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What It Takes to Be Great

The path to becoming the sales manager in most organizations is familiar. Typically, a particular salesperson is the top performer, and so he or she is promoted to the manager role. Sometimes this works, but more often than not you will find that the newly promoted manager struggles. Some of the very things that made the person a great salesperson stand in the way of him or her excelling in the role of manager.

What makes a great Sales Boss? This is not an easy question to answer since on the surface many different personality styles succeed, but I have found some key DNA that it seems the best Bosses all possess.

1. They have been in a sales role, but usually not as the top performer on that team if the team was composed of high performers

Why is this? In sales, there are always some very high earners whose success in sales defies any checklist or traits that might be taught. They are, to use a cliché, “born to be a salesperson.” I call them the Awesome Anomaly. While nice to have on your sales team, they make terrible managers. To them, sales are effortless and unexplainable. These are usually the ones who have been best managed by the manager staying out of the way and letting them work their magic. In some cases I have seen these high-earners be the very ones you might think least likely to have success, but nonetheless close sales month in and month out like clockwork. The problem is that if you make them into sales managers, they can’t teach someone else how to do what they do. They’ve never struggled. It has always come easily to them. They have never had to become students of selling and adopt new and creative, perhaps counterintuitive, ways of selling. When push comes to shove, they’ll rescue the new salesperson on the team by closing the business for her rather than teaching her a lasting skill. These high-earner Awesome Anomalies, the naturally talented salespeople, will typically shy away from any management duties, viewing any effort at managing the team as micro-management, because they felt similarly about anyone who tried to manage them in the past. They’ll end up being miserable in the process, and their effectiveness as salespeople will also be ruined. It is better to keep them as the wise sages on the team to whom you can turn for insights into your sales process and customers, rather than promote them into the management role.

Sometimes, despite knowing the low chance of success, a company is tempted to “try them out” in the management role thinking they can always be moved back into the sales role if it doesn’t work out. This is never a successful plan. Once you have moved an Awesome Anomaly into the sales management role, this person’s ego will now see him- or herself as a manager. If you require anyone to move back into a sales role, this will be seen as a demotion or a failure. The Awesome Anomaly isn’t used to failure; he or she’s been awesome forever. These people either resent you when you force the issue or more likely will move on to another company (your competition) as an Awesome Anomaly salesperson. This is not the outcome you want.

The best manager is one who has had success in selling, but usually not as the top person on the team. This person is credible with a sales team because he or she has been there and understands the fears, the emotions, and the reality of the sales world. These people experienced the pressures of being required to carry a quota. Unlike the Awesome Anomaly, because they weren’t naturally gifted, they had to be students of the art of selling in order to have success. They benefited from coaching and mentoring. They tracked their activity and behavior to know that they were improving. They relied on their sales manager to help them have success and so will know the invaluable role they can play in their team’s successes.

2. They have a high level of emotional intelligence (EQ)

What is emotional intelligence? It is said to include three skills:

● Having the ability to identify and manage your emotions and the emotions of others;

● Having the ability to harness emotions and apply them to tasks like thinking and problem solving; and

● Having the ability to manage emotions, including the ability to regulate your own emotions and the ability to cheer up or calm down another person.

You can see why a person with high EQ makes a better sales manager. If unfamiliar with the science of EQ, it would be good to educate yourself on the topic so that you can identify those who have it and work to improve your own EQ. Some online assessment tools can help you measure EQ in potential management candidates. You can also take these assessments if you are in the role already but would like some help understanding where you need to improve your EQ. You can find these assessments through the resources at www.jonathanwhistman.com/thesalesboss.

In hundreds of studies, EQ is tied directly to earnings, even outside of sales and sales management. According to Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves, authors of Emotional Intelligence 2.0, the link between emotional intelligence and earnings is so direct that every point increase in emotional intelligence adds $1,300 to an annual salary. These findings hold true for people in all industries, at all levels, in every region of the world. There is no job in which performance and pay aren’t tied closely to emotional intelligence. This quality is highly important in sales management. Sales and sales management are by nature emotional and stressful jobs. When the pressure is on to close a sale and you lose a prospect you were counting on to make your numbers, you need someone with EQ in control.

3. They don’t need the credit, they don’t feed their egos

Great sales managers get satisfaction from celebrating others’ successes. In many cases, they are just a bit uncomfortable if they are in the spotlight of praise. When they are praised, you usually see great sales managers deflecting the praise to people on the team or some other support area of the company. Sales Bosses will go even further making certain that none of their speech or actions come from a place of insecurity or need to feed their egos. They actively look for ways in which they can elevate the profile of other members of the team, even when this means that they may miss out on some credit for the results achieved. When a member of the sales team closes a sale, the Sales Boss doesn’t feel the need to remind the salesperson of the coaching, correction, and advice that was necessary to make sure the deal closed. They simply praise the result.

4. They have balanced analytical minds

What do I mean by this? They aren’t afraid of spreadsheets and data, but they also don’t live and die by them. They realize the importance of gut feel and can act on it, but don’t take umbrage when the data tells them they should make a course correction. They also are intellectually curious and use data to inform their opinions and theories. The key here is that there are no extremes. They understand the financial and other numerical factors that drive results and have the ability to translate this data into leading indicators that predict future performance or inform the actions that are necessary to drive results. At the same time, they have the ability to shut off the data processing side of their minds and settle into a persona that values the human side of the equation. This balance contributes to outstanding results.

5. They inspire loyalty and can hold the attention of a room

Great sales managers have an impact on a group of people. They can inspire loyalty from others, are naturally respected, and are viewed as leaders. Sometimes people will do what is asked simply because of the loyalty they feel for their manager. The sales manager must be well-spoken and seem comfortable in front of a roomful of people. This quality really divides the Sales Boss from the rest of the crowd! Sales managers host sales meetings, trainings, and phone calls, and in many cases participate in sales calls with your largest customers. They need to be able to hold a room better than most people can. Sales Bosses speak and present from the heart and from a place of authenticity, and these qualities will inspire loyalty.

6. They are comfortable sitting in judgment

Some people have a hard time sitting in judgment of others. A Sales Boss must excel at it. Daily, Sales Bosses make judgments about the performance, mindsets, and abilities of the people on their teams, and they won’t always have a lot of data to back up their opinions. Sales Bosses can be humble and servant leaders to their groups, but they will also need to be able to set standards and then sit in judgment as to whether those standards are being met or not. They must be comfortable expressing directly to the salesperson or another employee what standard is not being met and what changes are required. Someone who is not comfortable doing this will ultimately fail in managing a sales team. Notice that I say they must be comfortable. I didn’t say they should love sitting in judgment or seek out the role! Remember, they don’t feed their egos. They simply do not let a standard go unmet without judgment and the appropriate coaching, mentoring, or action being taken in response. If your habit is to revert to email for uncomfortable conversations, then you aren’t fit to be a Sales Boss.