While we know that revenue production has nothing to do with the time it takes for the earth to rotate around the sun, the financial community and senior management is constantly driven to correlate these two seemingly disparate things, forcing salespeople and buyers into un-natural acts as they force-fit revenue into quarters.

How does this happen, that sales managers help perpetuate the stereotype of the pushy, aggressive salesperson who expects to discount to win the business? Here's how it happens - quarter after quarter: senior management is concerned that revenue will not meet forecast, so they put pressure on sales management to "make something happen." Sales managers then put pressure on salespeople to "close that thing", and the only way this can happen any sooner is for the salesperson to "push" the buyer into a faster decision, or providing an incentive in the form of a discount.

How many sales are lost by salespeople pushing too hard during the sales cycle? How many more sales have to be closed each quarter because of the unnecessary discounting that decreases margins with every concession? How many large deals are turned into the smaller opportunity that can be closed now?

How many sales managers are working contrary to the company's growth plans?

While we know that this quarterly pressure will always be a fact of life within most sales organizations that are focused on growth, it is also a fact that the only way salespeople will modify their behavior is if sales managers first modify their own behavior and develop skills to manage revenue production better.

The primary sales manager behavior that should be modified: An imbalance of discussions revolving around asking "What's coming in, by when?" Instead, create a balance between the questions that revolve around the forecast with questions like "Do you have enough in your pipeline to have a predictable revenue stream at all times?" or "How is your current pipeline setting you up to meet targets next quarter; the following quarter? If you have a forecast call every Friday, have a Pipeline call every other week as well. Separate the pipeline and forecast conversations so as not to confuse the focus of either conversation. Watch out! Without a separated conversation focused on pipeline, it is easy to fall back into the more comfortable and habitual forecast discussion.

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