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FEATURESTORY
Maybe You Need a Womanager!
Sometimes the best man to turn around slipping sales is woman – who has never been in sales before!
That was the case with Sandy Henjum, who began her career at Bell Atlantic/GTE in human resources in the mid-1980s and didn’t move into sales management until 2003 after the company had merged with Verizon Communications.
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“I realized going into that position that I’d never carried a bag,” Henjum says, referring to her lack of frontline sales experience. Yet she was named President of the Southeast and Central regions for Idearc Media, the producer of the Verizon Yellow Pages and its online companion. In fact, none of the four senior executives named to lead the company’s sales regions had sales experience. Henjum, however, was the only woman selected.
Today, the two territories that she oversees ring up $1 billion in annual revenue. Among those reporting to her are a director of marketing, two vice presidents of sales, a finance director and an HR director. More than 400 sales representatives serve the Southeast and Central regions. “In essence, I’m running my own little company,” she says.
And doing a fine job! Henjum had the top-performing region in her first two years at the helm. The sales teams in her two regions were averaging a decline of 4 percent annually before she arrived, but have increased business in each of her three years as a manager (and are on track to do so again this year).
Immediately upon accepting her new role, Henjum set about stabilizing a chaotic business environment that was reeling from widespread buyouts and downsizing. She readily admits that she brought a woman’s touch to the resuscitation project, assembling a support team and traveling to the regional offices to meet with more than 400 sales employees in a three-month period.
“I have a reputation for building strong teams and that’s essentially what I did,” she says. These town meetings were designed to show frontline sales reps and middle managers that their suggestions and complaints would be heard by senior executives – and acted upon. “I would have people from headquarters call during the meetings while we were all together to find out what solutions could be provided. I delivered on our commitments and I went to bat for the sales organization on the things they asked for, including a different sales compensation plan,” Henjum says.
Does she consider her management style uniquely feminine?
Henjum feels that she is more focused than her male counterparts who lead the other three regions. And she adds that her team approach is more indicative of a female leader. “I’ve worked for men who like to pit people on the same team against each other because they think they’ll get better results. I hire good people and get them to work as a team. We don’t throw people under the bus.”
But Henjum quickly adds that she’s no softie when it comes to dealing with poor performers. She thinks male managers are more likely to protect a salesman who isn’t producing because of friendship. “I’m a lot more inclined to say, ‘We tried, it’s not working and it’s time to move on.’ I’ve done that more than anybody here. I will go to the ends of the earth to reward people for what they do, but I’m not going to keep people in their job if they’re not performing. If the rest of the team knows that you will move that person out, you earn a lot more loyalty.”
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See also in the article: A Woman's Place
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