Salesperson/manager ride-alongs are common practice; we’d guess almost everyone reading this has participated in one, either from the driver’s seat, or as a shotgun-riding manager. We wondered: how do sales organizations get the most out of these interactions?
We asked Catalytic Advisors’ Everett Hill to present a webcast on this topic on January 27th. His presentation offered practical insights for managers interested in optimizing their windshield time with salespeople, all cleverly organized around the concept of “Management by Riding Around.” We liked the session so much we’re making the archive available to our blog readers, along with a downloadable Managers’ Planning Guide.
Hill brings the unique perspective of a management consultant who’s walked the walk – before starting Catalytic Advisors he managed large-scale sales force change initiatives as an SVP with a $250M P&L at Hostess Brands, and as VP Sales at Coca-Cola Enterprises, responsible for a 1,200 person sales force.
By his definition, salesperson ride-alongs must be a scheduled, disciplined routine of structured field work for a sales manager, with the explicit goal of developing the entire selling organization. Furthermore, this attitude must become imbued throughout the company sales culture.
Hill states that MBRA has been proven to work because of three reasons:
• It offers direct observation and feedback invaluable to managers;
• It reflects a real slice-of-life example in lieu of viewing staged role playing; and
• Its obligatory, entire eight-hour day per ride opens a psychological partnership between sellers and managers.
The ride-with concept works for both direct report level and skip-level situations. In addition, the process can be effective for territory reps, key account people, channel managers, technicians and others.
Hill helpfully summarizes how to plan the ride-along day, the rhythm of the day and the follow-up protocol. We hope you find the session useful, and join us for future Sales Management Association webcasts.
View archived webcast and download the Managers' Planning Guide (registration required; members please access from the Sales Management Association Resource Library here.)
