Do You Really Want to Be a Sales Manager?

Business and life is filled with a lot of “shoulds”. The profession of sales is no different and has its own list of “shoulds”.

A top sales producer should ask for a promotion to sales management.

You should keep climbing the corporate ladder.

You should aspire to lead and manage a sales team.

It’s easy for salespeople, particularly top producers, to fall into the “should” trap, only to end up shouldn’t having done it in a misery trap, then wondering why they asked for and accepted a promotion to sales management.?

If you are a top seller, considering a sales leadership role, slow down. Carve out quiet time to think and reflect on these three questions.

Question #1. Will you enjoy your new role as a sales leader as much as you do that of an individual contributor??

Top salespeople are often promoted because of their ability to open up new business. The sales profession calls these individuals good hunters. They love the thrill of opening and landing new opportunities.???

Your role as a hunter doesn’t go away as a sales leader. However, the target does change. Your success will be determined on how proficient you become at hunting for top sales talent, especially in a tight labor market.

Will you be as jazzed about landing a new salesperson on your team as you are about landing a new prospect?

Your activity plan changes from meeting with prospects and clients to meeting with prospective sales candidates on a weekly and monthly cadence. Your goal is to keep your people pipeline full of qualified sales candidates.?

Stop and think.

Does the idea of interviewing salespeople energize you or drain you?

If the answer starts with the letter “d”, pay attention. You will likely end behaving just like a salesperson that doesn’t enjoy prospecting.

You’ll be inconsistent about your prospecting (recruiting) activities and end up in desperation mode. This is where you hire anybody because you didn’t keep your people pipeline full.??

Sales managers that enjoy the role of sales management enjoy prospecting for top talent. As a result, they have a full people pipeline and a plethora of sales candidates from which to choose when a position does open up.?

Question #2: Are you willing to put in the time and practice needed to master the new skills of sales management??

Training and coaching skills are different than selling skills. Let me say that again.?Training and coaching skills are different than selling skills.

Training and coaching skills include coaching the soft skills of sales. This includes skills that help salespeople uncover self-limiting belief systems that impact their ability to execute the right selling behaviors.

Training and coaching skills involve giving feedback in a manner that doesn’t elicit defensive responses.?

Training and coaching is the ability to transfer the knowledge, habits and skills that made you a top producer.

The acquisition of these skills might require enrolling in a sales management course. It involves reading and studying books around coaching and leadership. Listening to podcasts or even hiring your own coach. Mastering new skills takes hours and hours of practice.?

Are you ready and willing to put in the work needed to acquire and hone these new sales leadership skills?

Sales managers that enjoy sales management enjoy the new role because they have learned how to teach and coach. As a result, they don’t have to be the chief closing officer or rescue officer.?

Question #3: What are your blind spots? This is always a tough question to ask because blind spots are, well, blind spots. A common blind spot I see in sales management is the lack of a sales playbook.

Study any high-performance athletic team, group of talented musicians, or award-winning actors and actresses. The common denominator is that they all have a playbook, musical score or screenplay to direct their actions.

When broaching this topic with sales managers, I’ve heard these blind spot responses more than once. “Well, I hire veterans. They know how to sell.”

The problem with that thinking is that business changes quickly. What worked yesterday in sales may not work today because of new competitors, changes in how customers buy and the impact of technology and purchasing habits.

Developing a sales playbook is the sales leader’s responsibility. So, it’s time for another question.

Do you get excited about documenting steps, stages and scripts for your sales team or does the idea of creating a playbook make you want to put a fork in your eye?

If the answer is associated with the fork-in-the-eye answer, stay in your role as a top sales producer. You won’t take the time to document a sales playbook. This will lead to stagnant growth at some point because best practices and new sales practices are not documented, measured or improved.?

You’ve been offered a promotion to sales management. Before saying yes, carve out quiet time and apply the EQ skill of self-awareness. Ask yourself the introspective questions.

Will I enjoy the role of sales management as much as that of an individual contributor??

Am I willing to put in the work to acquire and master the new skills of sales leadership?

What are the blind spots that could derail my success in sales leadership?

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