Push a little?

 ‘Dad, will you push me? In the playground, my son chose his favorite piece of playground equipment, the swing. Pushing, I was somewhat surprised, ’Hey guy you can swing by yourself can't you? As a matter of fact, at home we have a swing hanging there and sir just sits on it for 15 minutes 2-3 times a day without me having to push. In other words, he has mastered the technique just fine, so why the question?

Until the moment he sat on the swing and I started pushing I kept wondering about his demand. He can swing so maybe he just wants companionship. After the first push I understood his question better. The swing at the playground did not move as smoothly as the familiar swing at home. The suspension system and chains felt heavy and seemed to inhibit rather than encourage the initiated movement. To experience the same swing without having to work extremely hard required help.

As I was pushing like this, my thoughts went to the field of work. It struck me that tremendous symbolism was unfolding before me. For how is it that a well adept employee yet asks for help in an area familiar to him?

The mistake I myself as a manager sometimes made in the past was that I unconsciously or conveniently applied copy-paste to my team. We have a situation with a client. Earlier we had a similar challenge with another customer so now the colleague can solve the case and bring it to a successful conclusion. What I found important in this was expressing confidence in my colleague's quality and skills. He was bound to succeed again. At the same time, I was selling him or the case short by not taking changing circumstances into account. Reasons that made it less easy to get or keep a case moving I did not take into account.

How is it that a well adept employee still asks for help in an area seemingly familiar to him?

Now it is also partly the responsibility of an employee to ask for help if necessary when a case is heavier. My son did this too! Because of a previous visit to this playground he knew the challenge of the swing in question. So if we as managers keep looking at the surface we may miss essential points. And before we know it we blame this on lack of skills or commitment of the employee in question. a simple question can prevent this.

The sales profession

Let me further substantiate this with an example from the sales profession. You can expect an account manager to be able to build a relationship with a potential customer. Based on a relationship of trust, the account manager takes the steps for a future order. It seems logical that the account manager should do everything possible to nurture the relationship until there is actually an order. If one customer has someone independently empowered and another has a DMU active, the circumstances are of a different order. The direct influence by the account manager on the former situation is different from the latter. It is therefore essential for a commercial manager to see the total picture of the different customers. At the same time, he needs to know what qualities his employees have to move the case.

When my son is bigger and stronger he will have less trouble with the swing in the playground. He is developing. It is important for a commercial manager to form a picture of the qualities of the employees. That way he can better place or prevent in advance a request for help with new circumstances or customers.

It's possible to gain insight into whether and when you need to help push an employee on your sales team. You get that insight by using the Sales Colors  assessment. This will help you identify which skills are present in your sales team and which can be further developed to keep the order swing moving smoothly.