There is a fine line between Sales Management and Salesmanship; a line that is often shifting according to circumstance. If you are going to maximize growth and profitability in your organization that means that the person you select as your sales manager must become an effective leader.

Finding the right person to fill the sales management role is a common quandary for most businesses. It can be especially challenging when a decision is based strictly on sales territory performance without regard for the specific skill sets required to lead a sales force.

Different Skill Sets

It is an undisputable fact that different skill sets are required to become a successful sales manager as compared to being a successful sales person. Selling is a profession that requires professionals. Managing a group of professionals with the type of personalities required to succeed in sales is no easy task. Yet, in my humble opinion, it is probably the most important management position you can hold in a company. Sales management holds the key to meeting company objectives. Effective sales management builds the platform for success. Sales people are not the easiest group in the company to manage. If they were they would not be sales people.

Selling is not easy. It takes a special talent, self motivation, self discipline, a passion to succeed and the ability to accept rejection. It also requires a fairly big ego. This is not a bad thing. In the mind of many sales people sales success is all about them. They thrive on the attention, the spotlight and they suck up the accolades like a sponge.

In contrast, effective sales management is not about the sales manager at all. It's all about his ability to maximize the efforts and success of the sales force.

Let's Face Reality

The reality of the situation is simple. The majority of sales people are not managed well. An effective sales manager will be process oriented. They understand that success in sales is driven by best practice and best practice is built around process. Sales effectiveness depends on predictable and repeatable best practice. An effective sales manager will create the kind of culture that negates the inherent aberration by sales people for process, structure, detailed and documented action planning.

Effective sales managers must have skills beyond those required to produce increased sales.

Skills of the Professional Sales Manager

• Highly Self Motivated
• Optimistic
• Excellent Leadership Skills
• Skilled at Coaching & Mentoring
• Calculated Risk Taker
• Listens Well - 80% of the Time
• Plans Well & Communicates Plans Effectively
• Ability to Think Outside the Box Because They Know What Goes on Inside the Box
• Always Lives Up to Commitments
• Always On Time With Assignments 
• Exceptional Positive Attitude (Does Not Whine or Make Excuses)
• Excellent Communicator
• Inspires Excellence in Others
• Strong Social and Interpersonal Skills
• Honesty & Integrity
• Embraces Accountability -Self and Sales Personnel
• Develops Trust and Respect by Showing Trust &  Respect for Employees

Sales Managers Must Inspire Others to Greatness

Effective sales managers inspire others to greatness. We all have egos but effective sales managers control their own egos and recognize how to utilize their understanding of people to inspire peak performance. They are confident and have high self esteem without demonstrating arrogance. Effective sales managers cannot be ego driven but they must command a presence when they walk into the room. They are not only compassionate but they are passionate about success and they make every effort to coach and mentor their team.
 
Their attitude about success is the primary ingredient to success and developing that right attitude is a skill set that can be learned. It requires putting the customer's needs and the sales person's needs ahead of personal needs and yes, often putting the customer's needs ahead of company's needs.
 
An effective sales manager will build enough relationship equity with their sales force to be able to provide effective coaching and mentoring in reviewing the sales person's activities. They understand that you must manage activities and measure results. This coaching and mentoring process includes buddy calls, monthly territory reviews that provide support and resources to leverage individual sales talent.

Leadership skills are extremely important to effective sales management. The ability to recognize the need to adapt your management style not only to individual situations but also to the individual is a key to gaining respect and trust from the sales force. This is a learned skill. Failure to seek out leadership skills training can be detrimental to success. A prerequisite to success in sales management is the ability to recognize talent and develop that talent. An effective Sales Manager will recognize talent and is willing to help develop that talent to reach its highest potential. They also prune the garden effectively. This means they hire well but fire even better.

Create a Formal Sales Management Training Program

Failure to formalize a development program for sales management is a big mistake. Sales management skills can be learned. Sales people promoted to sales management often fail for a variety of reasons. Most of those failures revolve around the lack of key skills related to leadership. They generally are very good at selling but lack the leadership skills to maximize the success of their sales force selling. Success requires the development of all the skills listed for the professional sales manager.

Most of the time when a company promotes a sales person to sales manager they fail to include training on how to become an effective leader. You wouldn't think twice about promoting someone to be a fork lift driver without training them on how to drive the forklift. Yet, everyday in business we promote sales people to sales manager without a minute of consideration given to providing leadership training.

Specific activities of an effective sales manager are significantly different than those of a regular salesperson. The skill sets required to effectively lead a sales team will not come to a recently promoted sales manager by accident. It is dangerous, risky and costly to assume that the skills are there just because the person was very successful in their territory. They need training in leadership.

Here's my Challenge to You

Ask yourself these questions. Do you have the right person in the job of sales manager? Are they a leader or were they simply your best sales person? Do they have real leadership skills?
Managing a group of professionals with the type of personalities required to succeed in sales is no easy task. So if you have done everything possible to support, educate and train your sales manager and they just aren't effective in leading the sales force, you may have to change sales managers.
 
Sales management holds the key to meeting company objectives. Effective sales management must build the platform for success. Sales people are not the easiest group in the company to manage. If they were they would not be sales people. Selling is not easy. It takes a special talent, self motivation, self discipline, a passion to succeed and the ability to accept rejection. As I mentioned previously, the reality of the situation is simple. The majority of sales people are not managed well.
 
Today our sales environment leans toward a more multifaceted atmosphere; sales managers must become strategists with a plan. This plan requires more knowledge about the business, better relationships, better solutions and effective leadership. So…. Burn this thought into your brain.
 
Just because a salesperson is extremely successful in the field, success at sales   management is not automatic.
 
It takes leadership. And being the leader of a professional sales force is one of the most challenging leadership positions in business today.
 
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www.ceostrategist.com  – Sign up to receive "The Howl" a free monthly newsletter that addresses real world industry issues. – Straight talk about today's issues. Rick Johnson, expert speaker, wholesale distribution's "Leadership Strategist", founder of CEO Strategist, LLC a firm that helps clients create and maintain competitive advantage. Need a speaker for your next event, E-mail rick@ceostrategist.com.