Did you know that between 60-80% of top-performing sales people cite the reason for leaving their company being a poor relationship with management? A sales manager is responsible for accurately forecasting sales and hitting KPIs but often achieving these targets comes at the expense of successfully leading their team. It’s time that sales managers refocus their attention towards how they can support their sales people. If you’re interested in being a great leader then here’s what makes a successful sales manager:
Successful sales managers protect their time
Time management is an essential skill in any job but it’s particularly important for a leader who is trying to maximise their team’s potential. Sales managers need to prioritise their workload to enable their sales people to hit targets. This means removing any tasks that do not contribute to revenue. Once you have done this you can focus on ensuring that your sales team are spending their time wisely too.
Coach their sales team above anything else
According to Career Addict, 82% of employees will leave their job if there isn’t a possible career progression path. Leadership must guide their team through the possible career options, create new opportunities where they can and give their team the tools to reach their goals. What defines a successful sales manager is someone who personalises their coaching for each sales person. Consider how you can support your team and stop your top sales leaders from leaving. Perhaps they need guidance visualising how they can climb the career ladder, meanwhile, your less experienced sales people may need your help uncovering the customer’s top needs.
The benefits of coaching your sales team are unparalleled and any successful sales manager knows this. Not only will the guided training boost sales performance but you’ll see an improvement in their engagement with customers. Therefore, sales managers who focus on continual learning will benefit from a lower turnover rate and higher employee satisfaction.
They foster a high-performance sales culture
Any sales manager must be able to motivate their team – it quite literally is a prerequisite for the job – but a truly successful sales manager will inspire their sales people. It’s essential to lead by example and create a competitive yet cooperative environment. Sales leaderboards are a great way to motivate your team to bump up their numbers, while games that combine the performance of the whole team will inspire them.
Play the “what-one-question” game with your team. Have them work in groups to come up with one question that will determine whether someone is suitable for a role, say to be a manager or to be the lead on a presentation. It’s much more valuable for your sales team to identify the one question they should be asking rather than a list of questions. And if this game doesn’t stimulate your team, here are four inspirational sales stories.
Understand the power in empowering their team
Are they assigned to tasks that are aligned with their goals and are you letting them have a say in the matter? You must empower your team and show them respect because employees who aren’t in this position only have a 35% chance of remaining at a company for three years.
They focus heavily on recruiting and onboarding
The success of a sales manager relies partially on the talent in the team but this comes back under the responsibility of the manager. It’s far costlier to hire the wrong sales person than it is to spend extra time vetting the candidates. And, there are some rules you need to break to hire the best salespeople, one in particular being the prerequisite that all sales people must have two years’ experience.
Once you’ve hired the right person for your sales team the work doesn’t stop there. To allow your recruit to deliver on what they say they can you must provide a comprehensive onboarding process. 80% of people agree that onboarding is important yet a surprising 1 in 3 would rather endure an awkward social interaction than be inducted through an onboarding process. Could your process be due a refresh?
Let BMS help you lead your sales team to success
Now you know what it takes to be a successful sales manager but do you have the right sales team behind you? BMS can help you and here are some metrics to show we’re equipped for the job – we have 30 years’ experience in sales recruitment and we’ve placed over 40, 000 candidates. Don’t wait any longer – upload your vacancy here.