Although this «discussion» seems surreal, it is common practice in many banking networks where, once the novelty effect of taking on new clients has worn off, decision-makers revert to what they have always done, namely managing the networks’ sales teams through numbers and the constraints of regulatory requirements.
An old-fashioned management style that still reigns in the banking sector today. In this old reality, the only way to know whether the sales teams have done a good job is to check the sales figures. The sales manager is then caught between his desire to implement a local strategy This allows him to understand his client in order to interact with them in the most effective way – commercially speaking – and his urgent duty to meet the quantified objectives.
By playing both sides of the game, he may lose sight of the reality of his job. The results of his sales efforts could suffer, and the management would be alarmed. Would the targets be too difficult to meet? The manager of the sales point would not be able to handle the commercial pressure? It would then be enough to transfer the sales manager to a smaller point of sale…
So, how do we make the snake stop biting its tail? By trusting the teams, simply put.
To drive innovation within networks, managers must be given the opportunity to test new management methods. Whether they work or not, they can learn from them and use them to achieve success. Testing, failing, trying again, and succeeding: this well-known cycle of startups has led to the creation and success of many of them and continues to guide their processes of continuous improvement.
To adopt this method more commonly known as “Lean Startup”There’s no need to change the entire internal organization: it’s enough to trust the managers.”.
Dare to break free from numbers; hold your team accountable!
Because the model of management by the numbers only leads to unproductive schizophrenia for the manager, why not try to get out of it?
To do this, the commercial manager must be able to put in place new working methods within its point of sale, To test alternative solutions in order to ultimately exceed the results expected by its management, both in terms of sales and employee commitment.
Without waiting for the agreement of the hierarchy, the manager must be able to give his team the means to engage in a new relationship with customers, to foster initiatives and take risks. He must be able to hold them accountable so that they are the main actors of innovation within the networks.
It then falls to management to change its approach and accept the possibility of new experiences flourishing in the business networks.
And for that, there is no need for different information systems or for a revolutionary reorganization of an organization: it is simply enough to to give new confidence to sales managers, This will promote entrepreneurship and will see solutions being implemented that will have surprising results.