Sales vs Management

Your super-star sales rep has done such an outstanding job, you promoted her to a sales management role. Big mistake! The very qualities that made her an exemplary sales rep, single-mindedness, ego, assertiveness, drive to perform are the self-same qualities that will make her a dreadful sales manager.

Superstars like being superstars. That’s part of what made them superstars in the first place, along with the thrill of the chase, the perpetual motion that keeps them looking for the bigger deal, the more impossible close, the satisfaction of saving the sale. In sales management however, the superstar has to take a back seat, usually behind a desk, where they have to put a leash on all that drive.  Worse yet, instead of encouraging a recalcitrant customer to put pen to paper and sign on the dotted line, they’re met instead with a team of sales reps all aiming to be superstars themselves and looking for direction.

By their very nature, the superstar sales rep is a loner with an ego, precisely the qualities you don’t need in a sales manager.  Their job is to lead and motivate, and there’s no place for a big ego or a loner in that.  The job requires someone with leadership, mentoring and follow-through skills, someone who is patient and can develop your salespeople. They’ll need an eye for detail in order to understand the numbers, run the reports and analyse their team’s performance, keeping them on track.

The sales manager who has been promoted through the ranks will need help in changing their skill set so that they can effectively deal with their new role.  At the very least, a Sales Management Training Course should be their first order of business. This will help them make the transition as smoothly and painlessly as possible. It will prepare them for the challenges that are sure to lie ahead and will hopefully head off the clashes which will inevitably follow if they try to manage their sales team in the same way they managed their customers.

Sales is about instant gratification. You make the deal, you get the high. Sales Management is more of a long game, nurturing, mentoring, cajoling and encouraging until your salespeople pay off.  Salespeople, no matter how good they are, need sales managers to inspire them, to give them direction, coach them, coax them and build their skills.