Have you ever been right in the middle of something important when one of your salespeople interrupts with a question?
You’re working on a forecast, preparing for a meeting, reviewing numbers, or trying to finish something that’s already overdue. You’ve finally managed to concentrate long enough to make some progress when someone appears at your door or sends a message asking if you have a minute.
Of course, it’s never really a minute.
You want to be available to your salespeople. You know that helping them work through problems is part of your responsibility as their leader, so you stop what you’re doing and ask what’s going on.
Except there’s a good chance your brain is still working on whatever you were doing before the interruption.
You’re listening to the salesperson while mentally keeping track of where you left off, what you still need to accomplish, and how quickly you can get back to it.
And sometimes, without even realizing it, you start looking for the fastest way to finish the conversation.
Being Available Doesn’t Always Mean You’re Paying Attention
Inside sales leadership involves a constant balancing act between the work you need to accomplish and the people who need your attention.
There are days when it feels as though everyone needs something at exactly the same time. A salesperson has a customer issue, another needs help with an opportunity, someone else has a question about a process, and you’ve got your own commitments that aren’t going to disappear simply because your team needs you.
It’s understandable that we occasionally find ourselves listening with only part of our attention.
The challenge is recognizing when that’s happening.
You may hear enough of the salesperson’s explanation to recognize the situation. You’ve dealt with something similar before, and you know what you’d do. So you offer a suggestion, answer the question, or tell them what their next step should be.
The salesperson leaves with an answer, and you get back to work.
It feels efficient.
But what did you actually accomplish?
Perhaps you helped resolve an immediate issue. Perhaps you gave exactly the right advice. Or perhaps you missed something important because you were so focused on getting back to your own work that you never really understood what the salesperson was asking.
There’s also a bigger question worth considering.
Are you helping your salespeople become better at solving problems, or are you becoming the person they depend on to solve them?
When You Become the Team’s Answer Provider
I think most inside sales leaders have experienced this at some point.
A salesperson comes to you with a problem, you give them an answer, and they go off to do what you suggested. A few days later, they’re back with another problem, and you provide another answer.
Eventually, you begin noticing that certain salespeople seem to need your help with almost every decision.
It’s frustrating, particularly when you know they’re capable of figuring some of these things out themselves.
But I wonder how often we stop to consider what we’ve taught them about coming to us for help.
If every time a salesperson asks a question, we immediately provide an answer, why would they spend much time working through the problem independently?
We’ve made ourselves a very convenient resource.
And because we’re experienced, knowledgeable, and usually pretty good at figuring things out, it’s easy to convince ourselves that we’re being helpful.
Sometimes we absolutely are.
There are situations when a salesperson needs a direct answer. They may be dealing with something unfamiliar, facing a time-sensitive customer issue, or missing information that only you can provide.
The problem develops when providing answers becomes our automatic response, regardless of what the salesperson actually needs.
Over time, you may find yourself spending more and more of your day answering questions that your salespeople could have learned to answer themselves.
And your salespeople may become increasingly dependent on your judgment instead of developing confidence in their own.
Do You Know How Your Salespeople Think?
One of the most valuable things you can learn as an inside sales leader is how each person on your team thinks.
I’m talking about what happens between recognizing a problem and deciding what to do about it.
What information does the salesperson consider important? How do they evaluate their options? What assumptions are they making? What possibilities have they considered, and which ones haven’t even occurred to them?
You learn an enormous amount about someone when you understand how they arrive at a decision.
Consider a salesperson who comes to you because a customer is unhappy about a delivery problem.
You could immediately tell them who to contact, what to say, and how to handle the situation. Based on your experience, you might have a pretty good solution.
But imagine asking, “What have you considered doing?”
Perhaps the salesperson has already thought through several options and simply wants to make sure they’re not overlooking something. Maybe they’ve identified a solution you hadn’t considered. Or perhaps their answer reveals that they’re focusing on the customer’s immediate complaint without recognizing the larger business impact.
Now you have information you can use to coach.
You may discover that this salesperson is excellent at identifying problems but struggles to evaluate alternatives. Another might be very analytical but hesitant to make a decision without reassurance. Someone else may jump to a solution before gathering enough information.
Those are different coaching opportunities, and you won’t necessarily recognize them if you provide the answer before understanding how the salesperson is thinking.
The more you understand how your salespeople think, the better equipped you are to help them develop.
And there’s something else I think is worth remembering.
Sometimes your salespeople are going to approach a situation differently than you would.
That doesn’t automatically mean their approach is wrong.
I’ve learned plenty from salespeople who saw something I hadn’t considered or came up with a solution I wouldn’t have thought of myself.
If we’re always the ones providing the answers, we miss those opportunities, too.
Give Yourself Permission to Coach
Of course, all of this sounds wonderful until you’re interrupted for the fifth time before lunch and still haven’t finished the work you started three hours ago.
That’s when the temptation to provide a quick answer becomes particularly strong.
Which brings me back to the importance of paying attention to what’s happening in your own head when a salesperson approaches you.
If you’re distracted, frustrated, or mentally still working on something else, recognize it.
You may need to finish what you’re doing before you can give the salesperson the attention they deserve. Unless the situation is urgent, there’s nothing wrong with saying, “I want to give this some thought with you. Can we talk in fifteen minutes?”
You can also begin changing the way you respond when someone comes to you with a question.
Instead of immediately offering a solution, ask what they’ve already considered. Find out what they believe the options are and why they’re leaning toward a particular choice.
You don’t have to turn every interruption into a lengthy coaching session. Sometimes one thoughtful question is enough to help a salesperson recognize that they already know what to do.
Other times, you’ll discover something that needs more attention.
Either way, you’re learning something about the person you’re coaching, and they’re getting an opportunity to develop their own thinking.
What Are You Teaching Your Team to Expect?
Your salespeople learn from the way you respond to them.
If they know that bringing you a problem will result in an immediate answer, that’s probably what they’ll continue doing.
If they learn that you’re interested in what they’ve considered, how they’re evaluating the situation, and what they believe should happen next, they’ll begin preparing for a different kind of conversation.
That change won’t happen overnight, particularly if you’ve spent years being the person who always has the answer.
But imagine how much more effective your team could become if your salespeople developed greater confidence in making decisions, evaluating situations, and solving problems independently.
And imagine what that might do for your own ability to focus on the leadership work that needs your attention.
Here’s my challenge for you this week: The next time a salesperson interrupts you with a question, notice whether you’re genuinely available to help them think through it.
If you are, resist the urge to immediately provide the answer. Ask them what they’ve already considered and listen carefully to how they explain their thinking.
You may still end up giving them direction, but you’ll have a much better understanding of what they need from you.
And perhaps, over time, you’ll find that your salespeople come to you with fewer questions they could have answered themselves and more interesting conversations about the decisions they’re making.