[email protected]

Sales training and sales consulting to increase sales.

Call For A Sales Consultation

972-380-0200
  • About
    • What We Do to Increase Sales
    • Sales Philosophy on Hiring Salespeople
    • Clients
    • Customer Comments
    • In the Media
    • Contact Us
  • Speaking and Training
    • Sales Coaching for Performance Improvement
    • Professional Speaking
    • Sales Training
    • Sales Consultant for Business Development & Increase Sales
  • Sales Products
    • Books
    • Audio CDs
    • Webinars
    • E-Books
    • Manuals
    • Booklets
    • Merchandise
  • Free Resources
    • Videos
    • The Selling Newsletter
    • What is your Selling Issue?
    • Recommended Reading
    • Free Reprint Articles
    • White Papers
    • Sales Pro
  • Upcoming Programs
  • Membership
You are here: Home / Blog / Sell and Work for a Difficult Boss

Sell and Work for a Difficult Boss

September 7, 2018 By maurasf

boss is difficult in sales
How will you work for a difficult boss?

It’s not mutually exclusive. You can sell while you work for a difficult boss. Difficult bosses come in all types, whether verbally abusive, incompetent or worse. One of your options is to get another job. You might believe that as the victim it’s not right to be punished in that way. Here’s how to work for a difficult boss and still continue to sell.

1. Make sure you work the way your manager wants you to work.

Some bosses are micromanagers who want to know everything. Some are control freaks who want certain pieces of information just the way they want them whether they waste your selling time or not.
Schedule a meeting, if you haven’t already, to learn your manager’s expectations for how he wants you to work for him. You may want to work differently than he wants. You can make the case for why you want to do things your way.

You’ve got to do things the way your manager wants them if you lose the argument. Your goal when working for a difficult boss is to take away all the issues that might threaten your manager and cause him to become difficult.

2. Meet deadlines.

This is a subset of the first rule. Any manager, whether competent or not, hates surprises and problems. Is your manager difficult because you’re missing deadlines? You deserve some push back if you aren’t meeting deadlines or your work is substandard.

You have another issue if the problem is that your manager is giving you more of the work than he’s giving to others. The conversation to have is one where you demonstrate the workload you have is excessive. Ask which project your manager wants to remove when he gives you more work. You must make the case that you have more work than others.

3. Make your numbers.

Someone who isn’t on track to make his numbers is going to get more flack especially from an insecure manager. You do not want to be the target of your boss’s ire. Your manager can give you input if he can sell. Maybe he has some other ideas that will help you get more business. You have to get back on track and make your sales so at least the stress he would have generated is reduced.

4. Don’t take the bait.

I worked for a difficult manager who was incompetent. We worked in different cities and our telephone calls were a challenge. Every conversation we had led to an argument. As I look back now, I expected every conversation to be an argument. Why? Because most of the things he said were either wrong or wasted my time.

One such time-waster was his giving instructions in no fewer than 25 steps how to do the work he was asking me to do. I do not need to be told how to accomplish an objective! What did I do wrong? I took the bait.

You probably realize that some managers simply annoy you. Instead of going into each meeting with the idea that there is going to be a problem, the next time, assume innocence. When your manager says something that annoys you or worse, don’t take the bait. A neutral response like, “That’s interesting” can be an answer that doesn’t turn up the heat.

I distinctly remember the first time my incompetent manager told me an idea and I replied, “That’s a great idea.” I would have never said anything positive before I decided that a war of words was unproductive for me. I think he nearly fell out of his chair in astonishment. Thankfully our conversations got better after that one. While I never grew to respect him, we did have productive conversations that didn’t end up in arguments.

5. Avoid being a target. Stop whining and offer a solution.

Before you complain about a problem, be sure you have a proposed solution. There’s nothing worse than someone who complains endlessly and then doesn’t offer a solution. Managers tend not to like whiners and they can often show their displeasure of them.

It’s not easy working for a difficult manager. Your choice of strategies is key. Keep these rules in mind when you execute your strategies.

Tweet
PinIt

Filed Under: Blog, Sales Strategy Tagged With: difficult boss

THE SELLING E-LETTER® SIGN UP

Social media

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Selling Tips

*What was your last “mistake?” Did you make it before? There’s nothing wrong with making mistakes in sales provided you are making different mistakes. (You are learning from them!)

About the principal

Would you take auto mechanics classes when you buy a car? Maura did because she wanted to be able to work on her car. She takes that same approach to selling. She can show you how to get below the surface of selling to learn why and how different strategies work. She will show you which skills to implement that will shorten your sales cycle and increase your sales. She was Mobil Oil's first female Lubrication Engineer in the United States and one of Chevron's top 5 salespeople in the country. She knows what works for sales.

"I would recommend your work to other sales organizations who want to get better results from improved selling strategies."
Jamey Rootes
President
Houston Texans

Sales Expert at Allbusiness.com

Selling is the easiest job in the world. Just ask anyone who is not in sales. Read Maura’s ideas on “more brain…less mouth” selling to make your selling easier and more successful.

Maura’s Allbusiness blog posts

Recent Posts

  • Sales Is Not Fair
  • Less Stress Selling:  What You Can Do to Reduce Sales Stress
  • Segment Your Prospects and Customers. Are Your Largest Prospects and Customers the Most Important?
  • Women In Sales: Beware Mansplaining and other gender stereotypes!
  • Sell In A Recession

Search

Copyright © 2023 · [email protected]