According to a study by HBR, 69% of salespeople who exceeded their annual quota rated their sales manager as excellent or above average.
Furthermore, the quality of the sales organization is directly associated with the quality of sales leadership. 56% of salespeople who rated their sales organization as excellent also rated their sales manager as excellent , compared to only 3% who rated their organization as average.
Coincidence? I don't think so. Skill yes of a Sales Manager
When we work with sales organizations around the world, we discover something special about successful sales managers and how they manage their teams.
What makes them successful? It's not just one thing, but a combination of the right skills, characteristics, and attitude.
Here are 5 best practices that set highly effective sales managers apart from the rest and enable them to help their team successfully achieve and exceed their sales goals.
1. As a Sales Manager, set goals and expectations from the beginning.
Does your team have a clear understanding of their goals and what is expected of them? And do they really know what you are responsible for?
If there is any uncertainty about roles and responsibilities, now is the time to clarify.
When managing expectations, it's better to over-communicate than risk misunderstandings. Effective sales managers take the time to make sure everyone knows who is responsible for what results and when. They also make sure everyone understands the consequences of hitting the target or not hitting the target.
To avoid this latter scenario, a highly effective sales manager emphasizes the importance of the goal-setting process and encourages his team to create SMART goals, which is a commonly used framework that stands for: (1) Specific, (2) Measurable, (3) Attainable, (4) Realistic, and (5) Timely.
The key to creating SMART goals is collaboration and questioning. Ask yourself and your team members plenty of thoughtful questions to help fine-tune your strategy and ensure you're not being overly promising or unrealistic.
Someone may even pressure you to make your goal SMARTER, which adds (6) Evaluate and (7) Redo to the acronym.
Like everything else in business, things change, and these two letters signify the continual need to evaluate, adapt and change.
So whether you're writing SMART or SMARTER goals, know that things change and you may have to adapt. Either way, you'll find that first having some clarity on what you and your team want to accomplish will make the difference between success and failure.
2. Schedule one-on-one time with each salesperson, be a good Sales Manager
The idea of this may seem daunting, but the best sales managers thrive when they conduct one-on-one sessions.
They create and follow a consistent schedule, stay focused, and make each session personal.
Regardless of the size of your sales team, the first thing you canadian biotechnology email list need to do is create a schedule that allows you to spend time with each salesperson. Once you've established what the right schedule is, make sure you stay consistent.
We know things “come up” from time to time, but having these one-on-one sessions scheduled ahead of time and on a recurring basis will help you avoid other responsibilities interfering.
Additionally, having a set agenda will help you and your salesperson stay focused and on task so you can keep the meeting moving while covering the essential information needed to strategize for each sales opportunity or account.
Finally, coaching needs to be personal. Every salesperson is unique. They have different strengths and weaknesses, as well as different ways of learning. Spend time getting to know each of your salespeople so you can tailor your one-on-one coaching sessions in a way that resonates with each salesperson, on a personal level.
3. As a Sales Manager, you must Focus on Strengths.
Based on the best practices above, we know that the best managers don't treat all of their salespeople the same. Why? Because there are many different personalities and selling styles working for you that need to be managed differently.
While an average sales manager may try a one-size-fits-all approach, top sales managers work to identify and understand each salesperson's strengths.
For example, maybe you have a sales rep who is great at fostering customer relationships and cultivating loyalty; should they spend their time prospecting? Probably not. You want them to focus on improving your renewal and growth strategies, as well as making sure current customers are happy and taken care of.
As a sales manager, your role is to guide your sales team.
Exceptional sales managers are those who allow their team members to focus on what comes naturally to them, which ultimately makes their sales reps more engaged and energized at work, that's what makes a good Sales Manager.
Furthermore, according to a recent Gallup study, implementing a strength-based management system can lead to a 10% to 19% increase in sales, as well as a decrease in employee turnover. Now, I would call that a win-win for both the company as a whole and the employees.
4. Share success stories with the team, that's what makes a good Sales Manager
You are the eyes and ears of your sales team. So you can see and hear about the challenges they are struggling with, as well as success stories to celebrate and model.
Use this information when sharing your observations with your team and encourage them to share with each other. For example, after big wins, you should take the time to share with the team the things that made the deal work. Openly evaluate what the sales rep did well, what didn't work, and what could be done differently in the future.
Sharing best practices and examples across all sellers will help bring different opinions and perspectives to the conversation.
This creates healthy discussion and debate on particular topics that are important to you, your team, your company and the industry at large.
5. Create a training culture led by the Sales Manager
Okay, so maybe we're a little biased on this one, but making continuous learning and training part of your sales culture opens the door to continued growth and long-term success.
Every successful sales organization has a training rhythm that constantly works to develop the fundamentals of product knowledge, competitive intelligence, prospecting, time and opportunity management, as well as territory planning and how to communicate professionally.
Training provides an often overlooked competitive advantage, averaging 24 minutes per day per individual.
Even if you're having the best year of your life, it doesn't mean you should stop looking for new ways to improve and build on what you're already successful at.
Ongoing training initiatives can help you keep a close eye on any new trends or emerging technologies that can quickly add ROI and value to your sales team.
