Sales managers are often the crucial piece of the puzzle that contribute heavily to the overall success of any organisation. After all, they lead and motivate their team to hit targets and exceed expectations.
We’d go even as far as to say that sales managers are the unsung heroes of modern corporate success stories – CEOs and founders tend to take most of the credit where, in fact, it was most likely the continued drive and dedication of their respective sales managers that pushed the company to success.
Well, let’s go ahead and bring you up to speed on the 7 essential skills every sales manager needs to lead their team to the prize.
1. Be Awesome at Sales Planning
It only makes sense to kick off the list with this one because effective planning skills is a key skill for sales managers to possess. It’s the sales manager’s responsibility to come up with a solid game plan which clearly outlines everyone’s roles, along with the strategies and tactics to achieve the various goals.
This plan typically includes targets, how to identify markets ripe for revenue, and specific strategies which align with the organisation’s greater goals and objectives. Not only that, but as a sales manager, you should also be able to forecast future trends as part of your planning and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Next!
2. Be a Great Coach (Professionally and Personally)
One of the keys to becoming a seasoned sales manager and push your modern sales team to new heights is being good with people and processes, not just sales.
Here’s what separates the great managers from the average ones: the great ones take the time to come up with bespoke training programmes which help their reps truly succeed. That is, repeatable tried-and-tested processes that integrate the latest technology and best practices to build winning strategies.
Now, even the best-made strategies tend to fall flat without properly trained reps. This is where coaching comes in.
Rather than simply fill the shoes of a manager, be a coach. Carve out a weekly schedule to set some time aside for regular one-on-one training with your reps. Not sure where to start? Try these:
- Schedule role-plays with the team. Run through a variety of scenarios every time, such as deal closing or objection handling.
- Listen to cold calls, review them, provide prompt feedback. Job done!
- Develop a library of cold call scripts for different customer personas and industries.
3. Become a Pro at Building a Repeatable Sales Process
Let’s build on the previous skill a little.
The best managers tend to think in terms of systems and processes, and not just objectives and goals. Here’s what this means:
- Create sales playbooks for your team to follow.
- Set expectations in order to maintain a clean, transparent, and up-to-date CRM.
- Encourage your reps to regularly update the CRM with notes.
Processes actually play a major role when it comes to success in sales. Managers who are good at creating repeatable processes and sticking to them tend to outperform their counterparts nearly every single time. Rather than reinvent the wheel for each deal, find a repeatable process that works. Then stick to it.
Monitor the processes. If a problem crops up, first ask how the process broke down, then determine where to assign responsibility (not blame) to resolve matters.
4. Work on Your Active Listening Skills
If only we had a nickel every time someone in the sales space says: “be a good listener.”
Being a good listener is simply not “hearing” what someone is saying. It’s about actively listening to your team members, customers, prospects, stakeholders, leaders, etc. and then clearly articulating that you are genuinely interested in what they have to say.
It involves asking the right follow-up questions to, perhaps, overcome certain challenges, or to meet a person’s specific needs.
For instance, actively listening to a customer’s pain points helps you empathise with what they are going through, and then position a product/service to swiftly address issues or challenges.
As another example, by actively listening to your team or leaders in a meeting, you can more readily identify ways to improve each team member’s role.
5. Demonstrate Great Leadership
While it’s quite the achievement to reach “Sales Manager” status, the only way to go from there is up. The top sales managers always show keen interest and boast the necessary skills to, ultimately, motivate, empower, and lead team members.
Thinking from a leader mindset is very important for any manager. Why? Because it helps you take the initiative and put your team members first before anything else. This is what empowers every individual on the team and helps them succeed.
It won’t be easy though. It may involve pushing your team members and, at times, pushing them well beyond their usual comfort zone to get things done. It might see you providing team members with additional resources so that they can achieve their goals. But that’s not all – effective team leadership is also about recognising your own skills gaps, shortcomings, and areas for improvement.
Making a proactive effort to develop your leadership skills will position you better to guide your team whenever things get challenging, and celebrate all the great accomplishments and successes together.
6. Time Management Guru
Sales managers really have their work cut out, don’t they? Between the sales plan and strategy formulation, presenting the value proposition to stakeholders and prospective customers alike, and dealing with other priorities – sales managers typically have a lot on their plate.
And this brings us to time management, which some sales managers might find challenging. Here are some tips which apply to not only you but also your team:
- Set time aside on your calendar for the high-priority tasks.
- Check your email only at specific or designated times.
- Maintain set working hours for everyone (allow some flexibility but only if it serves the purpose).
- Delegate tasks to sales team members ahead of time based on their individual skill level and strengths.
- Keep meetings on a “need to have” basis so that your team can primarily focus on the task at hand.
7. Rational Problem-Solving Skills
Facing challenges or problems which need to be dealt with swiftly and discreetly are all part and parcel of a sales manager’s responsibilities. It could be a dissatisfied customer, a stalled deal, a frustrated team member, or any designated individual on the workforce who isn’t driving the desired business outcomes.
This is where rational problem-solving skills can help managers anticipate potential issues before they actually become nagging problems. These skills also help them map out the necessary proactive steps to resolve challenges or issues, while keeping them in the driver’s seat – it can be easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of challenges, which can break some people…
Well-developed rational problem-solving skills enable managers to stay calm and cool under pressure, while still maintaining objectivity in day-to-day decision-making. This is a great skill to have as it can help you remove obstacles, push and motivate team members to reach their goals, and generally empower the people under your command to do their best.
In Closing
While we’ve barely scratched the surface here with these skills, we believe they’re all great starting points.
There’s no ‘one size fits all’ to great sales management although by having the above skills in your arsenal, you’re already ahead of your peers.
