When Selecting a Sales Manager, Good Is Better Than Best

It has been the accepted practice for decades that the best performing sales representatives are the ones most likely to be promoted to sales management positions.

Coincidentally, if you were to ask sales executives to evaluate this practice, most assuredly nearly all would reply that two things happen — neither of which is good!

First and foremost, a high performing sales person is taken out of play, so the team loses a great salesperson.

Secondly, the former high performing sales person usually turns out to be an average or mediocre manager, so the team loses again. Sometimes the company loses because many times the former high performer, now less than average manager, will find employment elsewhere.

Some of the cause for this outcome is the fact that companies tend to spend a great deal of time and money on technical and product training for sales representatives, but spend little or no time and money on leadership and management training. Leadership and management skills and leadership abilities should be the qualifying actions and requirements before promoting any sales representative to manager.

The practice of promoting the high performer continues throughout all business enterprises in the United States. The practice is based on two assumptions. It is assumed that promoting a high performer is the right thing to do as a reward for success. And highly successful sales representatives will be good leaders.

The former may have some merit, but the latter is clearly neither a sensible or logical conclusion. As suggested in the opening paragraphs, a high performing sales record does not assure the ability to lead. There is much evidence to support this assertion.

Professional sports teams are great examples. Many former professional baseball, basketball, and football players became or are now Head Coaches or Team Managers. Only a few of them were top performers. Some were good performers, and many others were just solid players. After all, anyone who is on a professional team is head and shoulders above us ordinary people, but not all of the extraordinary are super-stars. There are those who are the elite within the elite.

Generally, the superstars who become coaches or managers are not usually great managers or coaches. There are exceptions. Bill Russell comes to mind as a good example of a superstar who was a highly successful coach. His teammate K.C. Jones was a very good player who was probably an even better manager.

The former players who become successful Head Coaches and Team Managers were usually good players, but not superstars.

Phil Jackson is an example. Who would have thought that the “Human Coat Hanger” as an off-the-bench player for the Knicks would become the “Zen Master” and highly successful Head Coach of both the Bulls and the Lakers winning many national championships for the two teams.

Another example is Tony LaRussa. He retired after winning another World Series with the Cardinals and he will go the Baseball Hall of Fame as a Manager, not a player in the major leagues.

Most former professional football players who have gone on to being a successful Head Coaches were not superstars. On the other hand, not many professional football superstars became successful head coaches.

How does this apply to selecting a sales manager? Here’s how.

Sales reps are very competitive and often have huge egos. That’s okay. Those are traits that benefit the execution of their craft. Top performers like superstar athletes have high expectations not only of themselves, but also of all the others on the team.

The professional players who were less than superstars know that everyone on the team has a contribution to make, so their expectations are not for everyone to be a superstar, but for everyone to contribute to the team as expected.

This is the single most significant reason why the non-superstars make better coaches and managers. While the fact remains that everyone on a professional sports team is part of an elite group, there are those among the elite who are more elite. The latter group often does not relate well to the former group.

And this is why the top sales performer most likely will not be a good sales manager or leader. The top performer’s expectations are likely to be too high. The top performer expects that everyone else on the team will share his drive, his discipline, his methods, and his zeal. That expectation is unrealistic.

It is not uncommon for a previously top-performing sales person, now promoted to manager, to affect what I call the Clark Kent syndrome. The syndrome often engages when the superstar manager meets with customers along with a territory sales representative. When the former top gun salesperson perceives the territory sales rep to be floundering or slipping up before the customer, the new manager will not hesitate to push the territory rep aside and take over the situation in much the same manner as Clark Kent would rip away his shirt and tie revealing the big Superman S.

This action may “save the day”, but once again at least two things happen that are both bad. The customer begins to lose confidence in the sales rep, and the customer will likely contact the Sales Manager, rather than the sales representative, when the next issue arises.

On the other hand, the good performer turned manager is likely to understand the importance of supporting the local sales person rather than being Superman.

I instructed the Sales Managers reporting to me to not only stay in the background, but also to not give the customer a business card. I told the Sales Managers to give any excuse they could to the customer for not having a business card, but to assure the customer that the local rep would be in contact if needed. There was no way we wanted to the customer to circumvent the local sales person as it happens sometimes.

