who, yesterday, were your friends and peers. If you maintain the same type of personal friendships, it puts you in an awkward position. “As a leader, you have to ac- cept that relationships are going to change. Acknowledge that, when your salespeople go out for a beer after work, they are generally go- ing to talk about work issues. Those are things they probably won’t feel comfortable talking about with you anymore in that type of setting. Admit to yourself that this is just the way it is, and work on developing your integrity as a leader and earning respect. You want to create a good work environment, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be friends with everyone on your staff.” According to a sales director for a midsized advertising agency, sales managers owe it to their staff to make the transition from the old to the new as easy and painless as possible. “New sales managers coming into a position have to find an appropri- ate way to ease the transition. They have to let their sales staff know that they’re in this position not because the previous guy screwed up, but because upper management decided to take this company in a specific direction – and their experience can help the company reach those goals,” he explains. “Sales managers promot- ed from the ranks also need to clear the air with their staff about why they were promoted and dispel any rumors that may be floating around. “If you’re working in a smaller com-
pany, this may be as easy as taking the staff out to lunch during the first couple of weeks. Get questions and concerns out of the way and start out on a fresh sheet of paper. If you’re new to the company, people want to know who you are, what you did be- fore, and whether they are still going to have a job after the next couple of weeks. Once you get everything out of the way, you begin to establish rap- port with your salespeople.
14 | JULY 2015 SELLING POWER © 2015 SELLING POWER. CALL 1-800-752-7355 FOR REPRINT PERMISSION.
“The essence of a good sales manager is to have fundamentally good people skills. Understand how to lower the barriers of resistance and develop a relationship with someone. You might be asked, ‘Who are you to tell me to do this? What’s your experience in this industry?’ You can reply, ‘No question about it, I need to learn more about this indus- try. Tell me what you think we should do about this and why.’ “Empowering individuals can disarm resentment; it shows you care about them and their opinions. Also, it sets the stage for better team playing. Happy employees make for happy companies. Sales management is relationship marketing in its purest form. It’s about developing a relation- ship with other human beings, and you need to be able to listen, set an example, motivate, inspire, show the way, and lead.” According to the vice president of sales for a California-based technol- ogy company, “First, newly promoted sales managers should make a list of all the skills and activities that made them successful as salespeople. Next,
they should make a list of all the skills and activities they need to become good managers and then get the ap- propriate training.”
He encourages new sales manag- ers to recognize and keep in mind that their job now is to manage people – not to rush out and make sales. “It’s only natural for new sales managers to have a preference for doing what they did best, and that’s selling,” he explains. “If you give new sales managers the choice between going out and selling a prospect or meeting with a dif- ficult salesperson to hammer out a problem, most of them will choose making the sale.
“On the other hand, when it comes to deciding between a technical task (making the sale) or a leadership task (setting goals, managing a depart- ment) a good sales manager will choose the leadership task.” “There are two major compo- nents to being a manager: the first is actually managing and the sec- ond is leadership,” says a corporate trainer. “In order to manage, manag- ers need information. I encourage
VIDEO: CBTNEWS ROCKS THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY – WITH JIM FITZPATRICK
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