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As the sales manager for your organization, it’s your responsibility to lead and manage the sales team. If you’re like many first time sales managers, that one statement leaves you glassy-eyed with a bead of sweat forming on your forehead.

Again, relax (I say that a lot, but it’s usually the first thing you need to remember to do). That broad definition can be overwhelming and being overwhelmed kills the very traits you’ve exemplified in your career: creativity, a positive attitude, a desire for growth and leadership.

More than likely, your roles as sales manager includes:

✔ Managing the sales team: This simply means that you’re responsible for your people. You are now the manager and anything (positive or negative) affecting the sales of the company begins and ends with you. You’re the face of the only department in the company contributing to revenue.

✔ Establishing goals and quotas: In a perfect world, each salesperson sets goals and quotas that allow her to stretch and reach new heights every year. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen. It’s up to you to set the goals, objectives, and quotas for individual salespeople and for the team as a whole.

✔ Training and developing sales skills: This is where your past success as a salesperson comes into play. You must help each member of the sales department improve her skills. Everyone can get better at some part of the sales process – your job is to identify weaknesses and help convert them to strengths. And contrary to what they tell you in the initial interview, they all have weaknesses.

✔ Assigning and defining geographical territories: After you’re in management and can see more of the big picture, some things jump out at you as obvious. Why are two people spending time in the same market on different days? One of the greatest wastes of time for salespeople is windshield time: those countless wasted hours between appointments where instead of seeing a prospect, you’re staring at the road. At some point in your job, you’ll need (and want) to address this and make things more efficient.

✔ Counseling and leading individual salespeople: In order to get the entire team pulling in the same direction, you must work on the individuals first. Because you’re their sales manager, your team needs you to take the lead and create an environment where they can succeed. Don’t wait for people to ask for help (some never will). Understand that you most likely manage each person differently, so in order to find out what makes each person tick you must get to know each and every member of your team.

✔ Reporting data to upper management: Good news, bad news, any news – it all comes from you. This is one particular area you should never accept the answer, “That’s the way we’ve always done it!” I hate that answer. That has killed more organizations than anything. It’s up to you to find ways to use data to drive sales and provide yourself and others in management with good, actionable information. The things you wished you’d known as a salesperson are now the things you must know as a sales manager.

✔ Creating incentive programs: Whether you’re using in-house programs or working with manufacturers and vendors, it’s important to keep your salespeople engaged; keep them interested and striving to grow. Build and maintain a special incentive calendar and make the job fun! Additionally, a good sales manager will create team or departmental based incentives to reward the achievement of overall goals. This is just another way to create an atmosphere of working together and not against each other.

✔ Establishing budgets: Working out the budget is the second worst part of the job. The skills you used to become successful probably aren’t related to sitting and going over spreadsheet after spreadsheet of numbers and projections. However, you now have the responsibility to create the budget for the sales department. It’s not necessarily fun, but it has to be done. I will go into detail on the difference between budgets, goals, and forecasting in Chapter 12.

✔ Hiring and firing salespeople: If budgets are the second worst part of the job, this is the worst (especially the firing part). But the buck stops with you. It’s your responsibility to continually upgrade the team in the field. To do so, sometimes you have to fire the bad ones and hire some more good ones.

If you ever get to a point where firing someone doesn’t affect you take some time off. No matter how long you hold this position, it never gets easier. I talk about this more in Chapter 15.

Obviously this list is not all-inclusive and can change daily. The best managers are the ones who can handle the day-to-day issues, which inevitably come up without losing focus on long-term goals and objectives.

There will be situations every day which make you take your eye off your goals – just don’t let them take your mind off them!

Remembering you work for the sales team, not vice versa

If there’s one thing first-time or young managers need to know it’s that you work for the rest of the salespeople, they don’t work for you. They can function without you – you can’t function without them.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with telling your salespeople as a group or individually, “My job is to work for you, not have you work for me.” Not only will they respect you for your candor, but you set the stage for how you want to run your department.

This statement and mindset is crucial to your success, so you must understand exactly what it means: You come to work each day asking how you can help your sales force, not how they can help you. It’s as simple as that. You run a bottom-up organization, not a top-down one.

Does Addie need you to help close a deal? Does Beatrice need you to place a phone call from a higher authority? Find out what each of your team needs from you. You’re there to make them successful and many times that means simply helping them overcome some obstacle in the sales process.

