Sales Manager 101: Are You a Manager or a Drinking Buddy?

This has to be one of my biggest pet peeves, managers that think that they either need to be best friends with the sales staff, or that somehow the sales staff exist just to be their personal entourage. You cannot be best friends and be a good manager, so pick one. I'm going to tell you a few stories about managers who had their priorities screwed up, and how it negatively impacted them, and the dealership.

Let's start just by asking the simple questions. Is it a business or a social gathering? Does the dealership exist to sell cars and make money, or does it exist as your personal playground? Are you a manager at a business or are you just somebody, someone perhaps going to work to make friends, maybe find party pals or booty calls?

Are you a manager at a business or are you just somebody going to work to make friends?

Quite some time ago, many years let's say, I tasked a few managers with hiring new inexperienced sales staff. I generally prefer individuals with no experience at entry level spots. The experienced ones they already know everything. So this one bright light of a manager, 40ish, male, single, fancy suit, fancy shoes...you know the one...decides to hire this very young, very attractive eighteen or nineteen year old woman. Which is great. Talent is everywhere in every single demographic. But here is where it falls apart. What do you think is the first thing that fancy manager thinks is the right thing to do with that brand new rep? Train them? Nope. Maintain a professional relationship? Nope. The first thing he decides he should do is take her out for drinks. Get to know her. Explain the business. Now she's excited for the new opportunity. She's got a new manager. He seems nice. He's smart. He's experienced. He's her boss! What does she do? She goes. Of course she goes.

Alright so what do you think happened? Do you think he ordered a glass of wine and spent the next few hours going over her role? Maybe went over some training documents? No of course not, why would he do that? He's a shooter out with a young woman. He's the man! You can guess how it all went. Tons of booze. Late into the evening, and you can fill in the rest.

So shooter guy drops her off at her home, where she lives...with her parents. Where she regales her parents with what a great night she had. What a fantastic boss she has. He might even be the one!

The next day at work didn't go so well. He's trying to make money. She's being quite friendly. It's obvious to the entire staff. The more friendly she gets, the more uncomfortable he gets, so what does he do? Yes, he starts treating her like crap. Ya, that's a good idea. He took her out. Wined and dined her. Probably "slept" with her. She got the wrong idea, so how does he fix it? Not a great manager, even a worse human being.

So that's a sad story, but what do you think happened? Well it goes something like this. She tells her mom. Her mom predictably is not happy. So she tells her daughter, rightfully so, that's not right. You need to start taking notes, write everything down. This is after only a week of being employed. A total friggen shit show. It took some time to sweep it all, but in the end, he was gone and she moved on. Who thinks it's a great idea to take out your brand new sales rep, twenty years your junior, get them hammered, and then sleep with them? Who does that?

And here's another one for you. Same type of guy. Maybe not quite as good looking, but same horrible judgement. Gets promoted to sales manager over a team of seven or eight sales staff. What's the first thing you do? Gather them together for a motivational talk? Hmmm... nope. Put on a contest? Do some training? Go through some follow up? Of course not, that’d be stupid. Drinks and poker. That's the ticket. They’re gonna love me! Who wants to play poker? The ones that liked to play poker and drink, well, they were his buddies, the rest, second class.

Pretty soon what do you have? A bunch of idiots showing up late for work, hungover, talking about gambling, sports and stocks all day at work while the second class sales staff are hard at work trying to make a living. Pretty soon you have some pretty disgruntled staff. "I'm not getting leads," "He doesn't help me," "He won't talk to my customers," you get the idea.

What do disgruntled staff do? That's right, they complain.

So what do disgruntled staff do? That's right, they complain. So what do managers with extremely poor judgement do when someone, who is only trying to do their job, complains? Yes, that's right, they fire them. That's a good idea, fire the only ones actually trying to do a good job. They won't care. They won't call a lawyer. They definitely won't sue.

They’re going to be right behind that nineteen year old woman at the lawyer's office. That's where they're going to be. And what does any good business owner or manager do when this happens at your store? You fire them instantly. It doesn't matter how good they are. They go away.

If you're a dealer, or a GM at a car dealership, don't allow a manager to turn his or her team into their personal entourage, party group or even worse, a booty call. That manager may just say you can't tell them what to do after work, and they are right, but you can tell them where they don't work anymore and I highly recommend that route. And if you're a manager, and you want to start any sort of career, and any sort of career growth, you should decide right now to make the business and making money your priority when it comes to your relationships with people at work, or your career at that business will be very short. It certainly would be if it was my business.