reason why John wants to make X hundred thousand dollars this year is because he's really trying to achieve these things as opposed to just make some money.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Taking the time to truly understand them, do the five whys on them.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, why do you want to make that that much money?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: What does it represent for you?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you want that big thing that you said?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Why is that top of your list and not third of the list, right?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Just really get to know them so you can understand them and and they can see from you that you've got their best interests at heart and you want to help them grow.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: So the second thing is the team.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: The third thing is what needs your focus.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what's gonna happen if you're about to get promoted is suddenly everyone's gonna have an opinion about what needs your focus.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone's gonna have an opinion on all the things that need to be fixed, everyone's gonna have an opinion about the things that need to be changed to fix all the things that are wrong with the the reps, the team, whatever it might be.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: You can't do it all, right?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: And you need to have your reality about what really needs to be done.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: And the best way to think about this is as you hear all these things, look for commonalities for one.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then the second thing is look for things that are high leverage for your time, right?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: If there's things that are gonna require you, you know, man weeks in the first two months to try and fix, and the payoff is good but not huge, that may not be where you want to spend your time, right?
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, what are the things that you can work on that will really impact the business over three, six, nine, twelve months, but isn't gonna suck up 60 hour weeks for you at the gate because you just can't allocate the time to do that.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, think about those things, what needs your focus, their high payoff over time, and then what needs to be done to fix them.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, these are the three things that are gonna help you get some focus.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna allow you to have the fire hose come at you, but deflect it off and not get you overwhelmed and really achieve nothing in the first few months.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, the first step if you want to take action right now is have those one-on-ones with your team, get to know them, also do a business review with them so you understand uh all the things you need to understand for that meeting that's gonna come up with your head of sales.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then, secondly, get that list down as you're doing that and put together the high value things to work on.
• 8:51
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• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: It will mean the world to me, but more importantly, for that one person, it may well transform how they lead and also their results in the coming quarters of meetings.
• 9:10
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• 9:13
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• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Also, I need your suggestions, please.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a topic you want me to cover or just want to get in touch, simply email me at upside at unstoppable.do.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's upside at unstoppable.do.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And now to wrap up this episode, training without implementation is just entertainment.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: So if you heard something today that you want to use, take action right now and keep getting better every single day.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, I'm setting off as the great Joe Sexton would by saying, gone to sell.