Each day, ask yourself what you can do to make each member of your sales team stronger and better.

The easiest way to grow your sales

Without oversimplifying this, the easiest way to grow the sales of your company is to help each individual salesperson increase her sales. It’s almost impossible for one person alone to move the needle very much on an organization’s sales. However, if you can get each member on the entire team to grow her own business by just 10 percent, you can have a great impact on your company’s sales and bottom line.

By attacking your job with a “how can I help my sales force?” attitude, you will find yourself with the opportunities to make a difference for each person whether she’s a million-dollar producer or someone barely making her quota. Each person needs and deserves your leadership and management.

Begin your day, your week, and your month by asking yourself what you can do to help each of your people grow her sales. When you begin to lead in this manner, manage in this manner, and perform in this manner, you’ll be amazed at the results.

You cannot demand people follow you as their leader. However, you can create an atmosphere and environment where others want to follow you because of how you lead.

Finally, you’re the head of your department, and you must make decisions as such. The mindset of working for the sales team doesn’t mean you let them run the show. You’re in control, you’re in charge – you just accomplish that by pulling rather than pushing.

Ultimately, you are the person who will answer for the performance, or lack thereof, of the sales team. You have to set and enforce the goals, critique and improve performance and develop your salespeople.

Understanding the line between sales and management

Are you in sales or are you in management? Well, the short answer is both. And it’s not always easy to separate the two. You should never be anything less than authentic and genuine, but there are times where you must wear one of the two hats and do so diplomatically.

For example, the powers that be will make decisions that adversely affect your department. As a member of management, you must fully support what’s best for the company first and foremost. Although you may not agree with all the decisions, you must keep those opinions behind closed doors and never share them with your salespeople. Their attitudes and their opinions are shaped in large part by yours. How you respond and react is how they will respond and react.

While there are things you cannot share with the sale department, understand there will be things senior management doesn’t share with you. It’s not because they don’t trust you, it’s simply not something you need to be involved in. Don’t get upset because you don’t know every single thing going on just because you’re a manager now. One of these days you’ll be glad to be left out of a few.

If you have to come down on one side or another in a certain situation, your first responsibility is to management. Even if you completely disagree with decisions made, when you stand in front of your sales team, you need to toe the company line. Is that easy? Absolutely not. It’s even painful at times. Internally you’ll be conflicted, but you are a member of management for a reason.

The value of going to bat for your team

Although agreement with management is a good call, there are also times when you must support your sales team or an individual sales person and go to bat for her. As a young salesperson, the company I worked for was acquiring another. As the lead salesperson on a project, I had made a commitment to a new customer that some members of management disagreed with, and at one point, overrode. My sales manager at the time backed me up and stood his ground basically saying, “If Butch told them we’d do it, we need to do it.” He knew my personal credibility was on the line and knew I felt betrayed by those who sought to overturn the decision.

I could not have been more indebted to him for sticking up for me and having my back. I felt a great need to show him that his confidence in me was not misplaced and though that happened more than 20 years ago, I still remember it to this day.

I always looked for and sought out opportunities to show my salespeople I had their back. I didn’t create situations or orchestrate drama, but if the situation presented itself, I remembered how I felt and wanted them to feel the same.

When conflict occurs and the line between holding the company line and supporting your salesperson becomes blurred, you have a choice: you can fan the flames or put out the fire. I’ve known and seen people do both and I can assure you you’ll be far more successful if you find ways to put out the fire.

There are no hard and fast rules as to how to pick your battles – it’s just something you need to get a feel for. You’ll know it when you see it and if you put the customer first, the employee second, you’ll make the right decision the majority of the time.

But, never be afraid to change course. If you make a mistake, admit it and move on. You’re human.

Empowering your sales team to make decisions (Don’t do it for them)

It’s clear that you work for the sales team instead of the team working for you. However, one of the biggest traps to avoid is to not let yourself be drawn into being nothing but a secretary for the sales team. And trust me, it’s easy to get drawn in.

As far as you can according to industry and company policies, provide your salespeople with not only the responsibility but also the ability to make decisions for themselves up to a certain point. Whether it’s pricing, terms, or other considerations, there is no way you can make every decision needed to operate a successful sales team. If you could, you wouldn’t really need all those salespeople.

One of your first orders of business is to provide your sales team with the tools, resources, and other data needed to make decisions. Otherwise you’ll spend your day on phone call after phone call discussing minute pricing details and so forth.

