Tip: Click ▲ "FMCG Distributor Professional Consulting" for more marketing and distributor internal management content.
Every year, as year-end approaches, companies undergo personnel adjustments. For a newly appointed sales manager or one taking over a new region, how to assess the team they will work with to move beyond individual heroism and unleash team synergy in future work?
Key things a sales manager needs to clarify at the first meeting with the team:
- Understand the market overview from team members to cross-verify information obtained from other channels.
- Check whether the current team size matches the market scale and plans. If short-staffed, this provides a persuasive basis when communicating with superiors.
- Understand legacy issues in the market (what problems, which markets, which customers, responsible persons, difficulty of resolution, how to solve them, etc.) to facilitate handover with the previous manager and to propose solutions promptly, avoiding future passivity.
- Any entanglements between team members and markets/distributors, such as loans from distributors or loan guarantees provided for distributors.
- The accounts between distributors and the company, including any accounts receivable.
I. Start with Communication
Hold a group meeting for mutual introduction and understanding—this is a crucial step. The new manager can gather the team for initial acquaintance and communication.
The primary purpose of the first meeting is to introduce each other, establish initial understanding, and for the manager to form a general impression and judgment of team members.
Typical self-introductions include: name, hometown, alma mater, major, when they started working, when they joined the company, current market responsibility, and contact information.
During this meeting, the manager should take detailed notes of everyone's introductions to lay the groundwork for deeper understanding later, while also giving the team an initial impression of you.
In my experience, when taking over a new team, after introductions, I would have an interactive game: randomly pick a member, and others must call out their name. If they can't, both parties face a small "punishment"—sing a song or do push-ups. The rationale: "If your name isn't remembered, you haven't sold yourself; if you don't remember others' names, you don't respect them." Generally, such activities blending games and training quickly close distances and accelerate integration.
Note: In this first meeting, the manager shouldn't expect to learn everything at once. Avoid being overly serious or trying to intimidate from the start, as this only widens the gap between you and the team.
After the meeting, the manager can arrange a meal together to further strengthen relationships.
Individual communication and understanding: The goal is to get to know each team member in detail.
Face-to-face communication: The manager should find a quiet place to talk with each team member individually. But remember, the manager must personally call them, not have someone else relay the message, to avoid seeming aloof.
Through this communication, the manager should form initial judgments on each member's personality, business skills, work attitude and approach, and familiarity with the market.
At the start of the conversation, the manager can use the person's family situation or current hot topics as a prelude to the formal discussion. This helps team members drop their guard and gradually open up. Jumping straight into work may make them feel pressured and tense, preventing open dialogue. After all, you're a new leader they don't know well; they're unsure what to say.
When getting to the point, focus more on market and work perspectives. The manager can adopt a role of seeking advice. Listen carefully to the salesperson, and intermittently ask questions to avoid awkward silences. For example: What markets do you currently handle? What's the basic situation? How do you plan to operate these markets in the new year? What markets did you handle before? How did they perform? Why did you leave? From your perspective, what should I pay attention to in my work? How can we do well in our markets? Can you talk about where we should start next? From an overall view, how should we operate our markets? What goals do you have this year? How do you plan to achieve them? What help do you need from me? What gains and losses have you had in your work? How do you plan to leverage your experience and avoid repeating past mistakes?
Learn about team members through their previous manager or superiors. Since they've worked with the team, they have insights into their character and abilities. The new manager can gain this understanding during the handover.
II. Assess the Team and Individuals
After the above communication and understanding, the new manager should form judgments about team members:
- Identify who are novices and who are veterans, to prepare for pairing new with experienced.
- Determine who are strong, who are weaker, and who are unsuitable for sales. Then decide which markets to assign them to. For weaker ones, find ways to improve their skills quickly; for unsuitable ones, consider transferring them or letting them go.
- Classify salespeople as developers, attackers, or defenders. This lays the foundation for market adjustments: send developers to new markets, attackers to challenging markets needing quick sales growth, and defenders to stable, mature markets.
- Identify who are ambitious, who are complacent "old guards" with ability and experience but just going through the motions, and who are "troublemakers" with no skills but strong connections in the company, making them untouchable.
III. How to Effectively Organize the Team
After the assessment, the manager must deploy personnel strategically to maximize team synergy.
First, after lining up veterans and novices, determine which novices need which veterans for "mentoring."
Based on market assessment, assign developers to new markets, attackers to challenging markets needing quick growth, and defenders to stable, mature markets. If short-staffed, propose a staffing increase to the company.
Assign capable, ambitious salespeople to key markets (those with high sales proportion and growth potential), and assign those needing improvement to less critical markets with enhanced training.
For those unsuitable for sales, if they agree to transfer to other departments, coordinate with relevant departments for the transfer; if they're confident to continue in sales and willing to adjust to fit the role, help them create an adjustment plan with a trial period.
For the "troublemakers" with no skills but strong backing, if you can't remove them, assign them to unimportant, challenging markets to let them do their thing, and dismiss them when the opportunity arises.
For the complacent "old guards" with ability and experience, initially avoid assigning them to key markets, but give them the title of "internal trainer." Let them help train salespeople or do learning-oriented tasks. If they can adjust themselves in the future, they can be assigned to important markets.
Note: For a newly appointed manager, without initial understanding of the market and personnel, avoid making large-scale market changes for subordinates. Even with some familiarity, personnel adjustments should be gradual to prevent market volatility.