Читать книгу The Successful Sales Manager: A Sales Manager's Handbook For Building Great Sales Performance - Dustin Ruge - Страница 5

—Chapter 1—

WHAT MAKES A GREAT SALES MANAGER

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“Today, a skilled manager makes more than the owner. And owners fight each other to get the skilled managers.”

—Mikhail Khodorkovsky

“Great managers are recognized through the achievements of their teams.”

—Phyllis Kirouac

“We have great managers who have never spent a day in management school. Do we have great surgeons that have never spent a day in surgical school?”

—Henry Mintzberg

Early in my sales career, I was always looking for the silver bullet; what did the great salespeople have that most others lacked? Like so many other salespeople, I focused in on the top sales performers to see what I could learn from them. What I found over time was that there seemed to be an inexorable link between great salespeople and those who led them. Notice I didn’t say who managed them—for there is an inherent difference between leadership and management, and in many instances this could change and so, too, could the results.

In sales, we’ve all had sales managers who we liked, those we didn’t, and those who simply produced. I have had many of each but my focus was always on those who produced. What I found interesting about the managers who produced is that they were far more goals and leadership oriented than typical managers. What I also found interesting was that much like on many successful sports teams, the mere presence of a single transformational leader could change the entire psychological makeup, focus, and outcome of an entire sales force.

Much like great salespeople, great sales managers are unique. Most organizations tend to promote and hire one of their own productive salespeople in the hopes that they will become a great sales manager. Few achieve this objective, while most do not. Great salespeople are often self-motivated, independent, and thrive without direction from others. Conversely, a great sales manager acts as a coach, knows how to motivate other salespeople to succeed, is in many ways selfless in action, is a good listener, and commonly puts the needs of their sales team above their own. Although salespeople and sales managers will commonly share some similar traits, they are inherently different in action.

So what are the qualities that make a great sales manager? Here is where to focus:

Top Five Qualities of a Great Sales Manager

1. Driven by Goals and a Need for Achievement

Most sales managers earn less than the top salespeople in many organizations. This means that the motivation for being a sales manager commonly transcends just money—otherwise they would continue selling. Great sales managers are typically highly goals and results oriented, which is a trait they will commonly share with salespeople. Where they differ is what motivates them to that end. Being organized is important, but not as important as being driven to achieve overall sales goals and objectives.

See Resources PDF: Salesperson vs Manager, page 1

www.thesuccessfulsalesmanager.com/p/tools.html

2. Extroverted and Good Communicators

In order to coach, you have to be involved, interactive, strategic, and supportive of others. People who are typically more introverted tend to communicate less and thus are less likely to provide and share information with others. Most great sales managers are high-energy and extroverted and will more readily relate to and respect people of authority who share these similar characteristics.

3. Can Manage High Levels of Stress

Being a sales manager can be a very stressful position in most organizations. Leadership is first and foremost the ability to lead by example. The ability of sales managers to effectively lead and produce when the high pressures of sales deadlines hit, when customers complain, and when products and services fail, etc. is critical. A great sales manager will typically be able to keep their cool under pressure, rationally and effectively communicate with facts instead of anger and fear, and will be able to set the right example for their sales team in the best and worst of times.

4. Can Work Well with Others

Unlike many sales positions, sale management is a team sport, and you need to be a strong coach to succeed. A great sales manager has to be able to effectively and equally deal with individual personalities, problems, conflicts, egos, goals, skill levels, and much more. To do this, you first must be an excellent listener. Second, you must be able to effectively solve problems and conflicts with others. Third, you must be able to put the needs of your people before your own—

including your need to want to personally sell yourself. Fourth, you must be actively engaged with your products, services, people, and processes, and demonstrate that you can lead by example. Salespeople will only follow and respect you if you can lead by example and make them feel as important as any other person in the company, including yourself.

5. Are Great Talent Managers

If meeting and exceeding your sales objectives is your ultimate goal as a sales manager, you cannot do it alone. Therefore, your number-one responsibility as a sales manager is to recruit and retain great salespeople. Great managers are always looking for top talent, even when their positions are currently full. They will consistently measure the talent they have and find ways to continue to improve it. Great managers will also seek out people they can reasonably improve, and continuously push them to higher levels of performance by moving them outside of their traditional comfort zones. According to business success expert Brian Tracy, “Ninety to 95 percent of people will withdraw to their comfort zone when what they try doesn’t work. Only that small percentage, 5 or 10 percent, will continually improve themselves; they will continually push themselves out into the zone of discomfort, and these are always the highest performers in every field.”¹

Hiring Sales Managers from Salespeople

As previously discussed, many organizations tend to hire sales managers internally from their own salespeople. In many cases, the person promoted is often the top sales performer—which may or may not be a good idea. When looking for strong leadership qualities in a good sales manager, the person standing at the top may not be the only person you should consider. Oftentimes, it is all the people at or near the top who should also receive equal consideration. If you are pursuing this option, here are a few things to look for in your salespeople to see if they may make a great sales manager:

• Do they have a high level of integrity?

Warren Buffett has spoken many times about how he looks for three things in people—intelligence, energy, and integrity; and if they don’t have integrity, you can stop there. So should you. When hiring a sales manager, you are placing a great deal of trust and responsibility in the hands of a single person; so you better make sure that he/she is morally grounded before you even begin. If they are a highly successful salesperson but tend to lack honesty and integrity in how they work with others, pass on them.

• Are they considered a team player?

This is where most companies fail to differentiate a lone-wolf from a coach. Moving from an individually motivated salesperson to a team-oriented and selfless sales manager is a transition that many fail to successfully make. When evaluating a salesperson for a management role, take note of how they have worked with and willfully supported other salespeople in the past. This is often a good indication of how selfless they are capable of being; especially if they were able to produce as a high-performing salesperson at the same time as helping others.

• Do they work and communicate well with others?

Great sales managers try to make themselves accessible to others and typically operate from a more “open-door” policy of communication. Look for salespeople who exhibit these same qualities in how they work today and try to avoid salespeople who tend to “go quiet” or shut down communications in their everyday sales lives.

• Are they respected by others within the company, including their sales peers?

Just because somebody may be the top salesperson at your company doesn’t always mean they are highly respected by others. People may admire what they have accomplished but not always how they went about accomplishing it. By asking your sales team who they tend to respect the most within a sales team, you may learn a lot more about certain people then you thought you knew. Remember, if you are promoting from your sales ranks, that means that the same person you are promoting will have to then command the respect of his/her former peers in their new role.

• Do they know what a great salesperson inherently is and how to find them?

Since talent management is the most important responsibility of a sales manager, you need to find somebody who knows what makes a great salesperson, and why. If they do not know how to find them, they can always learn, but they have to know what to look for to begin with. One of the best ways to help identify this is to ask your management candidates what makes a great salesperson, and why? If they are not the number-one salesperson in your organization, ask them what they think makes the number-one person so successful.

• Are they problem solvers or complainers?

A potential leader is somebody who asks “why” and will typically recommend solutions to problems, no matter what role they are in. If you have salespeople who are able to highly produce yet also suggest ways to fix problems facing the organization, these are much more desirable traits for a sales manager than somebody who deals with problems by merely complaining about them. When it comes to the high-stress role of sales management, look for people who will try to solve problems instead of just identifying and amplifying them.