After you give your team members the resources to make their own decisions, you must establish parameters where they have the capacity to make good decisions – decisions that produce profitable results. With that you have two kinds of salespeople:

✔ The doer: This person makes every possible decision. She makes commitments not only on areas you’ve given her authority to, but may well step over that in an effort to not let anyone stand between her and her customer. Your biggest challenge with this salesperson is to keep them reigned in; keep them from becoming a Maverick who is off doing their own thing regardless of company policy.

✔ The thinker: No matter what you do, this person won’t make a decision. She wants your input, feedback, and endorsement on everything she does – before she does it. The thinker overthinks and develops the old paralysis by analysis on even the smallest decisions. Your biggest challenge with this type of salesperson is to have her understand something I heard a long time ago: “Done is better than perfect.”

Here’s where being a manager comes in. You must successfully handle both types – the doer and the thinker. Let the doer have enough room to maneuver but keep her from breaking ranks and encourage or prod the thinker to make a decision.

Let all team members know that if you have an issue with a decision they make you’ll sit down and discuss it in private.

Never call a salesperson out in public. Praise in public and critique in private.

The only way your team learns to make better decisions is by making mistakes and having you tell them and show them how to better handle that situation in the future.

You have to do the same thing with the person making all the decisions. The doer will overstep her bounds at times, and you’ll have to let her know you appreciate her desire to satisfy the customer, but that she must follow proper protocol.

The bottom line is to empower your people to grow their sales and solve customers’ problems. Avoid creating a hierarchy where the simplest solution to a customer problem requires moving heaven and earth.

It pays to solve problems sensibly

A few years ago, I had an issue with my satellite television provider – a provider I’d been with for almost 20 years. For whatever reason, the box atop my television went out and required a service technician to come out and replace it. I got in touch with the company, and the company set the appointment for 11 days later. Eleven days! Needless to say, I wasn’t happy. You can bet if I were ordering its service I would’ve seen someone the next day, and I felt I was being pushed down the priority list.

So, I requested the entire month free (roughly $130) or I would call the competition, who I was sure would gladly accept my business. Believe it or not, I was told my provider could not give me a free month, but it could offer me a one-time $50 retention credit to stay with it and it’d discount my bill $50 a month for a year.

Do the math: I offered a $130 solution and the company countered with a $650 answer. How crazy is that? After literally laughing at the absurdity, I accepted the offer. Whatever you do, don’t let yourself be in this position! Give your sales team and customer service the ability to make sensible decision to solve problems.

Managing, not babysitting (but sometimes both)

Your job consists of a certain amount of sales and a certain amount of management. Unfortunately, what you’re usually not told prior to accepting the job is how much of your time is going to be spent as a babysitter. Obviously, I say that tongue-in-cheek. But, you are going to have to be the mother hen to a certain extent.

Make it clear early on that you expect your team to conduct themselves professionally at all times – on and off the job. Any time they’re representing the company they’re under your direction. Too many times at particular functions where alcohol is involved, someone ends up making poor decisions and you have to treat her like a child and punish her. (Hopefully, it’s not severe enough to warrant dismissing her). Let your sales team know what kind of behavior you expect and that you won’t tolerate petty infighting, rumors, and the like.

You’re managing professional salespeople, not children. But, like in a group of children, some of your team will test you. Someone is always going to want to talk about someone else.

One of the greatest ways to stop team members complaining about each other is to interrupt the speaker when she starts to talk about another person on the team, go get the other person, and involve her in the conversation. This immediately brings that sort of thing to a halt.

The following is a creed I developed many years ago. I recommend copying it and having each of your people sign it:

✔ I will conduct myself each day as a professional and will represent my company and my product in the highest possible manner.

✔ I will be part of the solution and not part of the problem.

✔ I will readily help others and not hesitate to ask for help if I need it.

✔ I will talk to others and not about them.

✔ I will work to foster an environment where everyone can be successful.

✔ I will come to work each day ready to enjoy my job and display an attitude of gratitude.

✔ I will work with other departments to understand their needs.

✔ I will set a positive example for others in my actions, attitude, and communication.

Having everyone sign a document like this lets them know you’re not there to be a babysitter; you’re a manager, a mentor, and a confidant. They will appreciate your honesty and your dedication to the things that truly matter: helping them grow their sales.

