Sales force performance depends directly on the quality of management, yet frequently sales managers are promoted from within the sales force rather than honing their managerial skills in more junior supervisory positions and then being promoted into a more senior management position. So why should people who have not managed anyone before be promoted to what is often considered by management training experts to be the toughest of all managerial assignments?
Often such promotions are because the person has an outstanding track record of success in selling. It is therefore assumed that such top quality sales people will automatically make top quality sales managers. Unfortunately, this is rarely true because the characteristics that are needed to be successful in a sales leadership position are very different to those needed to be a super star sales person.
There are three essential characteristics that the newly promoted sales manager needs to demonstrate and which will help them lead their sales team to success.
The first characteristic is the ability to enjoy the success of others. This characteristic is almost the opposite of what a good sales person does - which is to enjoy and be motivated by their own successes. The reason why this characteristic is important is because management is about achieving results through others, and if you take the credit for what your sales team achieves you will very quickly end up with an unhappy and demotivated sales force.
The second characteristic is to have more of a hands-off than a hands-on approach to selling. This is also contrary to the natural inclinations of the successful sales person - who tend to be what is known as an activist in nature and so prefer to get stuck in and do everything themselves. Good sales managers do need to control the sales operation, but they need to do so without constantly interfering in the accounts managed by their own good sales people. Again, if you get this wrong you will demotivate your top performers and sales performance will drop.
To achieve control in a hands-off fashion requires you to know how to set up and run an effective sales reporting and information system. An effective information system will allow you to be hands-off whilst still being in touch with what is going on, and so in a position to address any sales performance issues in a timely and appropriate manner.
Associated with being hands-off is the ability to delegate. Because this is a skill not used by sales people, newly promoted sales managers should receive some basic management training to show them how to delegate effectively, so achieving the right level of monitoring and control.
The third, and final, characteristic is the ability to motivate and inspire others. The inexperienced sales manager often assumes that providing good extrinsic rewards, such as a bonus system, are all that is required to motivate the people in their team. This is simply not true, as anyone who has attended a sales management training course will testify, as motivation is a combination of both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. The motivational manager balances providing personal support with the challenges faced by their team to create a motivational, high performance environment.
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Richard Stone ( richard.stone@spearhead-training.co.uk) is a Director for Spearhead Training Limited ( http://www.spearhead-training.co.uk/ ) a company that specialises in running management and sales training courses. Richard provides consultancy advice for numerous world leading companies.
