Why Many Salespeople Fail as Sales Managers

one of the biggest frustrations I hear over and over again and talking to vice presidents and sales is about the high number of peak performing salespeople who once they're promoted into a sales manager role don't achieve the level of success that everybody thought they would it's as incredibly costly for everybody involved for the company they just lost a peak performing sales rep and gained a mediocre manager for the sales rep turned manager well they're frustrated and demoralized because they're working harder than they ever have before but often being told their team isn't producing to the level expected and it's costly for the team as well because they've just seen a peak performing pier become an ineffective boss I write about a number of factors that contribute to why so many great salespeople don't work out as sales managers in my new book the sales managers guide to greatness the core issue however is this what got you here won't get you there many of the sales instincts that contributed greatly to your success as a salesperson can actually your effectiveness as a sales manager let me give you two examples to illustrate this point sales rep instinct number one what I call be the player when a great sales rep goes out to meet with a customer they're like a quarterback in on the playing field we walk into that challenging situation we like to take charge we like to run that meeting but what happens when we take that be the player instinct into a role as a sales manager answer we tend to jump in and solve all the problems one example of this occurs when you're out with one of your salespeople meeting with a customer the sales rep is a couple of minutes into the meeting and we jump in and take over it's as if we're saying move over let the great one take over would think about the message but that sends both the customer and your sales rep you're basically saying I don't trust my sales reps to carry out this meeting not good a better mindset for an effective sales manager is that of an observer you can learn a lot by paying attention to what your people are doing observation is the critical starting point for effective coaching pay attention to the input side of the sales performance equation and you will be a better coach another sales instinct that many sales managers struggle with is avoid conflict the best salespeople know when they design their sales presentations how to prevent objections from ever coming up so in this way great salespeople are actually rewarded for their ability to avoid conflict in the sales process but when you carry that avoid conflict instinct into your role as a sales manager leader problems on your team don't get dealt with and if you don't confront it you condone it and before you know it you've got a mediocre sales team a better leadership mindset is to deal with problems head-on confront bad behaviors in a positive way the sooner you address a negative behavior the less negative emotion is involved for everybody in resolving it so why is it that so many great salespeople struggle as sales managers behavioral science tells us that the most successful people have the greatest difficulty giving up those things that made them successful in the first place and so you want to improve your awareness of the mindset of an effective leader to achieve your full potential understand the sales instincts that made you a great sales rep but replace them with new leadership mindsets and to learn more about the other sales instincts that can destroy effective sales management thinking pick up a copy of my new book the sales managers guide to greatness in your favorite book store you

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Keywords: salespeople, sales leadership, sales training, sales coaching, leadership management, sales reps, Why Many Salespeople Fail as Sales Managers

Id: 5a97S4uyf0M

Length: 4min 30sec (270 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 16 2017