February 2021

The Impossibly Hard Role of a Sales Manager

---

---

The Sales Manager job is inarguably one of the hardest in business.  There’s an unrelenting stream of pressure from the top and bottom: sellers need constant care and handling, and senior management is consistent with their driving demands. 
 
And yet, the definition of what constitutes good and motivating sales management is consistent and obvious.  ​It’s one thing when a Sales Manager invites the seller to ring the bell after a big win, it’s entirely different when that same manager sits calmly with the seller and methodically explores how the seller can learn to repeat those winning behaviors and skills the next time, and the next time, and…the next time. 
 
I know intimately what it means to be a Sales Manager because I was one for many years.  And it took me all of those many years to get to a point where I was halfway decent at my job.  (My detractors would scoff at my claim that I was “halfway decent”.  C’est la vie.)  Only when I was able to learn the countless operational and requisite sales management functions was I able to feel somewhat competent at my number one priority: empowering each and every seller with massive amounts of confidence and zeal on a daily basis. 
 
The only road to that destination where you are driving peak performance from all on the team is to get them mastering the fundamentals.  I’m talking about skills, methods and approaches.  That means sales management development must include a heavy dose of training to be an effective teacher.
 
Because the common path to sales management is promotion from sales roles, the management handbook distributed to newbie managers is in the form of “…congrats, now go do your best and lemme know when you have questions”.  That explains the double-sided pressure: the manager still thinks like a seller, yet also understands the management perspective.  It’s that tension, if unresolved, that stymies success for these vital company positions.
 
The reason senior leadership does not successfully develop managers has nothing to do with their limited time, it’s because they don’t know how to develop talent.  I mean no ill will from that statement, I'm merely reporting the obvious.  I acknowledge the TONS of many and solid reasons why senior leadership gets to their level, but talent development is not one of them.  (Training and talent development require specific skills and are left to specialists like me.)

The only way to drive peak performance from all on your team is to get them mastering the fundamentals...skills, methods, and approaches."

THE SOLUTION
As a lifelong devotee to learning and teaching sales and sales management best practices, I’ve thought long and hard about this problem because I was a sales manager, I've hired and trained scores of sales managers, and now coach many sales managers.  I have great empathy for the position Sales Managers have been placed.  One thing is for sure: these band of warriors work really, really hard and very much want to succeed.
 
Without rambling on like an infomercial, which admittedly this is, I present the solution: you need to enroll your Sales Managers in the Core 6 Management Advisors Sales Management Mastery workshop.  (Save your gratitude for AFTER your they graduate!)  As you now know by clicking on that link and learning about the workshop, this curriculum is by far the most relevant, targeted and substantive course your Sales Managers can take to ensure their development as a sales leader.  

THE FINAL PITCH
 The difference between winning and losing in B2B sales is razor thin.  The odds for winning more than losing increase exponentially when Sales Managers understand their role, focus on what’s important, and truly motivate their team towards individual peak performance. 
 
Call me today at 917-207-5183 and I’ll talk to you about how the workshop will benefit you and your team.

Selling.2.YES newsletter

Selling.2.YES is the monthly newsletter published by Core 6 Management Advisors to enlighten, motivate and stimulate all of us sellers and sales managers on topics that need our attention.

Click here for a fun, quick read on why the newsletter is named Selling.2.YES

SUBSCRIBE

---

Most Popular: 

ALL Archived Issues​

Mark Benioff and I are changin' the world one 'Closed-Lost' at a time
​
Tick Tock, another unproductive minute goes by

B2B selling on five continents
​
Are you too soft?

When Product, Execution, and Sales aren't clicking​

​I'm tired of people telling me to breath.

Creating a learning culture in three easy steps.

Did that buyer refer to me as an a$$hole?  Yup!
​
Sell me this pencil

God is in the skill rating business?

Faked out by data, not fake news

​Don't fire your sales manager

Not muckin' no mo' stalls
​
Presenting fish, value props, or decks...all the same

How goes your "atta-boy"?

Face it, you're no good at prospecting

(You can) make the problem go away!

Johnny can't sell, FIRE his A$$

Managing your ugly ducklings



​

---

---