Meltdown Management

As a sales manager, I hosted a daily sales meeting like every good sales manager should. Like all good salespeople do, the sales team would come to the meeting with their list of “should-haves” and “could-haves” if only “blah-blah” was true. This would often take the wind right out of my sails and tarnish the best-ever-peep-talk-of-the-century that I had prepared to rally the troops. I knew I had to change this course of action but was struggling with a solution. Out of desperation, I came up with my most successful worst idea ever, to make a game out of how to handle complaints. The goal of the game was to create a place where the negative had no home and the positive was brought to light. So how do you create a positive influenced sales meeting?

Establish the rules of the game: Complaints are not a bad thing. There are actually a seed from which positive change can be populated. The key to complaining is to be a part of the solution and not the problem. If you are part of the problem, then that is called whining and without cheese and crackers, no one wants a whiner. If you wish to complain, come to the table with a single clear complaint and examples (notice the plural) of how you would like to see this problem resolved. In other words, bring solutions to your problem. Having to provide solutions to a problem, gives the complainer ownership of the problem and the outcome.

Create a field to play on: Your team is already assembled but where is their forum to play. Creating a single meeting once a week to play the complaint game, or meltdown meeting, is frequent enough to be relevant but repetitious enough to be productive. I hosted my meltdown meetings on Monday morning. They quickly became known as Meltdown Mondays and I never had a problem with attendance. It was an open forum that allowed the salespeople to have a voice, but they had to follow the rules of the game to play. In this open forum format, it was easy to decipher isolated complaints from actually breakdowns in process that affected the whole team. A salesperson would share their problem and solutions and then we would open the table for discussion. If it was an isolated incident, discussion would usually not occur. I would then invite that salesperson to see me personally to work this out. If there was an abundance of discussion, I knew we had a breakdown. Hosting this open forum also allowed me as a manager to keep my feet wet in the trenches with my team. If I just listened to them, I could actually feel the pulse of the problem and understand what was required to bring about a solution. Salespeople may surprise you, in that they often offer some spot on solutions when given ownership of a problem. This type of forum also allows the team to have ownership of their processes and having a stake in the game makes the game worth playing. Playing this game actually ended up giving the team permission to succeed in resolving conflict independently of what was perceived as the overbearing methods of management. This level of ownership kept the team fired up and not burned out over breakdowns.

Enforce good sportsmanship: Leave it all on the field. When the game is over, the game is over, no matter the outcome. In between games, it is each team member’s responsibility to practice and prepare for the next game. The time to complain is during meltdown meetings. When that meeting comes to an end, the complaining must wait for the next meeting. This now creates space in the rest of your daily or weekly meetings for productivity outside of breakdowns. This is your time as the sales manager to coach the team to success including lessons learned from the previous meltdown meeting game. In order to be successful though, the sales manager must assume the role of coach and umpire and strictly enforce the rules of the game. Without this consistency, the team can quickly slip back into its-all-about-poor-me individuals and away from how-can-we-better-our-division teammates. Of course, make sure your team understands that if something does come up between meetings and is urgently important, they can address their problem with solutions with you in person.

When my team started playing the meltdown meeting game, it was tedious at first. It was like trying to coach five year olds to be a world class soccer team. They seemed to have stock piled problems and struggled with bringing solutions. Over time and with some coaching and reinforcement of the rules, the team began to play as a cohesive unit regarding the rules of the game, even coaching each other. I also noticed over time, the number of isolated complaints diminished. As the team began to take ownership of their daily activities and processes, I observed fewer moments in which they were just on the clock putting in their hours. A great side effect of meltdown meetings was it actually made the team more productive over time. As a result, I was given the opportunity to focus on being their guide on the side and no longer forced to be some sage on a stage. I was now the coach of a world class soccer team!

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Comment by Stephanie Young on July 25, 2011 at 12:11pm: Thanks, Rick!

Comment by Rick Williams on July 20, 2011 at 1:27pm: Great way of heading off the cancers that often eat away on a sales team.

Comment by Stephanie Young on July 20, 2011 at 10:54am: Thanks, Joe! You may want to print out the comments too. Some great additions to the subject were posted in comments. Let me know how it works out for your team. I want to see if maybe my team is extraordinary or is everyone having these results. LOL

Comment by Stephanie Young on July 20, 2011 at 10:52am: Julie, aren't bad ideas just wonderful? LOL I took a chance and somehow it worked. I do agree with you on why it worked. You do have to be the rigid enforcer of the game in order for there to be progress. Not only must you be the coach, you must also be the umpire. You can not allow "doping" or "cheating" to tarnish the game, otherwise you just created a forum for whining and moaning. It does take time to teach the team how to operate in this forum. My first few Meltdown Meetings were brutal, but I enforced, coached and officiated over and over again until the whole team was in the game. Now, Meltdown Meetings are seamless. Everyone knows their role and what is expected of them. I love it when I call a Meltdown Meeting and the whole team is early and ready to rock and roll.....and it is over in no time because they have already worked out the problem on their own but wanted to go through the steps so their "coach" is up to speed. Now that is progress!!!!

Comment by Joe Clementi on July 20, 2011 at 10:50am: Excellent share Stephanie. I will print this post and share with my sales managers!

Comment by Julie Heilman on July 20, 2011 at 10:43am: Really is your most fantastic "bad idea" ever!!! I thought it was going to turn into a whining fest, but how you have handled it as made of a great space for empowerment......not just for your team, but for all of The Manus Group. If I had a word of caution for anyone wishing to play this game with their team.....Be consistent. Stick with the rules of the game. Honor the open forum and listen. Empower and enforce that others do the same. Carrie is right, in that Stephanie is rigid with how this game is played but that is why this game is so successful for her team.

Comment by Stephanie Young on July 20, 2011 at 10:35am: Bobby, thank you. Meltdown Monday's have become my biggest and best mistake ever!!! I stumbled on the idea out of necessity to do something....anything.....that was not the way we have always done it. Doing what we always have, was getting us more of what we have always gotten....and in this cause.....that was nothing but wasted time. I was being empowered as a manager to make some changes, so I empowered the team to make some changes too. The most fantastic "bad idea" I have every had!!!!!

Comment by Stephanie Young on July 20, 2011 at 10:20am: Carrie, so glad that you helped me with your team in making this joint venture. Not every manager is so willing to jump in feet first and play another manager's game. It still amazes me that we can get two separate teams in one meeting and resolve a problem that would have taken you and I alone as managers weeks to resolve and have compliance. Thank you for being such a great coach to your team!!!!!

Comment by Stephanie Young on July 20, 2011 at 10:06am: "Permission to Succeed!!!"-Love it!!!! I remember when I was a green pea and the iron-fisted managers I worked for. I feared them so much that I was afraid to ask for help or ask a question, let alone offer a solution. This fear did give birth to being an in the trenches manager for me. I don't ask of my team what I am not willing to do myself. I will even wash dishes left in the sink. (smile) BTW, great title....Reject Me-I Love It!

Comment by John Fuhrman on July 20, 2011 at 9:50am: I think empowermet is a great word. Once any team understands that no one person has all the answers, but everyone has the desire to come up with solutions, they'll now have permision to succeed. In "Reject Me - I Love It!" many think I only address the fear of rejection that comes from dealing with customers. But, the real fear is often that sales people fear being rejected by their peers or managers. Eliminate that one fear and watch the numbers grow!