Top Sales Manager Blog

I got to thinking. There are a lot of sales managers out there struggling to find decent work in an industry threatened by economic and financial collapse. It’s got to be the worst time to graduate and to start looking for a job.

Or is it?

I remember the beginning of my sales career as being full of rookie mistakes, common mistakes, and all kinds of mistakes. Simply put, it didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped. But during my first full year I was lucky enough to have a good boss and mentors who helped shape me into what I am today.

You don’t become successful by thinking it. You need a plan. There has to be action.

So I sat down and wrote down five concepts that I hoped would steer my career into a new direction. That year I made my best money, and I earned even more after that.

I’ll share what I wrote right here.

They are…

1. Trust. Sales is about forming relationships. And what is the most essential ingredient of any relationship? Trust. Get your sales people to trust you, so you can trust them to produce great results in return.
2. Empowerment. This is important if you want your sales people to not ask your advice on every other little thing. Teach your sales people to think like a leader and to figure things out themselves. This way they perform better, and all the credit goes back to you, coach!
3. Accountability. You can’t learn to take responsibility if you don’t make yourself accountable for anything. As a sales manager, set the bar higher, and keep raising it over time. Implement a “no excuses” policy and make this clear to your sales team right from the beginning.
4. Release of Control. Learn to ease on your position title as “sales manager” and slowly shift the power to your sales people from time to time. Soon they’ll learn to take charge and be responsible, even when you’re not around.
5. Hire talented sales people. Don’t let your ego get in the way of what’s best for the team. Hire superior talent, guide them, support them, and then unleash them out in the field to do what they were born to do.

I compiled these tips some years ago. But don’t get the wrong idea about it. These five concepts very much still apply today, and I bet they’d still make sense to a rookie sales manager a few years from now. 

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Post a comment below and tell me what great secrets you learned from some of your mentors in the past that had helped you trigger explosive results from your sales reps.

Filed under: Hiring, Leading by ralphburns