How often do you talk with your salespeople 1:1? How long do you talk with them? Do you talk to them or with them? What do you talk about?

As you might imagine, I talk to a few people. A few years ago, a hot shot sales guy working for an international company reads this article and reaches out to me. He makes decent money, but he thinks that he could triple his income if he had someone coaching him. When I asked about his sales manager, he replied that his manager was hard to reach and the only thing that he cared about was filling in the boxes on his monthly sales report so that he could show his boss that he was gonna make his quota.

I wrote about these three sales managers a few months ago. What is your style? What is your motivation? Why are you a sales manager rather than a rep? Do you inspire each rep to reach a goal that's meaningful to them, or do you impose a quota as something that's relevant? Goals come in all shapes and sizes.

• Earn $40K more per year to afford an apartment with no roommates in New York.
• Earn $50K over and above living expenses to seed a real estate investment.
• 3X quota to be able to help grandmother move to safer housing. (more here)
• Get from $3,500/month to $20K/month
• Last year we proposed $1.7 million and closed $700K. I want the other million

Now, honestly, don't you think that those goals are more inspiring than imposing a monthly quota?

OK... Two more things.

Last month I wrote five articles about how I coach reps. You can read them here, but even better...

Yesterday I announced my summer program. It's hands on, all about how to get each of your salespeople to double their sales this year. It could be a fun summer! Start here.