The Sales Performance Suite

The 5 Key Responsibility Buckets of Top Producing Sales Managers

 Twitter |  digg it |   delicious |   StumbleUpon |   LinkedIn |  reddit 

 Cold Month End Sweat!

There have been times, more often than not, when you've likely contemplated, "As a Sales Manager, what really are my key responsibilities? My boss creates fire drills and my sales team seems to need parental guidance! On top of that, I have to hit the numbers!"

All of that seems to "hit you" when you awaken at 2 a.m. in a cold end of month sweat wondering if your new rep updated the CRM with the closed deals so you'd make the quarter-end numbers. Or, when you're busily draining the swamp and avoiding the alligators.....

5 Key Buckets of Responsibility

Across global sales organizations of all sizes and in all market segments, we've seen the key responsibilities of sales manager broken down into 5 buckets:

1. Meet sales/financial goals
2. Build an effective sales team
3. Individual rep development: skill and behavior
4. Express clear communication
5. Provide leadership and direction

Top Performers Have Expectations of You

As a sales manager, your top performers will expect you to:

• Be honest and candid at all times, regardless of how bad the news is.
• Consistently put the good of the organization before that of any individual team member's self-interest.
• Provide frank and clear feedback to achieve success.
• Display integrity by unflagging honesty and keeping the customer's best interests in the forefront.
• Not speak negatively of a team member in front of other team members, but publicly recognize successes.
• Take ownership for mistakes and move promptly to correct them.
• Do what you say and do so consistently; your words must be backed up with actions.
• Allow them to "learn by doing" and avoid "doing it for them."

Remember that in your role as manager, your behavior is looked up to by your direct reports as a model to emulate. For them to grow, they need a leader who exhibits behaviors that are worthy of following.  

All of which, of course, is accomplished by your unyielding focus on building a foundation of integrity and trust.

How do you build that foundation?

A good start is to focus on skill areas which will provide your team the greatest return on their time and offer them the opportunity for the highest levels of professional growth.

Start by downloading our Free Guide to Pre-call Planning. By coaching your team on the valuable techniques found there, you'll be building the basis for long term performance and you'll go back to getting a well deserved and good night's sleep!

Photo credit: dgilder