Do Great Sales People Make Good Sales Managers?
There was an interesting thought posed in LinkedIn today: “Good sales people make good sales managers.” It went on to ask the characteristics of good sales managers. The question struck a chord, a dissonant one, provoking me to respond. I’m sure I have missed a lot of characteristics of great sales managers, and would ask for your addition, deletions, edits. Here’s my response and the list I started with:
Great sales people are sometimes the worst sales managers. Likewise, some mediocre sales people end up being stellar sales managers.
There is a long list of leadership skills/traits that are important for managers. I will stay away from repeating these.
Some specific areas that I think are often overlooked for sales managers:
1. Very process oriented. Today's sales manager cannot be involved in every deal, issue or transaction. They have to have a strong process in place, make certain their people understand and are executing the process. The sales manager has to continually monitor the process, taking deep dives in problem areas to help their people address them.
2. Disciplined and performance oriented. Closely tied to the previous point, the sales manager must have a strong focus on performance and performance improvement. This requires having the right metrics in place, making sure people understand what they are accountable for, giving them the opportunity to perform, being there to coach them when they have problems, and being prepared to take the appropriate actions if performance problems are not resolved.
3. Loyalty to the organization and their people. The sales manager is often caught between a rock and a hard place---the objectives of the organization sometimes come into conflict with what is best for the team. Effective sales managers are actively involved in setting organizational strategies and priorities (at least in terms of sales) and engage the sales people in executing them--though they may resist---which requires strong engagement and coaching. At the same time, sometimes the "organization" is insensitive to the sales people. The sales manager needs to defend the sales people to the organization, making sure they are heard.
3. Strong business orientation and focus. Make the right business decisions—both for the customer, for the sales organization, and for the business. Understanding how businesses work and what drives them.
4. Incessantly customer focused. If I have to say more, then we really don’t understand the point of professional selling.
5. Incessantly curious---driven to learn and improve. Incessantly curious about solving customer problems. Incessantly curious about the art and science of professional selling—driven to improve the performance of each individual in the organization, the organization as a whole, his own personal performance, and the business. This means they probably spend much more time asking questions and listening then they do talking.
6. Appropriately compassionate. Understand what drives people—customers, sales people, support people, others in the organization. Able to understand their points of view and what drives them. Able to communicate and work with them in a matter that demonstrates respect and trust. At the same time, able to make tough decisions—but with compassion based on the impact on individuals.
7. Able to sublimate their egos. Sales management is about leadership, growing and developing people, growing and developing the organization, growing and developing the business. It is not about how great you are and your past victories. It requires admitting you are wrong when you are. It requires being able to change your point of view.
8. Problem solvers. Driven by solving problems, finding ways to overcome obstacles, not being wed to the past. Creative and innovative in adapting new approaches to address issues and improve the business.
9. High energy. Constantly moving forward, setting strong examples for everyone around. Note, I am not saying high activity, high meeting orientation. High energy is different than meaningless activities.
10. Value, principle driven. Without a strong value system, a manager has no context in which to make decisions and drive the organization. Without sticking to the values and principles, the organization will wander and not produce results.
11. Thoughtful, reflective, good sense of humor. Self explanatory.
12. Able to leap tall buildings without tripping. Sales managers don’t need to have a big “S” on their chests, but they need to inspire and motivate others.
I’m sure I’ve missed some and could go into much more detail on each item. But I look for all of these in hiring great sales managers!
What would you add? Are there any you would eliminate?
Great sales people are sometimes the worst sales managers. Likewise, some mediocre sales people end up being stellar sales managers.
There is a long list of leadership skills/traits that are important for managers. I will stay away from repeating these.
Some specific areas that I think are often overlooked for sales managers:
1. Very process oriented. Today's sales manager cannot be involved in every deal, issue or transaction. They have to have a strong process in place, make certain their people understand and are executing the process. The sales manager has to continually monitor the process, taking deep dives in problem areas to help their people address them.
2. Disciplined and performance oriented. Closely tied to the previous point, the sales manager must have a strong focus on performance and performance improvement. This requires having the right metrics in place, making sure people understand what they are accountable for, giving them the opportunity to perform, being there to coach them when they have problems, and being prepared to take the appropriate actions if performance problems are not resolved.
