4: Neill Burton, focusing on managing a channel based sales team

Summary

In this conversation, Steve and Neil discuss sales management, particularly in the context of managing a partner or channel-based sales team. Neil shares his journey into sales management and highlights the key characteristics of a successful sales manager, including curiosity, empathy, and the ability to hire and develop people. They also discuss the importance of involving the team in building the plan and the challenges of managing a channel-based sales team. Neil emphasizes the need to listen for the 'squeaky wheels' and address any concerns or valid opinions. They also touch on the differences between vendors and partners in terms of mindset and focus. In this conversation, Neill Burton shares his insights on managing partner sales teams and the importance of trust, belief in the product, and long-term relationships. He emphasizes the need for consistency, integrity, and curiosity in partner salespeople. Neill also discusses the challenges of forecasting and the importance of asking the right questions. He shares his biggest mistake as a sales manager, which was not keeping people on board during a transformation, and his biggest triumph, which was developing a junior salesperson into a successful leader. 

Keywords

sales management, partner management, channel-based sales, characteristics of a sales manager, involving the team, managing a channel-based team, partner sales, trust, belief, long-term relationships, consistency, integrity, curiosity, forecasting, transformation, development, mistake, triumph

Takeaways

Successful sales managers possess characteristics such as curiosity, empathy, and the ability to hire and develop people.

Involving the team in building the plan leads to better quality plans and increased buy-in.

Listening for 'squeaky wheels' and addressing concerns or valid opinions is crucial for effective sales management.

Managing a channel-based sales team requires a different mindset and focus compared to managing a vendor-based team.

Vendors often have a fixation on quarterly results, while partners have longer and broader relationships with customers. Trust and belief in the product are crucial for partner salespeople to sell with the same ferocity as the vendor.

Consistency, integrity, and curiosity are important traits for partner salespeople.

Forecasting can be improved by asking the right questions and creating a developmental and inspirational process.

One of the biggest mistakes as a sales manager is not keeping people on board during a transformation.

One of the biggest triumphs as a sales manager is developing a junior salesperson into a successful leader.

Sound Bites

"You have to be comfortable in hiring and developing people to do a job better than you can do yourself."

"Build your plan with your team."

"Your number one priority in the morning is not just hitting your number, but making sure that every one of your direct and indirect reports are successful."

"Partners need to sell based on long-term trust."

"Partners get paid on profit and service attach."

"The partner sales model requires translating what's important to the vendor and what's important to the partner."

“Make sure everyone is on the bus”

LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neill-burton-675b2b/