Week 5 — Theories in Action — Contingency Theories — Hersey and Blanchard

Hersey and Blanchard’s Contingency theory helps explain what makes a highly effective salesperson. The theory concludes that leaders need to be flexible in their style, matching their behaviors to the needs of the followers. This contingency theory argues that leaders should be mindful of how their followers perceive them on both a task and relational level. Effective leaders must also be astute judges of the situations they face and their control in the situation, according to the theory. This all translates to what makes a highly effective salesperson based on my observations and interactions with the heads of sales and our stock pitches to the sales team. This week, the heads of sales discussed how important it is to know your client. Each salesperson must know what their clients’ investment style is, what they have in their portfolio, and what interests them along with what is irrelevant to them. This is so they can tailor the product to the client’s needs. Given that they normally have one minute in the morning with the client, this is of the utmost importance to maximize that time and ideally warrant more later in the day. Moreover, they need to understand each client’s personality, as some may be much friendlier and more patient than others. Knowing this allows them to adjust their pitch style and progress their relationship with that client. This also comes into play with our intern stock pitches to the sales team. Although our pitches are meant to mimic a client phone call, they are to about 40 senior salespeople. This makes it very difficult to tailor the pitch to the audience and was very apparent in the questions and feedback portion of our pitch. The sales team would occasionally have very different recommendations based on their preference and various experience (each salesperson might represent a very different type of client than their peers). Some of the best pitches in the second week identified similarities in the audience, such as their employment at William Blair, and spoke to that allowing for a more customized pitch. In line with Hersey and Blanchard, the most effective salespeople are astute judges of their clientele, have very flexible pitch styles, and match their product to the client’s needs.