Promoted to Sales Manager Now What

You’ve Gotten the Sales Managers Job

And now you need to figure out how to keep it. There’s a lot to learn, and the clock is already ticking. The first hurdle is at most 90 days away. It’s time to develop your own model, and style, for doing the job.

There is no perfect template for successful sales management. Every job is a particular cocktail of product/service type, market authority, customer category, marketing support, headcount, team member skills.

Nobody can tell you exactly how to stir up the mixture and pour a Silver Bullet. You have to work that out yourself, on the fly. Hopefully you’ll get some good luck along the way, because there’ll be no shortage of the other sort.

Here are some fundamentals you can get right early, and lay foundations on which future success will grow.

Sort the “Winners from the Losers“

Decide which of your team know how to make it work. Be aware the ones with the biggest numbers aren’t always the best sellers. Luck can play a part in sales numbers, and we can’t learn anything from people who’ve gotten lucky.

The “losers” are going to get a lot of attention, so we need to be sure who they are, and why they under perform.

Figure out “What Works and Why”

There will be a common thread running through the approaches taken by the winners. Net this down into a generic process which the stars will agree as a standard for the team.

This process is going to be your best friend, so take some time over defining it, and selling it to your best people. When they’ve bought into the concept most of the losers will follow.

Use “Plan>Act>Review“

This is how you’ll manage the pipeline in forensic detail. It’s a continuous circle of planning what should happen, making sure it happens, reviewing the results and then planning what to do next.

Reviewing every reps funnel and pipeline, prospecting, pitching and closing activities delivers instant, and on going, benefits.

You’ll get to know exactly how each rep does things, and know which deals in your forecast are at risk.

Longer term, as lessons learned are fed back into improving your process, everybody will get better at what they do – including you.

Focus on “Low Hanging Fruit”

Don’t go chasing the guys who know what they’re doing. Any improvements will be minor.

Instead get on top of the ones who don’t. Some will need coaching, others will need support, and the rest will need some discipline.

Whichever the need, the quickest win in any sales team is turning losers into winners.

Build “Team Loyalty”

A sales team is like a sports team, where the total is greater than the sum of the parts.

Members will help each other, and back you up when the dissenters threaten your authority. Everybody will pull all the stops out at the end of the quarter, when you’re short of numbers.

There’ll be fewer disputes about who gets which leads, and more participation in efforts to raise the game.

Loyalty needs to be a two way relationship. You’re going to have to support the guys against all the interference that comes from the bean counters, and demand support from the management.

When management thinks you’re a pain in the rear, and accepts it because of your contribution, that’s sales manager heaven

Demand “Discipline”

Ultimately it has to be “My way or the Highway”. Sales guys who want to challenge your authority need to learn that, and the sooner the better.

You’ll learn from the ones who know what they’re doing, and include that in the process.

The ones who don’t know what they’re doing are like “bad apples”. They need to be separated from the rest and discarded if they won’t change.

Free Reference Material

Check out our Focus on Sales page

You can get more detailed explanations and examples of the principles highlighted here by downloading these free White Papers:

1) Sales Masterclass (221)

2) Sales Qualification - Why and How (360)

Find lots more articles and get a free Front Office Box to help you implement the processes with sales management software designed by sales managers.

Finally if you’re looking for confidential advice and support email me at steve.reeves@frontofficebox.us

I’ll be happy to help.