When good isn't good enough

Do you have what it takes to be one of the best sales managers in distribution today? Compare your management skills against these traits of top sales managers.

by Richard Vurva

Great athletes seldom develop into great coaches or managers. Magic Johnson was one of the NBA’s most exciting players but fizzled when he exchanged his basketball jersey for the suit and tie of a Los Angeles Lakers manager.

The same can be said about sales managers. Good salespeople don’t necessarily make good sales managers. The skills required to manage a sales staff are different from the abilities needed to develop strong customer relationships. Which skills are most important? Here are five key traits that every great sales manager needs to succeed.

Communicator
The best sales managers know how to clearly communicate their goals and objectives to salespeople. Moreover, they recognize that what they say and do has a major impact on employees.

Whether you know it or not, when you walk in the door every morning, you immediately influence your company’s culture, writes James Ambrose in his book “Five Fundamentals for the Wholesale Distribution Branch Manager.”  How you greet each person affects your company’s culture. You could be the source of morale problems and not know it. Think about your conduct. Do you frequently make sarcastic comments to people? Do you swagger around the building, making sure everyone knows you’re the boss?

“You have to be committed to fixing your communications style if you think it might be an issue, or improve your style if you want to be a better business leader,” Ambrose says.

Honesty and integrity are the two most important characteristics that any sales manager must have, says Chris Union, president of industrial sales for Hagemeyer North America Inc., headquartered in Atlanta.

“When a sales manager tells his salespeople something, they need to know it’s true. They can’t worry if he has an ulterior motive or if there are any politics behind it or a hidden agenda. Sales managers must state the facts. That’s what people need in order to follow,” he says.

Planner
Great sales managers know how to establish a realistic sales plan and what it will take to implement the plan.

“A good manager knows his company’s goals and objectives and can translate that into actions that salespeople need to take to achieve those objectives,” says Don Envick of the industrial distribution program at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

Great sales managers work closely with their sales team to develop a strategy for approaching key target accounts within their territories. The strategy should be more than a vague goal to “grow sales by 20 percent.”  A strategy should include specific, measurable actions, such as maintaining gross margin dollars of no less than 25 percent on preferred supplier lines, contacting two new accounts each quarter, introducing the company to additional decision-makers within existing accounts, and adding their names and contact information to the database.

“Review the goals with salespeople at least on a monthly basis,” says Rick Johnson of Indian River Consulting Group in Melbourne, Fla. “The monthly review is the most important thing a sales manager can do. If he’s poor at doing that, then he’s going to be a poor sales manager.”

Leader
Good sales managers take time to learn the art of management and develop strong leadership skills. They accept responsibility for their team’s failures and successes. Instead of blaming the economy or other outside factors for poor results, good sales managers don’t let external influences determine their team’s future, says Union.

“Good managers don’t take no for an answer. No is just an obstacle, it’s not the end. You’ll never accomplish anything if you let the first no stop you,” he says. Good sales managers strive to understand the issues in order to help salespeople find new ways to get results.

The best sales managers have the ability to convey bad news in such a manner that when they’re done, people feel good about it and want to change their behavior to improve their situation, Union says. “After a meeting with their manager, a salesperson should leave feeling good about the opportunity to improve that which lies ahead, not feel like they’ve been beaten down,” he says.

If the problem turns out to be poor performance by a salesperson, a good manager addresses the issue head-on.

“Too often, sales managers wait too long dealing with an ineffective or problem salesman. As a result, they get poor results, it ends up affecting morale, other salespeople recognize it and the sales manager loses respect,” says Johnson. Give a person every chance to improve, but you also need to know when to draw the line and let a person go, he says.

Cheerleader
Sales managers need to have empathy and understand the challenges salespeople face. When times are good, the challenge is handling all of the business. When times are bad, it’s how to make the most of existing business relationships, says John Carroll of Unlimited Performance, a sales consultant in Mt. Pleasant, S.C.

“In each case, the sales manager needs to be understanding enough to say, ‘I feel for you, I understand what you’re going through. Let’s talk through what your challenges are.’  Then, the manager helps the salesperson work through them,” Carroll says.

One way managers can help salespeople lift their spirits is by providing an historical perspective, says Envick. Young salespeople may be experiencing a recession for the first time and don’t know how to react.

“Sales managers should remind their sales forces that business goes through cycles. Let them know we’ve been through tough times like this before,” he says. “If history repeats itself, we’ve got a decade of growth to look forward to. It’s not a bad spot to be in because when it does get better, we should have a long run of good years.”

Teacher
Good sales managers have a sincere desire to help their charges attain success. Like great coaches, they don’t just bark orders and expect people to follow, they take players out on the field and offer instruction.

“They offer counseling right after a sales call to say, ‘Here’s what you did great, here are the things you need to work on.’  They help them think through solving problems,” Union says.

When a salesperson comes in with a problem, good sales managers don’t offer a solution and send them on their way. The sales manager asks enough questions so that, by the time they’ve finished talking, the salesperson has figured out the answer.

When traveling with salespeople, managers should refrain from making the sale themselves, adds Carroll. Be an observer. Provide helpful, positive feedback, so the next time the salesperson can do a better job.

“Sales managers need to keep their selling skills sharp. There are additional skills involved, but if you lose that selling ability, you lose a great opportunity,” says Carroll. “A sales manager who can make the internal sale to the sales force and convince team members to make positive changes in their approach is as valuable to the organization as anyone.”

This article originally appeared in the November/December '02 issue of Progressive Distributor. Copyright 2002.

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