The Six Skills of a Sales Manager

A sales manager is a strategist, a marketing guru, and the link between the sales force and company management, and in many cases, one day, the company's CEO. So, what makes the ideal sales manager?

Don’t over-control the sales force

“Sales managers complain that their jobs are difficult because they have to focus on meeting sales targets, developing strategies, and managing the sales force at the same time,” training consultancy Forum Corporation said Jocelyn Davis, the company's vice president of product development. The company's recent survey of the world's top-selling companies came to that conclusion. In addition to this, the study has other findings: "All of our survey respondents reported that the most important task of today's sales managers -- and their weakest link -- is how to teach and develop their sales teams."

In most cases, sales managers are promoted from among high-performing business people. But the sales skills that made them stellar don't necessarily quickly turn into recipes for great management.

"Sales managers often tell me that they're in high positions because they're great business people, but their initial inclination was to go out and sell," explains Davis, "even though they know in their hearts that now they have to Relying on the team to work, but driven by habit, they naturally want to outperform their colleagues in any situation, which is what their desire is. They are highly conscious, used to go out and visit customers, and are used to the role of sales.”

Promoting a salesperson to a sales manager can be a smart move or a big mistake—depending on how the promoted manager performs. The bad side is that sales managers who over-control their sales force do more to hurt than to help them. And a new sales manager who has just taken over the sales force, his typical performance is precisely that of excessive control. If he has to build a sales force from scratch through recruitment, then his control over the team is even more excessive. Such a sales manager may find it necessary to use this method to help and stimulate the sales force, but doing so will only lead to over-dependence, dissatisfaction and even hostility in the sales force, and worst of all, it will de-motivate the sales force.

Helping team members become sales stars

Such a sales manager realizes that actively supporting sales people will make them feel his value more strongly.

Like Jackie Chan's parents, sales managers who suppress salespeople run the risk of hampering their sales force's sales performance. Conversely, well-managed managers spend more energy developing the independence and autonomy of their salespeople. "Managers can only succeed if they change their focus from being a top salesman to 'how to get the team to do it,'" explains Davis. "The key is to change the mindset from 'I am a top salesman ', moved to 'I'm a teacher, coach, and influencer for my team, and their career success is my success.'"

However, sales managers are often overwhelmed by promotions. “When I was promoted to sales manager, it felt like a reward for my hard work,” says sales coach Mark Corsini, president of the Corsini Consulting Group. 'They're all my men and they're all working for me,' etc., and so on, to build one's own prestige, to bring others down to elevate oneself, seems absurd now."

Corsini and thousands of others Thousands of salespeople and sales managers have worked together and have seen firsthand the negative effects of this controlled management style. "Crushing the sales force and forcing them to accept your way is counterproductive," he said. "In the successful companies I've seen, the sales managers and top management create an environment that is motivating. Good sales managers Not always in the limelight, but helping your team members become sales stars. If your team achieves great results, you will naturally be a great manager."

Good at selling yourself to team members

BAX Global's global account representative Jason Bergman has worked as a salesman and sales manager in the past, and he believes that management itself is a kind of sales. "The difference between a sales manager and a salesperson," he says, "is that the salesperson is selling the company's product or service, while the sales manager is selling the salesperson's excellence. It's just that one is inside sales and one is outside sales. . Salespeople work for sales managers, but to a certain extent, the best sales managers actually work for salespeople."

Managers who generally embrace this philosophy are bound to employ effective management strategies. By treating salespeople as customers, sales managers can repeat the same old tricks and use the same recipes that put them at the top of the sales list. Forum's Davis recalls a sales manager they surveyed told them: "Whenever I panic, I think: I'm still a salesman, no matter how bad. But now my sub- -- my sales force -- my customers. So I started using those sales techniques to influence them, listen to them, identify their needs, and try to convince them."