3. Loyalty to the organization and their people. The sales manager is often caught between a rock and a hard place---the objectives of the organization sometimes come into conflict with what is best for the team. Effective sales managers are actively involved in setting organizational strategies and priorities (at least in terms of sales) and engage the sales people in executing them--though they may resist---which requires strong engagement and coaching. At the same time, sometimes the "organization" is insensitive to the sales people. The sales manager needs to defend the sales people to the organization, making sure they are heard.
3. Strong business orientation and focus. Make the right business decisions—both for the customer, for the sales organization, and for the business. Understanding how businesses work and what drives them.
4. Incessantly customer focused. If I have to say more, then we really don’t understand the point of professional selling.
5. Incessantly curious---driven to learn and improve. Incessantly curious about solving customer problems. Incessantly curious about the art and science of professional selling—driven to improve the performance of each individual in the organization, the organization as a whole, his own personal performance, and the business. This means they probably spend much more time asking questions and listening then they do talking.
6. Appropriately compassionate. Understand what drives people—customers, sales people, support people, others in the organization. Able to understand their points of view and what drives them. Able to communicate and work with them in a matter that demonstrates respect and trust. At the same time, able to make tough decisions—but with compassion based on the impact on individuals.
7. Able to sublimate their egos. Sales management is about leadership, growing and developing people, growing and developing the organization, growing and developing the business. It is not about how great you are and your past victories. It requires admitting you are wrong when you are. It requires being able to change your point of view.
8. Problem solvers. Driven by solving problems, finding ways to overcome obstacles, not being wed to the past. Creative and innovative in adapting new approaches to address issues and improve the business.
9. High energy. Constantly moving forward, setting strong examples for everyone around. Note, I am not saying high activity, high meeting orientation. High energy is different than meaningless activities.
10. Value, principle driven. Without a strong value system, a manager has no context in which to make decisions and drive the organization. Without sticking to the values and principles, the organization will wander and not produce results.
11. Thoughtful, reflective, good sense of humor. Self explanatory.
12. Able to leap tall buildings without tripping. Sales managers don’t need to have a big “S” on their chests, but they need to inspire and motivate others.
I’m sure I’ve missed some and could go into much more detail on each item. But I look for all of these in hiring great sales managers!
What would you add? Are there any you would eliminate?
Comment
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Comment by Dave Brock on February 27, 2009 at 5:57am - Great discussion by all! Thanks for contributing!
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Comment by Muhammad Kamran on February 27, 2009 at 3:43am - fantastic post Dave and every one here has contributed well, I think a Change Management is a very important attribute for a sales manager, cahnge adoptibility, in new policies and procedures, change within teams, change in market dynamic, change in economical conditions, every change impacts on sales and sales manager, and thier teams. i feel change management is mandatory for sales managers.
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Comment by amit sharan on February 24, 2009 at 7:39am -
This is the #2 mistake in USF's Top 5 Sales Training Mistakes
Losing a Great Sales Person Only to Gain a Poor Sales Manager
Success in sales doesn’t necessarily prepare you for success in sales management or other leadership roles. If a team member has his/her sights set on transitioning into a management role, formal sales management training will ensure they can successfully make the leap from team member to team leader.
You can view all of the Top 5 Sales Training mistakes and how to avoid them at: http://www.usanfranonline.com/salestraining
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Comment by Dave Brock on February 24, 2009 at 3:50am
- Great discussion, thanks for keeping it up!
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Comment by Brad Trnavsky on February 23, 2009 at 6:34pm -
I think we keep having this discussion because it is a interesting one to have...
While many people adamantly argue that good sales people do not make sales managers there are countless outstanding sales managers who have also been great sales people.
The key message I think most people miss is you need to be careful who you pick... They have to have the aptitude to manage and the attitude required to lead effectively. it takes time to develop a sales manager. You can not simply point your finger at the top guy and say "your the man now, go get'r done"! My boss has been mentoring and training me for 2 years to move to general management and I still probably have a year to go. My last sales manager spent about 2 years mentoring and growing me to be ready for this job.
The fact is that none of us want to loose one of our top 3 producers, but you don't want someone who lacks sales skills leading your team either... so who do you pick? You need someone with "street cred" that the staff will respect and can assist in closing deals and will bring insight, but you also need someone mature enough to put others first. It's hard to find... but given time you can develop those people.
