A sales manager in Bogotá explains why forcing regional managers to be friends backfires. Focus instead on specific cooperation: joint training, shared reporting systems, uniform processes, and supporting each other at trade shows. Personal friendships aren't required.
Chapters
Hi, I'm in a really rainy day in Bogotá. If I were in Asia, I'd call this sort of a monsoon day. It's pretty crazy. The streets are flooding a little bit. Hi, Zach. But I wanted to talk a little bit about one of the things that happens to us as international sales managers when we have regional managers from all over the world. And we might have multiple RMs in our team, and they're all from different cultures. And sometimes Sometimes they get along, sometimes they don't get along. And the question is, how much do we really need for them to cooperate with one another? Now, when I was a little younger, a little earlier in my career, I used to really want them to cooperate with each other. I thought having team coercion would be a really good thing. And I'm not saying it isn't a good thing, but what I find is it's a very difficult thing to manage sometimes. So sometimes you really have to accept the fact that they're not going to get along, and you have to draw parameters and say, well, what do I really need in terms of cooperation? I need them to be able to get along for training. I need them to be able to get along so we can make uniform reports and uniform processes and those type of things. When we're at a trade show, everybody has to get along, and I'd like for people to be able to cover each other's territories every now and again, like at a trade show, if somebody needs some help with a presentation or a demo or something like that. That level of cooperation, I think, is a must. But I'm not sure I really need them to be friends. I'm not sure I'm ever going to be in a situation where one RM is going to cover another RM for something, right? So, so we have So you have to sort of define what exactly it means to have a reasonable level of cooperation that's acceptable, acceptable within our team of RMs. Remember, when you're ready to grow your international sales, reach out to us. We can help.
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