Good performers, who are promoted to sales manager, usually understand the dynamics of the team and the contribution of the individual members to the team. The good performer turned manager usually knows how to motivate and to stimulate the strengths of each individual on the team to produce and to contribute because someone probably treated them that way or they knew they couldn’t do it all themselves like superstars tend to think at times. The expectations of a good performer now manager are likely to be both grounded and directed to achieving team goals and objectives rather than individual goals. And perhaps the most beneficial trait of the good performer, now manager is that the competitive nature of his team members will be channeled towards competitors rather than between or among fellow team members.

Leadership is the essential component. Leadership manifests itself in many ways. One should expect a manager to be a leader, but not all leaders on a team are managers. Top performers are expected to be role models and to lead by example. Whether it is habits, discipline, planning, organization, appearance, or temperament, the top performers must be role models.

Sales Managers must be more than role models. They must be leaders.

Sales Managers must be visible and not hidden behind a desk. At the same time, Sales Managers are not the person on the white horse leading the charge. Good leaders are those who work alongside their team and who let each team member know the value of the role each plays as part of the team.

Leaders are not just a “pretty face” or a “fast talker”. Charisma is not leadership. Many charismatic personalities have the ability to draw people to them, but often have nowhere to lead those drawn.

Leaders understand that front-line sales personnel are not “cannon fodder” or some other dispensable tool. On the contrary the front-line sales teams are indispensable to achieving the business objectives of the organization.

Leaders are not just bosses who tell team members what to do. Bosses capitalize on power that generates limited success and generally leads to disgruntled, lifeless, and dispirited team members. Leaders stimulate and encourage team members to do their part in the whole scheme of the company goals.

And perhaps most important of all, leaders do not view kindness and appreciation as something weak or beneath them. Leaders know that positive reinforcement may be the most powerful leadership tool there is. Leaders recognize the value of telling team members that they have done a good job or showing thanks for what they have done.

Transitioning From Sales Rep to Sales Manager

Sales people often are promoted into management positions – primarily based on their sales success. While congratulations certainly are in order, success in these situations raises some unique challenges.

Just because a sales people excelled at face-to-face selling doesn’t mean they will excel as a manager. Their responsibilities extend far beyond face-to-face selling. Yet,new managers often are promoted without receiving a lot of help in building the relationships and skills required to be an effective sales manager. So what happens? They often end up doing one of two things: (1) spending time in front of the customer helping their sales people sale – sometimes that’s can be a good idea, sometimes not so much and/or (2) using sales managers they’ve had in the past as a model – again that’s a “sometimes” good idea.

So, let’s look at this from a relationship perspective and examine how a sales person can make the transition from sales person to sales manager. One common situation is worth noting as a backdrop for exploring the issue. Often the promotion occurs within the current sales team or from another team in the same organization. In either case, it’s very common for members of the sales team to know the sales manager before the promotion – resulting in some unique issues these new managers must address.

Let’s look at some of the relationship best practices for making this transition.

First, re-write the ground rules with your new and prior team. While it’s okay to gossip, gripe, and even poke fun at each other when peers, after a promotion that changes. The new sales manager now is responsible for setting direction for the sales team, structuring territories, holding people to deadlines, allocating resources, and assessing performance. Staying friendly is important, but developing some new rules for the road is also critical if the new sales manager is to be effective. They need to re-contract the relationship rules with the team as a whole and with each member of the team.

Second, new managers must cultivate relationships with their new sales manager peers. Other sales managers and managers in other groups such as sales support and marketing can provide the insight and support needed for the new sales manager to succeed. There is little question that the sales manager is the “pivotal job” for building a great sales team. But, there is a lot more to it than just being good at selling. So, leveraging the insights of other managers is a must do for getting a good start in making the transition from sales person to sales manager.

Last, new managers report to a Regional Director or VP of Sales, and must learn the written set of new responsibilities and an unwritten collection of expectation form the leadership team.Understanding both is important. Building a viable communication process and style with the members of the leadership team is a critical step in the transition process – yet too often it is postponed too long.

It is easy to argue that the transition from being a rep to being a manager is one of the more difficult transitions in the world-of-work. This is due to the high profile and quantifiable nature of sales and to the criticality of the sales manger role. Not only is the transition difficult; it is also one that needs to be executed expeditiously. Building, managing, and leveraging relationship is an important first step in the journey.

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Sales Management – Should You Promote a Top Sales Performer to Sales Management?

A question I hear frequently is, “Should I promote my top sales performer to a sales management role?”

To answer this question, I suggest you consider the following three questions:

Does the individual have the TALENTS required to succeed as a sales manager?

WHY are they interested in being promoted?

