So you’ve consistently sold well – better than your peers. Now you’ve been promoted. Congratulations….sort of!
It’s the old sales story. You like selling, you’re good at selling, your company recognises this and wants to clone your approach across the whole sales team. Makes sense doesn’t it. So what do you do now?
1. The first thing that you need to do is set expectations. Successful sales managers are the same as anyone else, they need time to do their jobs – in this case MANAGE.
The organisations with successful sales managers are those that free up their sales managers’ time to coach, inspire, mentor and manage. If your organisation is pushing you to do your old selling job, while giving you the responsibility of a team – just say no. You can’t do it. No-one can.
You must help the business to understand that a successful sales team needs a dedicated manager. I’ve seen teams where the sales manager still sells and the problems are huge and manifold: the manager has no time to deal with the individuals that comprise the team; no time to provide individual feedback and direction; worst of all, the manager competes with their own team for business – and it’s them assigning the leads! How can that conflict of interest lead to a motivated, productive sales team?
2. Flip this on it’s head for a moment. You organisation can’t be at loggerheads with you about this. They need to support you. Again, this is part of you setting their expectations from the start. If you didn’t do this and you’re already committed, take a step back. Are you being as effective as you could be? Do the issues in point 1 resonate with you? It’s time to draft a management strategy and take it to your boss. Demonstrate to the business that it can have a great salesperson or a great sales manager – it can’t have both in the same person at once.
You may not have much/any management experience. The organisation needs to recognise this and provide a supportive environment.
Great examples include: a mentor from within the existing management team; an external coach to aid your transition to management as well as your ongoing development; some initial management training; books and/or e-learning to supplement and reinforce your other learning and development activities; membership of an official body, again providing access to information and support; a budget to support the learning and development of your team (I have found this to be nigh-on non-existent in SMEs).
3. So what about the actual managing. Well, the fact that you are reading this site means that you are concerned about performing your job well. With management this means not being dictatorial. You are not there to command, you are there to add value to your team, using your experience and knowledge to help individuals iron out their weaknesses and exaggerate their strengths.
They will have strengths that you do not. This is an inaliable fact of life. The best managers employ people better than them and help them to get on with it. Do not (as I did when I started managing) be upset if a team member suggests a strategy etc. that you had not thought of. This will happen and it is a good thing. What you bring is a sounding board to these ideas – use your experience to distill these ideas and combine them with your own and those of the other team members to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Then your team will not just survive, but will thrive.
One additional point on this: never….ever take credit for a suggestion that was made by one of your team members. Always give credit where credit is due – there is nothing wrong with explaining the additional contribution that you have made and demonstrating how you have incorporated this idea into an overall strategy.
Down the other path, darkness lies; you will damage your credibility with your team and your manager. Credibility is one of the foundations of good management.
4. If you do not have a clear vision for where the company is going, you will not be able to translate this into a clear vision for your salespeople.
Gain an in-depth undestanding of your company’s goals and ensure that your manager works with you to create from this a clear sales strategy. Hold this strategy at the core of your management approach and make sure that everything you and your team does is contributing to this.
Communicate it clearly to your team and make it the foundation of reviews and ongoing development.
Only if you do this can you provide a clear demonstration of return on investment for your efforts. At the end of the day, it is return on investment that will measure your contribution to the business, hence the effectiveness of your role.
Good luck!
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