15 TRAITS OF SUCCESSFUL SALES MANAGERS

I’ve met and studied hundreds of sales managers over the course of my 20-year career, and I’ve noticed that successful ones, which are a minority, have certain traits, or behaviors if you will, in common.

While they may show different personalities, leadership styles, backgrounds, and operate across a variety of very different industries, they all have the ability to drive their teams in a way that makes everyone’s talent and energy converge towards a clear and shared objective.

These are the main traits I have identified:

1.    BOY, THEY CAN SELL!

A sales force is often made of street-smart people who earn their living trying to influence others and being exposed to daily rejection. They have to develop, as quickly as possible, a certain level of thick skin that makes them uneasy to impress.

Some are highly educated, some are not, but most of them can recognize a fraud from far away. If their newly appointed sales manager is less than great at selling, he or she will be seen as a fraud and can hardly gain their respect….and we all know that leading without being respected is a (nearly) mission impossible.

2.    THEY LET THEIR TEAM MEMBERS SELL

Once they have proven their team that they can sell, they stop doing it (with the exception of seldom but regular reminders) in order to focus on more strategic activities, such as, for example, managing and enhancing their team’s performance, fine tune the sales process, analyze market data, help the company develop great products and services and so forth.

3.    THEY VISIT CLIENTS REGULARLY

Sales managers who don’t get out of their offices quickly lose sight of what’s going on in the market. They need to be in the market talking to clients (happy and unhappy), seeing prospects and tracking their competitors’ activities. They can’t and shouldn’t rely SOLELY on their teams’ reports. I’ve seen many sales managers making the mistake of not spending enough time on the field, and they soon became too theoretical and less effective.

4.    THEY DON’T OVERSHADOW THEIR TEAM IN FRONT OF CLIENTS

Another mistake I’ve seen happening countless time, is a sales manager overshadowing the team member in front of a client or prospect. This is an ego problem: by doing so they show their authority and this makes them feel good about themselves however, from a practical point of view, this bad move undermines their team members’ authority making it hard for them not only to close a deal, but also to develop a meaningful relationship with the client who, from that moment onwards, will want to speak with the sales manager only. And since the sales manager is too busy to talk to every client, this will create false expectations, negative client experience, and a lot of frustration at all levels.

5.    THEY BACK UP THEIR TEAM, ALWAYS

This is true for all forms of leadership, parenting included. If you don’t protect your children (team) why would you expect them to be loyal and follow your guidelines?

A great sales manager fights for her/his team; makes them feel backed up and protected, even when they make mistakes because ultimately the greatest achievement of any leader is to help their people grow.

6.    THEY CELEBRATE SMALL VICTORIES

If consistent motivation is needed to succeed in any job, this is particularly true for performance based jobs like selling.

Selling is about being rejected on a daily basis, is about overcoming objections and be relentless in pursuing any business opportunity in sight.

A sales manager failing to boost morale regularly doesn’t feed their team with the fuel they need to succeed in the market place, and celebrating small victories does just that.

Don’t wait for the next big deal to celebrate in style with your team.

7.    THEY ARE DRIVEN BY NUMBERS

Successful sales managers can read through numbers, can make sense of things with the help of numbers, and most importantly, can make numbers grow.

The bigger the size of the business, and the size of the team, the more a sales manager should focus on numbers.

8.    THEY LEAD BY EMOTIONS

They understand that numbers and data alone may help them decide, but won’t certainly help them get their team onboard.

Great sales managers understand people, their personality traits, and make sure they pull the right emotional strings with every member of their team. They provide each individual with the right mix of comfort, challenge, recognition, independence, severity, sweetness, bitterness, delegation, control….all in doses that are suitable to them, and keep them motivated and on their toes.

9.    THEY COACH THEIR TEAMS REGULARLY

A great sales manager is like a great coach of any sport team. They are not paid to score, but to think strategically, design impeccable game schemes and then train, train, train the players until they are physically and mentally ready to score.

10. THEY TOLERATE MISTAKES BUT STIGMATIZE LACK OF ETHICS AND COMMITMENT

A sales manager playing the blame game every time someone makes a mistake will destroy any possibility to build any form of team spirit. People will play safe, they will work only for their own interest and will spend most of their time watching their back rather than trying to improve the business. A sales manager should tolerate mistakes when made in good faith and should give people the opportunity to learn from them and not repeat them.

Great sales managers have also zero tolerance for lack of ethics and commitment. This is where they show all their authority and set the bar high.

11. THEY DON’T PLAY POLITICS

Leaders who play politics end up being followed only by like-minded individuals who think that playing politics is the only way to progress in their career. Since making sales is all about the end result, you don’t build a great sales team with people like that.

12. THEY AVOID REPORTING OVERLOAD

In life, the most precious and scarce resource is time. A day is made of only 24 hours, and a working days is made of….(throw your number!) Great sales managers understand that paperwork (aka reporting) takes time that could be used selling, hence limit it as much as they possibly can.

13. THEY SHARE TOUGH LOVE REGULARLY

This is part of coaching and not only. Tough love is feedback given with the best intentions, yet in a way that helps people build the thick skin they need to succeed in sales. A great sales manager can’t be too soft when corrective actions are needed. They need to build a culture where excellence is the norm, and everything below it is not tolerated. They should be tough yet fair, direct yet respectful, willing to listen yet very clear in the way they address an issue.

14. THEY ALWAYS TRY TO OVERCOME THEIR CONFIRMATION BIAS

One of the most common biases human beings have is the confirmation bias, which makes them notice and retain only the information (and the people) confirming their initial idea or perception of any given topic or phenomenon; in one word prejudice. This is a shortcut the brain takes to avoid extra workload; however, it limits dramatically our existence. Great sales managers try and overcome their confirmations biases continuously, because they know it will make them surround themselves only with yes-men & women, and lack the flexibility and critical thinking they need to create winning sales strategies.

15. THEY WORK HARD ON THEMSELVES

A great sales team, today, is made of people who have developed the ability and the habit to keep learning new things on a regular basis. The market has become too competitive, and information spreads too fast, for a salesperson to succeed without being very methodical about acquiring new knowledge. Great sales managers reckon this, and they know that leading by example is the most efficient way to give life to a team of life-long learners.

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