Sales managers oversee a sales team on one hand and report to upper management on the other. It requires a range of different skills to do well in this position. When it comes down to it, managing a sales team is the most important aspect of the job of a sales manager. Below are essential skills for a sales manager to possess.
Consistent and Proactive Coaching
Meeting with salespeople regularly to evaluate their performance and resolve issues leading to a poor performance is an important part of a sales manager’s job. These sessions are most effective when the manager can lead the salesperson to a solution rather than just state what he or she thinks the problem is. A weekly meeting is common, but sales managers also need to know when to call a special session to get ahead of obvious problems. Some of the specific things a sales manager should do with or for each team member include:
• Use an effective assessment tool to uncover strengths and weaknesses
• Identify additional training resources and make them available
• Occasionally ride along with each salesperson for observation and coaching purposes
• Instruct staff on how to better qualify leads
• Create a customized development plan for every team member
Always Maintain Professionalism
Sales can be a frustrating job. The lead that seemed like a sure thing backs out with no explanation, quotas are challenging to meet, and customers can be deliberately difficult. This can lead salespeople to just vent their frustrations during one-on-one time. An effective sales manager doesn’t take these emotional outbursts personally. Instead, he or she remains cool and helps guide the employee to a workable solution for his or her problem. If the sales manager gets just as upset, the session will be completely ineffective.
Keeping the relationship with one’s team professional is just as important as emotional composure in stressful situations. When a sales manager has been promoted from a group of peers on a sales team, he or she may still consider them a core group of friends. That can make it a challenge to remain objective and authoritative.
However, new sales managers need to avoid the opposite extreme of coming down so hard on their team that nobody wants to work for them. Striking a balance during work hours is essential for the good of the whole team.
Strong Business Acumen and Leadership Skills
The most effective sales managers know how to guide and motivate their teams and possess strong business know-how that allows them to make good decisions. Recent studies indicate that despite popular conceptions, sales coaching is less critical to overall performance than skills like general business acumen.
For example, sales managers need to manage a pipeline and make accurate sales forecasts so their representatives can perform their jobs well. They should invest the time in learning all they can about the business and the industry so they can make important decisions without hesitation.
Leadership skills are necessary to succeed in any management position. Specifically, sales managers need to have personal integrity, the ability to communicate professionally with their team, a strong vision, organizational skills, and the ability to play on the strengths of each team member. Some of the specific ways sales managers can accomplish these tasks include:
• Identify new sales leads each week that put more qualified prospects into the funnel
• Create incentive plans for sales representatives that motivate them and provide rewards for high performers
• Work with other departments to ensure that the entire company supports the sales department
• Establish sales goals for each team member based on personalized metrics
• Be willing to make difficult decisions when necessary, including letting an underperformer go
• Continually analyze the sales culture and look for ways to make improvements
After employing the above strategies, it’s important for sales managers to let go and allow team members to learn from their own mistakes. If they make the same mistakes repeatedly without learning from them, corrective action is the next logical step.
