Here is an article from Eye on Sales that addresses a common sales management topic – should you promote your top salesperson into the sales manager role? I would argue that the conventional wisdom is to avoid making this mistake. From the article: Sales management mistake #1: Promoting top performers to sales managers Top-performing salespeople are not necessarily top managers. Leaders often fail to evaluate their best sales professionals for their ability and aptitude to manage before placing them in a leadership position. It seems like an easy decision to promote the best, but in reality you might be taking one of your most potent weapons out of the game… Read More
Continue ReadingI’m Too Busy To Coach Salespeople
Coaching in many organizations is an after thought at best. What we see all too often is that the quotas are set and salespeople are expected to reach them on their own (to some extent). These are the organizations in which we see far too little coaching by the sales managers of their teams. Why is this? In a post from Dave Stein’s blog he asks you to name one professional athlete that doesn’t have a coach. Even amateur athletes have coaches, so why do organizations not require and equip sales managers to be coaches? Dave makes some interesting points and I recommend that you go read the entire post. He may get you to change your… Read More
Continue ReadingFrom Closing To Coaching
Selling Power.com’s Sales Management newsletter provides an excellent article that addresses a common issue in sales management – how do you move from salesperson to sales manager? One important aspect of this move is becoming a coach for your sales team. The suggestions in the article are worth the read, but this one is especially remarkable: Keep questions open. Most managers know they should ask open-ended questions in a coaching situation, but closed questions still crop up far too often. Closed questions can be answered in one or two words – yes, no, good, okay. Open-ended questions, on the other hand, require the responder to think and elaborate and help… Read More
Continue ReadingWhy Do Salespeople Quit?
I’ve read in many articles, blog posts and white papers that people take a job because of the company and quit because of a manager. I have talked to many salespeople about why they are looking for a new opportunity and the vast majority do come down to their manager. But there is an specific reason that we have been encountering of late when it comes to salespeople. Companies desire to seek out and hire strong salespeople and expect that these new salespeople will be strong for them without extensive direction or guidance from them. This lack of involvement is a pet peeve of mine. Do the salespeople want to be hand held? No, but… Read More
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