PROSALESGUY - Are You Training Your Sales Manager?

    • 193 posts
    March 30, 2017 3:45 PM PDT

    Our sales training clients agree on the importance of having a well-trained sales team.  The ability to monetize your marketing efforts and drive sales is the lifeblood of top-line revenue growth.  How about your Sales Manager?  This person is leading your team and fully responsible for your company’s sales success or lack there of.  Is your Sales Manager creating top-producers or driving Salespeople to work for the competition?

     

    Here’s a sobering fact that many Sales Managers will unfortunately agree with.  We neglect or at least wait too long to train Sales Managers.  The Harvard Business Review recently reported that the average age of managers receiving training was 42.  Of the 17,000 worldwide leaders polled, the average age of the managers was 33.   Here’s what they found:

     

    Harvard Business Review – We Wait Too Long ToTrain Our Leaders

     

    Training Your Sales Manager A Decade Too Late

    Allowing Sales Managers to practice in the field without specific training for almost 10 years is not good business.  It can be downright destructive.  Lost sales, poor employee retention, disappointed clients and unrealized expectations paint an ugly picture that everyone hates to look at – especially a frustrated Sales Manager who doesn’t know what he or she is doing wrong.

     

    The Disconnect

    It’s common for a company to promote a top-producing Salesperson into the role of Sales Manager.   Why not?  It seems obvious to expect that a great Salesperson makes a great Sales Manager.  Even the promoted Salesperson tends to think that way.  Personally, I remember my experience very well.  After one month in the new management role, I wondered if I had made a huge mistake.  Here’s why.

     

    Completely Different Skill Set

    The skill set required to be a great Sales Manager is radically different than what it takes to be a top-performing Salesperson.  A Sales Manager must adapt to a new role that requires new attributes that have a direct bearing on the success of his or her team.  Many qualities of successful Salespeople are applicable to being an excellent Sales Manager.  Work ethic, people skills, perseverance are great examples.

     

    Check out the qualities that greatly differ between the two positions.  Look how the skill set needs to change to adapt to the Sales Manager’s role.

     

    The Difference

    It can be easily summed up in one statement – a successful Sales Manager is a Salesperson who has learned to walk the sales floor into their new role The adrenaline rush that you received as a Salesperson when closing a big deal is now converted into the gratification in teaching your Salespeople to do what you mastered.

     

    Professional Sports

    There is an uncanny parallel between success in professional sports and sales.  It’s easy to draw the analogies.  The role of a successful Sales Manager has changed over the decades, no different than the shift in evolution of what makes a winning coach in the NHL.  Read this article and see if it’s not 100% applicable to sales coaching.

    The Globe and Mail – Hockey’s Biggest Shift: Fifty Years Of Evolution in NHL Coaching

     

    The Mindset

    You must learn to teach, mentor and empower.  That takes specialized training from an accomplished expert with a proven track record.   Find someone you respect who’s prepared to take on that role.  Hire someone who is committed to making it happen for you.  Managers administrate and manage people – Leaders teach people to manage themselves.   The premise of allowing your Sales Manager to learn on the job for 10 years before offering him or her training shows little respect for their future, your Salespeople, your clients and your company.

     

    What do you think?

     

    Thanks!

    Dave Warawa – PROSALESGUY


    This post was edited by Rod Schwartz at March 6, 2024 3:50 PM PST