I met with an SVP of a software company the other day. Our discussion revolved around how his job could be made easier.

I spoke with him about some of the activities that he needed to perform. I then asked for some other areas that were required that he could self identify as being total wastes of time as well as adding no value to the customer. (He was in a sales and business development function, and by his own admission, being customer facing was his most pressing objective.)

He identified a meeting tracking tool as being the bane of his existence. My response,”Tell Me More.”

He went on to say that this tool was mandated by the board, no it was not Saleforce, I asked, and that it was a total waste of time for his entire team. I wondered why as this guy seemed like he was no enemy of tech and he acted like he wished he was using Salesforce.

I asked how he used this internal “tool.” His response was that there is a requirement that each salesperson have a meeting each day and a proposal each week. This tool is where this data is recorded. If the salesperson is tracking at a lesser rate on this activity, there is an alert posited by flashing a red light next to the salesperson’s name. The SVP said that he logs in each day, and if any of his reports are glowing red, then he needs to do something. Otherwise, he logs out and goes on with his day, trying to delight customers.

Of course, this system is not intuitive and requires detailed input, so it will take a few hours of work each week by each salesperson- and from their boss the only reason is so that the light does not flash red. (They still forecast with a spreadsheet- this is merely an activity measurement tool.)

Are you serious? I should mention that the salespeople are all senior with at least 10 years of experience.

I could attack this process on a number of levels, but I will say this. If you treat your people as cogs, some will start acting like easily replaceable parts in your system. By that I mean this kind of “management” will drive good employees away and you will be left with the duds, who are happy to meet their job requirements by entering meaningless data.

How will that grow your business? Companies need to start treating their employees like living, breathing people. If your focus is like this towards your employees, I wonder how they treat their customers?

I’ve been hearing a lot of chatter recently in articles, blog posts, and conversations about “Sales 2.0″ and how the automation and “socializing” of the sales process is accelerating sales cycles, making sales people more efficient, improving close ratios, etc.

This sounds great but – How are these processes benefiting the customer and nurturing the relationship between the prospect and seller?

The answer is sadly – very little.

Sales 2.0 does not change what sales people do.

Sales 2.0 help make sales people more efficient while allowing management to better monitor what is going on within their organizations. These are not unimportant, but the crucial piece that is being missed is what is desperately needed across all businesses today – the Human element of the sales process.

Let’s step back from the Sales 2.0 discussion and focus on actual sales humans. Imagine an average salesperson that is tasked with cold calling, blind emailing prospects, attending industry conferences and networking events to drum up new business for a technology company. This salesperson calls, emails, and schmoozes his/her way around town but every time a prospect picks up the phone, reads their email, or sees them walk into the room – the prospect cringes with disdain. This is the reality with the majority of sales interactions in the U.S.

How do we change this?

Let’s lose the term ‘Sales’ altogether. Really? Yes! Instead, think about what matters most in a business (or personal) interaction – the Relationship.
Focus on the key components of a Relationship Manager. Here are a few important ones:

1) Educate don’t Evangelize - The time for convincing someone that you have the latest and greatest is over. Instead educate yourself on your prospect/clients’ business, their needs, hopes, and dreams. In turn, you can educate your prospect/client on your product and/or service as it might fit toward their needs (based on what you’ve learned and not on what you think they need driven by your sales or call quota).

2) Advise don’t Aggress – Become a trusted adviser and advocate for your customer. Instead of utilizing scare tactics & disturbing questions , build trust and value with them. If your solution isn’t the best fit for the organization, be honest and say so. That honesty will pay you back ten fold in the long run.

and for Sales Management

3) Mentor don’t Manage – Instead of managing your sales staff by spreadsheet or Salesforce reports, trying fostering relationship building behavior with your team and mentor them toward its ultimate goal of respect and trust. Additionally, all Sales Management should be building their own relationships and helping to expand the relationships of their team. If your Sales Management is spending the majority of their time managing internal processes, you need to take a closer look at how that is benefiting the relationships with your customers/prospects.

Don’t get me wrong, there are amazing, talented, thoughtful sales people out there. Unfortunately, they are still the minority. Take a closer look within your organization and evaluate how your sales people, processes, and management are effecting your prospects and customers. Are they building relationships or perpetuating negative stereotypes? If the later, it may be time to re-humanize.