The key is succession planning and early identification of top producers with the aptitude AND desire to lead.
I think Corporate America is missing the boat here... most companies do a poor job of identifying potential candidates for management, and even when they do identify them they do very little to grow or prepare them.
Just a few off the cuff thoughts.
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Comment by Will on February 23, 2009 at 3:39pm -
A common discussion here on SM 2.0. I love it every time it happens!
I just do not agree that the best salespeople make the best sales managers. Great salespeople are creative, are many times rule-breakers, and just do what it takes in general to get the job done. Sales management is for people who are looking to climb the corporate ladder, like meetings, like rules & regulations, and are folks that are great on developing internal relationships. After all - isn't this how you get the job in the first place?
Great salespeople are just the opposite. They are great on developing external relationships (customer) and many times forget how important internal relationships can be in regards to their career. They let the numbers do the talking and also like to be in control. I've seen great salespeople become managers only to micromanage their sales force into oblivion. I'm not alone here, Gitomer is also with me on this point. Great salespeople can be great at starting a small business, however. This I have seen on numerous occasions where a successful outcome took place.
How many times are we going to have this discussion?
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Comment by Dave Brock on February 20, 2009 at 12:09pm
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Himanshu: You raise an interesting point which may deseve a separate discussion (actually, I'm wirting an article which should be posted next week.). The issue you are really addressing is career pathing for sales professionals. Many organizations and professionals believe the way you move forward in your career is to be promoted to the next level job (e.g. sales person to account manager to corporate account manager to global account manager to whatever and potentially sales manager).
I believe organizations and individuals need to start looking at career pathing differently. For example, many leading companies I have been invovled with have multiple career paths/tracks, each of which is very meaningful and has great reward (financial and otherwise). For example there may be a career path moving sales people into management, another may move a sales person into increasingly higher levels of responsibility, but as an individual contributor. In some organizations the title of VP of Business Development is often reserved for individual contributors who perform and contribute at the very highest levels, focusing on very unique deals.
I'll write much more about this later, but I think we all need to take a much broader and richer view of career pathing for sales professionals, so that each person can grow, leveraging their strengths and ability to contribute, and not forcing them into a path to which they are poorly suited and will fail.
Thanks for the comment.
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Comment by Himanshu Agarwal on February 20, 2009 at 11:54am -
In today’s scenario more than anytime else, this does not hold any water which I’ m sure most of you would agree….
Infact I see this discussion from a different perspective…
How to manage expectations of a good salesman dreaming of becoming a ‘sales manager’….good or bad will be decided later…
I see a lot of EB(emotional blackmailing) here…
people who claim to have given sweat and blood and tears
to the growth of the company and in return the company has not reward them appropriately in terms of promotions…
keeping EB quotient aside management should not gamble and make the cardinal mistake of making a excellent salesman into an ineffective sales manager…
for managers a prerequisite skill is managing expectations...
internal customers and external customers…
up the ladder and down the ladder….
Maybe we can create a separate topic on this…..
God bless and take care….
ha
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Comment by Dave Brock on February 18, 2009 at 10:13am
- Jonathan, I tend to agree with your comments. The credibility of the sales manager with the sale people is critical. If they haven't "been there, done that, " with some level of success, the people, rightfully, rightfully don't respect that. I am seeing that with one client right now. The Sales Manager was brought in from the outside and did not have the appropriate sales experience. There are major attitudinal problems in the organization because of the lack of credibility and the inability of the sales manager to really support and develop the sales people. Thanks for the comment.
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Comment by Jonathan on February 18, 2009 at 9:22am - Some solid thoughts Dave, as were some of the other comments that followed. Having dealt with this question many times through the years I would first echo the sentiments of those who believe a #1 producer doesn't necessarily make a successful sales manager. In that regard, I have managed many top producers in my career who I would not have allowed anywhere near the hopes, aspirations and development of their peers. Having said this I do feel that the most successful and effective "line managers" are those who were at one time or other a "top 3" producer. There are many reasons for this, though I believe those reasons start and end with the word credibility, which in my view is critical when trying to develop the skills and with it abilities of your team.
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