How to run an effective 1:1 at all levels of your GTM org

Advice for meeting with AEs, Sales Managers, and VPs/GTM Leaders

DEAR STAGE 2: Our GTM team has tripled in size over the last 12 months and the cadence of meetings hasn't evolved quickly enough to accommodate the growth in leadership within the team. What are best practices for leading 1:1s with AEs and front line sales managers? And what should my 1:1 with our VP of Sales look like?  ~CEO RETHINKING 1:1 STRATEGY

DEAR CEO RETHINKING 1:1 STRATEGY: Setting a strategy around a team operating cadence spans meetings, training, 1:1s coaching and async comms, but we’re going to dive deep on 1:1s today. My personal philosophy as a leader has always been: time for you, time for me, time to agree to next steps. In practice, that means we each come with critical agenda items and leave time to agree to what we are working on before the next meeting. 

For a 30 min meeting, just remember: 10 for you, 10 for me, 10 to agree.

But that’s about as simple as this advice gets. In order to bring you some best practices, critical topics, and advice to drive high performing teams, I looped in CRO and Stage 2 LP, Lauren Chacon, to share her wisdom. Lauren has operated at all levels of a GTM team leading large sales orgs at Monster, Constant Contact, Endurance, Aura and now HCSS. Here’s her advice:

Advice for all levels

• For starters — HAVE THEM.  Selling is stressful whether you are on the front lines or a leader accountable for a large target.  In my junior days, the first thing to go when I was stressed and crunched was to punt my one-on-ones.  One of the worst and most junior moves. Do not ever underestimate the importance of the respect and investment included / implied in holding a one-on-one — you are telling your people that they are important and worth the investment.

• Have an agenda.  This is a 101 move, written about all the time, but I see it in action in less than 10% of one-on-ones.  Having an agenda keeps the conversation focused, allows for preparation, and ensures buy-in on both sides.  From my seat, I think it is better for your direct report to provide the agenda so that they’re bought into the conversation.  It does not need to be complex.  Three ups (wins) and three challenges (areas where I need help) is simple enough.  Keeping a record of these allows both folks to go back and check in on past areas of development.

• Last — be present.  I learned this the hard way.  I am a classic sales person – a magpie always looking for the next shiny object.  I give credit to a rep of mine who called me out for not fully being present during our time together.  Put the phone away. Check in with the person on if their work and non work world is ok. Focus on the agenda. Look people in the eye even if weird on video.

Direct sellers

• Divide time between coaching and managing:

  • Lots of new managers do not understand the difference between the two — the easiest way for me to explain is coaching is getting the player to learn how to adjust their swing, the managing is getting them to actually go to batting practice a certain number of times.  Coaching is teaching someone how to do each step of their jobs better, managing is holding them accountable to the level of activity to do the job

  • Managing — use the metrics.  Are they doing enough outreach? How much is in the pipeline? Where are they vs. the target? Where are they vs. peers?

  • Coaching — Where would a change in skills change the trajectory of their selling?  Are they great at filling the pipeline, but can’t get a deal to close?  Do they spend too much time running through features and benefits without understanding the buyer’s issues?  Do they understand how to identify the decision makers and power?  Work on role playing what “good” could look like, or go on calls and then do turnkey one-on-ones.  Use Gong to share best practices.

• Determine what help and/or obstacle removal your seller needs from you.

• Get agreement on follow ups — and START your next one-on-one with progress against those actions (don’t forget to take notes!).

Director of Sales/Sales Manager

• Quick run through on metrics for team, looks at outliers – high and low.  Understand the “Why?” behind both.

• Discuss plans for three tiers of performers — As, Bs and Cs.  Have your director discuss and outline what SPECIFIC actions they are taking to continue to invest in their As, bring Bs to the next level, and move Cs up or out.

• Check in on key programs and initiatives, specifically next steps.  Having worked with many sales leaders, attention to follow through is not a strength.  There are A LOT of great ideas that come from front-line managers.  What I do not see a lot of is focus on what are the top three initiatives/programs are to move the needle and what specific next steps are. Keep a running list of next steps for each front-line manager and refer back to them in each meeting

• Depending on the leader, check on how they are managing THEIR meeting cadences — stand-ups, 1:1’s , pipeline reviews etc.

VP/GM/CRO

This is where the aperture opens.  Meetings with your VPs and GMs need to capture their synthesis of the biggest opportunities and biggest risks.

• Follow up on open items and/or concerns from previous meeting.

• Discuss at high level metrics — what are gaps and what are overall plans to address.  (As an aside, if you do not have a shared agreement on the metrics that matter, this is table stakes for agreement on how to improve or accelerate performance):

  • What are biggest areas of risk – people, process, product, competition?

  • What are biggest opportunities and how are they attacking them?

A huge thanks to Lauren for sharing her perspective on effective 1:1s. 

Until next week!