I like football. I enjoy watching NFL games, but I’m not a die-hard fan. Maybe my casual relationship with the sport is why I didn’t notice in 2017 that the “blue tent” was now on the sidelines of every game. Once I noticed this, I spent some time researching the blue tent phenomenon.
If you’re unfamiliar with the blue tent, here’s my description: It is a space just a few steps from the playing field, out of view from media, fans, competitors, and teammates alike, in which medical professionals, training and coaching staff, and a lone player can analyze and triage a situation and make an informed decision about what should happen next.
When I was a newly minted salesperson, one of our vendors had a regional sales manager named Jerry Deziel. He’d fly out from Michigan quarterly and ride along on sales calls with some of our team. I always liked working with Jerry. He had a calm demeanor and asked good questions. I thought of Jerry when I started considering the blue tent as an analog for sales management. Before making a sales call, Jerry would ask me, “What are we trying to accomplish on this visit”? After the call, before he’d let me drive off to whatever was next, he’d ask me how I thought the sales call had gone in light of my pre-call goals. He’d also ask what the next action steps were for the account.
Being in the car with Jerry was like being in the blue tent on the sideline. It was a safe, private space where the game's noise didn’t penetrate. We could evaluate what was working and what wasn’t in real-time while everything was fresh. When Jerry highlighted a problem with a salesperson, it wasn’t based on a trailing indicator but on the real-world, in-game examination you can’t get from a spreadsheet.
Over the years, I’ve watched vendor sales managers come in to review our team’s performance. Their spreadsheets would tell them all they needed to know, or so they thought. Judging a salesperson’s performance by looking at the numbers over time might highlight a problem, but it rarely identifies the solution. Identifying solutions requires real-time observation and feedback, delivered in a way that allows buy-in.
If you are in sales management and want to help your sales teammates improve their performance, spend some time with them in your blue tent.
Comments