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Some of the best sales people I’ve known turned out to be the worst managers!

The smart ones reverted to being a dedicated sales people, the rest caused themselves and their teams untold pain and problems.

Every sales manager (or business owner) has a degree of dedication to both their company and professional development. That’s a big part of how you get to be a manager in the first place.

Those qualities are almost a given in sales management, but the very best managers don’t stop there — they exhibit some other key traits and behaviours that take their management skills from good to great.

So what are the most crucial qualities that anyone managing sales people should incorporate into their day-to-day operations and broader aspirations to take their management skills to the next level?

  1. A Consistent Commitment to Personal Improvement

The best sales managers lead by example. They inspire their teams through their own dedication and, in turn, get more from their teram. That’s why exemplary sales managers never stop trying to improve.

Complacency is a detriment to effective sales management. As a manager, it’s on you to fight any inclination to remain stagnant in how you take on your responsibilities. You have to want to be better and consistently deliver on that motivation.

Make a conscious effort to better understand and approach the aspects of your job that extend beyond directly managing your team. No matter what you do, remain grounded, open, and ambitious when it comes to your ongoing professional development.

  1. The Ability to Identify and Hire Quality Candidates

The sustained success of your team rests primarily on the talent you bring in. The best sales manager in the world can only get so far with a sales person who lacks the ambition, skills, or cultural fit to thrive and actively contribute to their team.

Onboarding and ultimately letting go of an ineffective hire is a massive drain on time, effort, money, and company resources. So you need to be able to get ahead of that potentially disastrous process. That’s why sound hiring skills are so crucial to your success as a sales manager.

Understand the skills and attributes that you want to hire for — as well as the questions you need to ask to uncover them. You can learn those by touching base with and learning from your more experienced colleagues.

Once you have a firm picture of those components, you’ll ensure that the crop of candidates you bring in is more likely to successfully pan out.

  1. A Willingness to Construct and Commit to a Sales Process

Cohesion and consistency are a sales manager’s best friends. They’re central to maintaining a tight ship and keeping operations as efficient as possible. You need your whole team to be on the same page so it serves you to give them a solid framework to abide by.

That’s where a well-structured sales process can pay dividends. If you can establish, monitor, and facilitate an effective sequence of steps for your team to follow when conducting their sales efforts, you can make both your and their jobs easier.

There should always be some degree of rhyme and reason to your team’s sales efforts. The best managers know it’s on them to define and enforce what that will look like.

  1. A Firm Understanding of Relevant KPIs

Managers need to understand how both their and their teams’ success will be gauged and measured. You have to understand how to interpret and apply relevant KPIs such as average sales cycle length, average deal size, and discovery-to-close rate.

You’ll also need a firm understanding of how those metrics will be reported. Being able to read and make something of the necessary reports you’ll be referencing is key to identifying areas for improvement in both your and your team’s performance.

In some cases, you might have to work with your team to get a solid feel for this aspect of the job. Don’t be reluctant to talk to them about the how and why behind the KPIs and reports you need to have a grasp on.

  1. Objective, Fair Conflict Resolution Skills

Sales people don’t always get along. Conflict is natural in the workplace, and as a manager, it’s often on you to resolve any potential clashes between your team members.

When confronted with that kind of situation, the best sales managers know how to remain calm, impartial, and objective. Conflict doesn’t have to mean confrontation, and effective managers can ensure that that kind of tension doesn’t boil over and interfere with how their team functions.

They know how to hear every side without playing favourites and make sure that disputes get resolved constructively — minimising friction, sustaining high morale, and ultimately making their operations run smoother.

  1. Firm but Compassionate Communication and Feedback Skills

Coaching and offering feedback are two of the most important responsibilities that consistently fall on sales managers. It’s on them to provide personal insight that will get the most out of their team.

Typically, doing both right means leading with empathy and providing constructive guidance. You need to understand who your sales people are. No two team members are the same. They’re going to be receptive to different kinds of coaching.

If you can tactfully tailor your messages and feedback to accommodate your sales people as individuals, you’ll put yourself in an excellent position to be the best sales manager you can be.

Of course, there are plenty of other qualities exceptional sales managers generally exhibit, but that doesn’t make the capabilities listed here any less valuable. If you’re a sales manager, it’s in your best interest to add these components into your management repertoire if you haven’t already.

If you’re struggling to get the best from your sales team, then maybe we can help.

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