Now, there will be times when someone needs to vent. It’s inevitable. One day soon (if it hasn’t happened already), someone will walk into your office shut the door, and you’ll see the steam rising off her head. This is not the time to have her recite the creed. (Not if you want to see your family again).

It may be a disagreement with another department or any number of issues, but this one is serious and it’s time for you to listen. However, ask one question before the rant begins: “Do you want me to do something about this or just let you vent?”

I mean this sincerely, find out what the venter expects of you because it changes how you listen and respond. More times than not, the person simply wants to vent and get whatever is bugging her off her chest. Your job is to sit and listen. On the other hand, if the person wants you to help solve a problem, you need to be prepared to ask a lot of questions and get to the root of the issue before flying off the handle. But, if she just wants to vent, let her. Everyone needs to at one time or another.

Keeping your relationships professional

In many cases, being a new sales manager means you were recently a member of the sales team – your friends, your buddies, your girlfriends. Well, not anymore. One of the changes you must make as you accept your new position is that you can no longer have the same type of relationship with your salespeople as you did before.

Let me guess: Of the people on your sales team, there are some you really like and some, eh, maybe not so much. That’s all in the past. As a leader and a manager you can’t play favorites – positively or negatively.

It’s difficult, uncomfortable, and awkward at times, but it’s imperative that you keep all your relationships as professional as possible. In some cases the people you’re now managing have more experience and are older than you – and you have to earn their respect by how you conduct yourself.

My own personal career path led me to be a division sales manager at 25 and vice president of sales at age 30. The problem was I was supervising, managing, and leading the exact group of people I’d just been laughing with, hanging out with, and talking about management with. Well, those things had to stop immediately. It’s the only way the job can be done professionally.

If you find yourself in the awkward position of becoming the boss to your former teammates, immediately schedule one-on-one meetings with every member of your sales team. Have the following discussion with those who may feel like they are in trouble because they weren’t your best friend or you’d had some disagreements:

“Mary, I know we’ve had an issue or issues in the past when we didn’t see eye to eye, but I want you to know that’s all in the past. My main goal in this position is to make you as successful as possible. Anything that’s happened before is in the past, and I want you to know I’m professional enough to make sure that I don’t let it influence how I make decisions or lead the department. I’d like to ask you to give me the opportunity to prove this, and I am going to ask you put our differences in the past as well and let’s move forward today, together, focused on growing your sales and satisfying your customers. Fair enough?”

Guess what? Nobody has ever said, “No that’s not fair enough.” This speech accomplishes several things:

✔ You acknowledge the past issue. Don’t try to ignore it and hope it goes away.

✔ You express your own professionalism. You put past difficulties behind you and pledge to make Mary successful.

✔ You ask someone you had disagreements with to work with you to make her successful.

That’s a pretty strong statement and one you should seriously consider.

You also need to deal with the person or persons who were your good buddies when you were a member of the sales team. As important as the conversation you have with people you had issues with, the conversation you have with your friends is even more important. You need to let friends know from the beginning that you’re going to keep the relationship professional.

Now, there are different schools of thought as to whether you can socialize with these people. Personally, I believe it’s a bad idea and creates situations you’re better off without. That’s not to say you can’t ever go out to dinner or over to a friend’s house, but the relationship has to change – it has to be one of manager and salesperson, not two friends.

Just like you sat down with the people you’d had negative issues with, you must also sit down with your friends:

“Hey, Marisol, I know we go way back and I hope you appreciate the position I’m in. Everyone is expecting me to treat you differently because we’re friends – and, I am going to treat you differently. I’m probably going to be harder on you than the others for two reasons: I don’t want there to be any perception of playing favorites, and I expect more out of you. I’m not going to let you get by with average work. Please understand this is extremely hard for me and I’m going to have to make decisions that you and I may not agree on, but I’ve got to do what I feel is best. Fair enough?”

Again, what can Marisol say? “No, I want you to treat me like the teacher’s pet!”

What you accomplish with this conversation includes:

✔ Your friend knows you’re still friends, but the relationship must change.

✔ Your friend also knows she’s going to be treated differently – but because you expect more from her than the others.

Wow, how powerful is that? Do you think your friend will come out singing your praises? If she’s a true friend, she’s happy for your promotion, and if she’s a professional, she understands the predicament you’re in.

The main thing is to not ignore the situation with former peers – face it head on and keep all your relationships professional. Setting those ground rules in the beginning will serve you well in the weeks, months, and years to come.