Sales professionals should proactively ask their managers about their key performance indicators (KPIs) and priorities. Your primary objective is to help your manager achieve their goals, which in turn makes you a more valuable team member and builds a stronger working relationship.
Simply hitting 100% of your individual sales quota is insufficient for team success. Top performers must aim for "100 plus X" to compensate for colleagues who will inevitably miss their targets. This demonstrates strategic value and helps ensure the manager's overall number is met.
Effective upward management requires learning and adapting to your manager's specific communication preferences—not just the medium, but also the time of day and day of the week. This ensures your updates are received positively and that you are seen as easy to work with.
Instead of asking for general coaching, which a busy manager may not have time for, approach them with a single pipeline challenge. Frame it as a request for their expert advice on a particular deal. This makes the request quick, actionable, and ego-boosting, increasing the likelihood they'll engage.
Don't wait until month-end to reveal you're missing a goal. Inform your manager as soon as a deal is at risk. Their reputation with executive management depends on the accuracy of their forecast, which is built on your updates. Early warnings build trust and protect your manager.
Managing pipeline numbers is a lagging indicator of performance. Effective sales leaders coach on leading indicators: the specific activities and customer interactions happening at the deal level. They influence outcomes by asking "Why should the customer buy?" instead of just reviewing the forecast.