subject: The Three Crucial Qualities A Sales Manager Has To Have [print this page] The performance of any sales group depends directly on the standard of the sales management. Yet frequently sales supervisors are promoted from within the sales force rather than honing their managerial skills in more junior supervisory positions and then being promoted into more senior management positions. So why should such people, who have not managed anyone except themselves before, be promoted to what is often considered by management training experts to be the toughest of all managerial assignments?
Typically sales people are given promotion into a mangerial job because they have an excellent track record of success in selling their company's products. It is therefore assumed by the organization that such top quality sales people will automatically make a top quality sales supervisor for the team. Regrettably, this is rarely true. This is because the qualities which are needed to be successful in a sales leadership position are very different to those needed to become a super star sales man.
There are 3 essential attributes that the recently promoted sales manager needs to demonstrate that will help them to guide their sales team to success.
The first attribute is the ability to truely enjoy the success of others. This characteristic is just about the opposite of what a great sales man does - that is to get pleasure from and thrive on their very own successes. The reason why this characteristic is necessary is because management is about attaining success by means of the success of others. If the supervisor takes all of the credit for what their sales team has achieved they will very quickly end up with an unhappy and demotivated sales force.
The 2nd characteristic is to possess more of a hands-off than a hands-on approach to selling. This is also contrary to the normal inclinations of the successful sales man or woman - who tend to be what is often known as an activist, and so take pleasure in carrying out everything on their own. Good sales supervisors do need to manage the sales operation, but they have to do so with out constantly interfering with the customers and accounts managed by their own sales men and women. Again, when you get this wrong you'll demotivate your top sales performers.
To realize control in a hands-off fashion requires the supervisor to learn how to establish, and run, an effective sales reporting and information system. It is just such a system that will help you be hands-off whilst still being in a position to handle sales performance issues in a timely and appropriate manner.
Associated with being hands-off is the ability to delegate. Because this is a skill not utilized by sales people, a newly promoted manager should seek out management training to show them how and when to delegate correctly.
The third and final characteristic of a quality sales manager is the ability to motivate and inspire other people. The untrained sales supervisor often assumes that extrinsic rewards, such as a bonus system, are all that is needed for success in the new role. This is simply not correct, as anyone who has attended a management training class will testify.
