Sales Management For Dummies. Bellah Butch

do the job. Anyone who ever gets promoted goes through similar feelings, and if they tell you they don’t they’re probably not being totally truthful.

      Now calm yourself; you can do this. In this first chapter I explore the traits and functions of a sales manager and briefly touch on a few topics I cover in more depth later. By the time I’m done, you’ll be a confident, successful, efficient manager leading a team of great salespeople.

      And, if it doesn’t work, just take two aspirin and call me in the morning.

      Understanding Your Role as a Sales Manager

      It’s important to know how great sales managers operate; how they manage their team and how they remain productive themselves. The role is ever-changing but has several core duties and responsibilities which cross almost all industry lines:

      ✔ Managing the sales team

      ✔ Establishing goals and quotas

      ✔ Training and developing sales skills

      ✔ Assigning and defining geographical territories

      ✔ Counseling and leading individual salespeople

      ✔ Reporting data to upper management

      ✔ Creating incentive programs

      ✔ Establishing budgets

      ✔ Hiring and firing salespeople

      Are there other tasks you do as a sales manager? Sure. You’ll always add new responsibilities to your plate, but you can pretty much expect to handle the jobs on this list when you get the job. In fact, many of them may have been in your job description.

Acknowledging what you are and what you’re not

      As a professional sales manager you assume many roles: motivator, cheerleader, sounding board, ear to vent to, teacher, judge, shoulder to cry on, and everything in between.

      As the leader of your department, the buck really does stop with you. The responsibility that comes with the job is enormous and can be a bit overwhelming.

      

You can only do one thing at a time, and you can only do your best. When in doubt remember these words, “Do the best you can with what you have to work with.”

      At some point you will wonder whether you’re in the sales department or management. The truth is you’re in both, and you have to be able to mold and shape yourself to fit the situation you’re in.

      There will be times when you must make very hard management decisions and times where you have to defend your sales department against the decisions of others. Sometimes you won’t know which role you’re playing. There’s no cut-and-dried way to tell when to be more sales or more management. There’s no right or wrong answer; there’s a lot of gray area. You have to go with your gut.

      

As long as you’re consistent, you’ll be fine. Don’t try to please everyone. Be consistent in your actions, decisions, and how you run your department, and you’ll be ahead of the game.

      You’re the conduit between management and sales. You’re the person other department heads are going to look to for information regarding what’s happening to the company’s sales. The next minute you’re answering to salespeople and explaining something the company decided to do.

      It’s a juggling act, but a manageable one if you just “do the best you can with what you have to work with.”

      

As important as it is to know what you are, it’s just as important to know what you are not. You’re not a psychic who can read minds and predict the future of the company’s sales down to the penny. Everyone is going to ask you to, but you can’t. You have to use past history and your instincts to set budgets, goals, and sales forecasts – all of which now come from your desk.

      You’re also not the secretary for the sales department. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be the first to say you work for your sales team instead of them working for you. But, don’t let yourself get caught up in doing their tasks. That’s not what you’re there for. I point out ways to help you avoid this huge bear trap in Chapter 2.

      

If you set the tone early of doing things for people, they will continue to expect that behavior. Your job is to make your people better, not dependent.

      It’s now about how your team performs, not how you perform – a feeling that can be both invigorating and scary.

Inspiring, coaching, and leading

      When it really comes down to it, your purpose is to inspire, coach, and lead your department. Sales is the only department in the company that contributes to profits – everything else is an expense. If your company is going to not just survive but thrive, it will be in large part due to how your department performs.

      

Inspire your sales team to want to achieve more and to believe they can and will. Note I didn’t say motivate them. I believe motivation has to come from within – you can’t motivate your people; they have to motivate themselves. However, you can and must inspire them.

      Coach them to improve their skills. Your job is to observe, provide feedback, take corrective action, and go again. Then observe, provide feedback, take corrective action, and do it all over – over and over and over. You’re in a constant state of coaching and training as new techniques, new systems, and new ways to communicate with your prospects and buyers are created.

      Lead your team in a manner they want to follow. A leader doesn’t say, “Go do this!” a leader says, “Let’s go do this!” How you conduct yourself has as big an impact on your sales department as any words coming from your mouth.

      

Poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “What you do speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you say.” Leadership is taking action, not only speaking.

      As a sales manager, you have a lot to digest, but understand you take this journey one step at a time. You’re not the manager today you’ll be a year from now or five years from now. If you had all these answers and knew how to do all these things already, you would’ve been a sales manager years ago. Be patient and learn.

      Transitioning from Salesperson to Sales Manager

      It may be only one step on the ladder of your career, but it’s a big one when you move from being a salesperson to becoming a sales manager. Gone are the days of having to concern yourself only with your own sales and keeping up with what’s happening only with your customers in your own territory. Now you’re responsible for the whole ball of wax.

      The nice thing is, although the skill sets of a great salesperson and a great sales manager are drastically different, the same drive, attitude, and burning desire that put you in this position is what will help you excel at this position.

      Just because you have a new nameplate on the door or a new title on the business card doesn’t mean you forget everything you’ve learned up to this point. In fact, you’ll find yourself relying a lot on your past experience especially as you coach and train other salespeople to grow their business.

      

The transition from salesperson to sales manager can be especially tough on salespeople who are replacing a previous manager who was either ineffective or fell short in some way. You may face a situation where your immediate predecessor didn’t set the best example. That’s okay. You want to make the team your team and if you’re stepping into a situation like this, it won’t take much to look like the knight in shining armor.

Same barn, different stall

      Many a new sales manager’s biggest obstacle is going from sitting in the sales meeting and listening to