Actually, listening and maintaining Communication is a necessary work skill for sales managers and sales teams. Salespeople generally prefer sales managers who are always ready to discuss and respond quickly to calls and emails, and this approachability will command more respect and authority. When salespeople need to discuss a problem, a good sales manager first listens carefully, then analyzes the problem and proposes a solution, but never imposes it.

Helping Salespeople Set Goals

Sales goals should motivate team members to keep going and make them feel proud when they reach their goals.

Setting goals is one of the most important ways a sales manager can influence, motivate, and keep the sales force in the right direction. Finding the right way to help salespeople set and reach their goals can make a sales manager's job more productive. If the salesperson feels that he is the owner of the goal, he will definitely go all out to accomplish it. "I think it's very important for salespeople to set their own goals," said Beverly Knapp, Northwest manager of Ablest Staffing. "If I set goals for them, I'm giving them tasks, which It loses its meaning.” When faced with a crisis or disappointment, salespeople can’t see the future. That's when the sales manager needs to step in and make sure the sales force is on the right track. "Selling as a means of making a living is full of hardships and ups and downs, so many hardships and setbacks! You have to be strong, get your spirits up, and persevere," said Chris McDonnell, sales manager at Eureka Broadband. It's unavoidable in the job that people lose orders they had high hopes for. As a manager, you should come forward to analyze the situation and draw lessons from the experience. When such a situation occurs, you can help the salesperson through the difficult time. You put it It becomes a learning process."

Know what motivates them to move forward

Salespeople are different, so it is important for sales managers to understand what motivates salespeople. "It's about 'what motivates you'. Most sales managers don't care about this because they think they know or think what motivates them is equally effective for salespeople," Forum's Dai Weiss explained, “Everyone is motivated by money to some extent, for example, but everyone is also motivated by other different things. Salespeople desperately want sales managers to understand their actual needs and to be clear about them moving forward. drive.”

In some cases, successful sales managers see their salespeople as racing horses and have a clear track to the finish. "I don't want them to trip over obstacles that I could have cleared," said AT&T's Whitworth. "The paperwork I can do or the phone calls I can return, I'll do it for them. I want them to be free to focus on making more calls from strangers, developing new business and providing great customer service. They don't work for me, they work for themselves and the company. My role is to make sure they have Get the resources and tools you need to succeed, and get them out of the way."

During economic downturns, companies cut salespeople to stay competitive, requiring sales managers to be resilient and flexible. No sales manager wants to face the result of layoffs, a shrinking sales force, and increased competition for fewer and fewer customers. Even the most confident salesperson can be traumatized.

Andy Zoltenas, executive director of ZS Partners, sees these challenges as an excellent opportunity for companies to raise their performance standards. "In a more cautious buyer's market environment, salespeople have to change the way they sell," he said. "Sales managers have to be trainers, listening to the voices ahead and devising ways to survive in a brutal market environment."

Fighting for Their Interests

Leadership is all about staying calm in the face of the turbulent business world, markets, economies, competition and customers. A good leader can articulate vision, inspire morale, and be disciplined.

Of all the other leadership qualities, none is more effective than leading by example. When managers use this leadership style, they need to understand the situation and solve the problem from the perspective of the salesperson. Stella Evans, Regional Marketing Sales Manager for Liverton Hotels, explained: “It’s important for sales managers to understand their situation from the perspective of the salesperson. Understanding each other makes it easier for teams to work. ”

Leadership at a higher level requires flexibility, diligence, steadfastness, and heart-to-heart. The best sales managers are constantly improving themselves and helping their sales teams achieve excellence. “You need to get salespeople to do their job for you, for the team, for themselves,” says BAX Global’s Bergman. “You should be a role model for them to follow, and they want to be successful for you. To do this, you have to be kind to salespeople, caring about their woes, seeing their voices, meeting their needs and supporting their work. You have to fight for their interests and challenge the company's top management to do so. If If you do this well, you and your sales team will be successful."

This text is reproduced with permission from Selling Power Magazine, copyrighted 2001. Translated by Guo Yanhang.