What sales management TRAINING will they receive?
Let’s examine each of these questions in some detail.

1. Does the individual have the TALENTS required to succeed as a sales manager?

During the past nine years I have examined sales assessment test results for thousands of salespeople and sales managers. My conclusion? Top sales performers and top-performing sales managers share many of the same talents. However, there are a handful of characteristics where top-performing sales managers differ from top-performing salespeople. For example:

Top-performing sales managers have slightly higher scores for Verbal Skill, Verbal Reasoning and Numeric Reasoning.

Top-performing sales managers are slightly more Assertive, but they are also slightly more Manageable, have a slightly more positive Attitude and are slightly less Independent.
But, probably most significant difference is that Financial/Administrative (which indicates the individual’s interest process, procedure, administration and financial tasks) is one of the top three interests for top-performing sales managers, whereas 80% of top sales performers have very little interest in these activities. I feel this is a key differentiator because the sales management methodology I teach requires a manager to be willing to:

Hold salespeople accountable for following a predictable, repeatable sales process

Frequently and consistently inspect the quantity and quality of their salespeople’s activities (especially for new salespeople and those who are not performing up to standard)

Analyze sales opportunity pipeline reports, profit and loss statements and other data and reports
If managers are willing to do these things, they can create a predictable and repeatable sales culture that can be scaled rapidly. If they are NOT willing to do these things, they are likely to suffer 80/20 sales team performance, where a small fraction of the salespeople produce most of the sales results and successes are hard to replicate.

2. WHY are they interested in being promoted?

My opinion is that the desire to be promoted is often implanted in us by our parents, other adults and educational institutions. This makes perfect sense, as in many (if not most) career paths the only way to make more money and enjoy more perks is to earn promotions. However, in sales this is usually NOT the case!

If you are a top-performing salesperson, often you will take a pay CUT if you accept a promotion to management. That is certainly what happened to me when I was promoted to sales management in 1991. I walked away from a $6 million pipeline that would have paid me hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for the next several years. While I still earned a six-figure income as a manager, my income was a fraction of what it would have been had I remained a salesperson.

When a salesperson is considering a promotion to management, I advise that they make a very sincere effort to identify the reasons why the idea of being promoted is attractive to them. I also suggest that they give some thought to the following realities:

Money: Unless you eventually make it all the way to executive management, chance are you will earn LESS as a manager than you would earn by remaining a top-performing salesperson

Attention: As a manager you no longer get to be the star. Instead, you need to shift your focus to helping the members of your sales team succeed.

Administration: As we saw in the first section of this article, a key component of being a successful sales manager is frequently and consistently inspecting the quantity and quality of your salespeople’s activities. How do you feel about doing this kind of work…over and over again?

Training/Coaching: How much interest do you have in training, coaching and mentoring others? How do you feel about participating in repetitive role plays, which is a critical component of changing your salespeople’s behaviors?
Sometimes I hear salespeople say they would like to move to management because they are tired of the day-to-day grind of prospecting and managing sales cycles, or they are tired of the ups and downs in income, or they really enjoy coaching and mentoring others, or they would like to eventually have an opportunity to contribute in other areas of the company. These are all perfectly valid reasons, and there are many more.

All I ask is that you take the time to verify that you (or your salesperson) are pursuing a promotion to management for the RIGHT reasons and that you (or your salesperson) are ready to deal with the realities of being a sales manager.

3. What sales management TRAINING will they receive?

Just because someone is an effective salesperson does NOT mean they will automatically be an effective manager. There are specific skills and concepts that a new sales manager needs to learn if they are going to be successful. These include:

Sales Recruiting

Sales Compensation

Sales Training and Coaching

Sales Activity Inspection
What is your plan for teaching your new sales manager how to perform these critical activities?

Conclusion

Sometimes it DOES make sense to promote a top sales performer to a sales management role. However, before you promote, please be sure to give careful thought to the following questions:

Does the individual have the TALENTS required to succeed?

WHY are they interested in being promoted?

What TRAINING will they receive?
If you are not confident in your answers to these three questions, you may be on the verge of making a very expensive mistake. Not only will you lose the promoted salesperson’s individual production; if they fail as a manager they are likely to leave your company and go sell for someone else!

On the other hand, if a salesperson has the talents required to succeed, if he or she is pursuing promotion for the right reasons, and if he or she will receive training in critical sales management skills and concepts, the stars are aligned for a successful…and profitable…promotion!

©2011 Alan Rigg

Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of “How to