First, The Sales Managers

Every sales organization understands that their sales force – it’s health and strength – is the company’s primary strategic asset. ?And that means investing in the improvement of the sales force.? Most astute principals and chief sales officers realize that in this very competitive economic environment, those companies who sell better than the rest will take market share away from their less effective competitors.

Yet budgets are still tight, and nervous CEOs are hesitant to fund broad-based sales initiatives.? What to do?

Start with the sales managers.

If you want to do something to improve your sales force, the best application of limited funds is to invest in the sales managers.

It’s the sales managers who have the greatest opportunity to help salespeople unleash their potential.?

Because of their daily high touch interaction with the sales force and the market, sales managers have the levers to ratchet up sales performance in the entire team.? If you can educate a sales manager in the best practices of his position, and if he then implements the principles, practices and disciplines of professional sales management, you can see an immediate, measurable and long-lasting improvement in the performance of the sales team.

While most people intuitively understand the link between effective sales management and improved sales results, research in the last few years has confirmed it.? For example, a study by Wilson Learning Worldwide, Inc. concluded that sales teams under the oversight of a highly skilled sales manager produced “29% higher revenue, 47% higher employee satisfaction, and 16% higher customer satisfaction.”

Unfortunately, of all the job titles and positions in a typical B2B sales force, the first line sales managers are the least trained for their positions.?

Most have never been educated in the best practices of effective sales management.? As a result, they default to the habits and practices they saw when they were salespeople.? They mimic the models of the sales managers for which they worked.? Alas, most of their models were also never educated in effective sales management.

As a result, sales management practices vary from one extreme to another, depending on the individual manager’s vision of himself.

There is a continuum from micromanager on one extreme to non-manager at the other. ?

Some see themselves as super salespeople – the most competent of all the salespeople, and the one who needs to go with the salespeople to close big accounts, and smooth flustered relationships.? Others become administrators, busying themselves with reports, meetings and a continuous stream of clerical functions.

Some identify with the salespeople and wouldn’t think of impinging on anyone’s style or system of work.? Others see... CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE