The following job promotion ritual is repeated in numerous sales organizations every year:
Step
1: A sales management position is vacant due to growth, attrition, or
the dismissal of an existing sales manager; Step 2: The top sales
representative in the organization (or department) is selected to fill
the vacancy; Step 3: The top salesperson doesn't like to (or is unable
to) manage the sales performance of other individuals, so he keeps
focused on personal selling initiatives, but in doing so, is failing in
his role as sales manager; Step 4: The cycle repeats itself.
Although
sales representatives and sales managers both work within the realm of
selling, many of the strengths required for success in the roles of
sales manager differ than the strengths required for success in the role
of sales person. Therefore, few top-performing salespeople will become
top-performing sales managers. This is important to know if you're
looking to hire a new sales manager in your company, and you expect this
individual to be successful filling that role.
This isn't a
phenomenon that's unique to selling. There are many highly-skilled and
successful physicians, for example who are unable to effectively manage a
staff of other physicians. There are many prized athletes who are not
able to successfully coach a team of other athletes. There are skilled
kitchen designers, plumbers, and attorneys who are unable to manage
respective groups of other kitchen designers, plumbers, and attorneys.
Before
I offer support for my thesis, allow me to confess that there are two
situations where I will not argue with the individual who says the top
salesperson in an organization will become a successful sales manager:
(1)
The first is where where the new sales manager retains the
responsibility for personally generating sales revenue. This individual
is, in effect, either a part-time sales manager, or a sales manager in
title only; (2) The second is when the sales manager's role is to be
almost exclusively a rain-maker (a generator of new business
opportunities). That is a selling role that some sales managers play,
but it is not a management role per se.
The following is a list of
strengths (skills) that are required to achieve phenomenal success as
the manager of a sales team (or any team, for that matter). However,
none of these skills are substantially required for phenomenal success
in front-line selling. This doesn't mean that a top sales performer will
never be a top sales management performer, but it means that the
strengths required to fill the two roles are substantially different.
Strength #1. Delegating.
The sales manager certainly cannot do the front-line sales activity
for his entire sales group himself. Meeting a sales quota requires the
contribution of all members of the sales team. The successful sales
manager must possess the ability to delegate responsibility to others so
the group can achieve its goals. Delegating is quite a different skill
than, say, closing skill, which is required of top sales performers, but
the skill of delegation is not a skill which is typically required for
top sales performance.
Strength #2. Willing to give up the top spot.
Top sales performers who become sales managers must be entirely
willing to give up the position of top performer in a sales
organization. For those who can't, disaster awaits. Sales managers must
be willing and able to put their top salespeople on pedestals so their
egos can be adequately fed, while also keeping their own egos in check
for the sake of the advancement of their team. In a larger organization
there is still opportunity for competition between several or many sales
managers, but a top sales manager has to be able to point to his top
performer and give her credit for being the top salesperson in his
group. He also has to encourage other non-top-performers to become
top-performers. Since many salespeople have been ego-driven in their
successful sales careers, this transition from achiever to encourager is
critical. The skill of allowing someone else to be the top dog is not a
skill required for success in selling, and in fact, can be antithetical
to it. Many sales managers who have previously been a top sales
performer who have been driven throughout his entire career to achieve
"pedestal" status will not work tirelessly to put another individual on
this same pedestal.
Strength #3. Focusing on others.
Sales management requires an outward focus on others' sales
performance, whereas successful selling requires an inward focus on
one's own sales performance. Being in control of your own sales is one
thing; but it's impossible to be in control of an entire team's sales.
Therefore, a loss of direct control of the sale is required in favor of a
focus on the sales manager's team members.
Strength #4. Supervising.
Sale managers must possess front-line supervisory skills. They need
to know how and when to step in to discipline or change behaviors in an
employee. They must possess wisdom about when to support subordinates
versus when to discipline them. Top sales performers do not need
supervisory skills to achieve top dog status.
Strength #5. Managing.
The key skill of the manager is to utilize every subordinate's
special strengths to achieve the goals of the sales group. Weaknesses in
employees exist, but assembling a group of team members who have
strengths in the right areas, and knowing how to put those strengths to
work, is not required of top sales performers. It is, however, required
of sales managers who wish to achieve top sales performance. These
management concepts are described by Marcus Buckingham in his book "The
One Thing You Need to Know About Great Managing, Great Leading, and
Sustained Individual Success" (Simon & Schuster, 2005).
Strength #6. Coaching, training, mentoring.
Successful sales managers should be able to coax salespeople to
improved performance, both in one-on-one coaching events and in
classroom training environments. Although there may be some of these
elements present in all selling top performers, these elements are
crucial for top sales management performance.
Strength #7. Leading.
According to Marcus Buckingham, again in "The One Thing You Need to
Know," successful leaders have two key attributes: (1) They have the
ability to create a vision for the future; and (2) They have the ability
to get subordinates lined up within this vision, so that individuals'
efforts will support, and not hamper, the group's progress. Successful
sales managers have these leadership attributes. Leadership skill is not
required of top sales performers.
Strength #8. Filtering directives.
The sales manager will receive many directives from her superiors.
To be effective, she must know when to filter out or adjust these
directives, and when to take them on with reckless abandon. This is a
delicate balance, and not knowing when to do which one can wreak havoc
in a sales organization. The wisdom to know when to embrace
upper-management directives, and when to subtly give them secondary
attention, will help determine the success of the sales manager's team,
and therefore, the success of the sales manager.
Strength #9. Hiring and Firing.
Top-performing sales managers must make be able to accurately
predict sales performance during the interviewing process, and must
leverage that ability in their hiring of subordinates. Without this
ability, sales performance will suffer. Top sales performers do not need
this predictive skill. Successful sales manager must also know how and
when to remove an employee from their team so that negative
repercussions are minimized.
Strength #10. Deciding.
There's no question that making good decisions is important in
successful selling. But in a sales management role, all decisions are
magnified because each decision affects more than one individual. The
sales manager's decisions affect an entire staff of sales professionals
and their customers. This means decision-making skills are vital for the
sales manager.
There are many skills required for sales success.
Among them are the ability to prospect and create business
opportunities, the ability to identify prospects' needs, and ability to
close the sale. But the sales management qualities listed above are not
substantially required for individual selling success.
While
there's some overlap between the required skill of the peak-performing
sales manager and the peak-performing sales person, here's my advice: if
you're looking for a sales manager who will succeed, hire one that
possesses the strengths of a sales manager (those listed strengths
above). Many peak-performing salespeople don't possess those strengths.
By
Skip Anderson
