There are a lot of tips on how to be a good sales manager which can help you improve in your role. Improving your own skills is the best way to help your team to gain better results, so it is important to continue your own learning and development. Read on to find out our top tips for being a good sales manager.
1. Recognise what motivates your sales reps
To be a great sales manager, the first thing you need to do is make sure that you know what motivation drives your sales reps. To drive a workforce, you must have an idea of what is encouraging your sales reps to do their best work so that you can use this to inspire them. It may not always just be money that is driving your workforce, so make sure to pay attention to the individuals who work for you in order to work out their strengths as well as what motivates them. This way, you can help your team to play to their strengths.
2. Create teachable moments
As the sales manager, you need to have the ability to share your knowledge with your team. The best way to impart your knowledge to those who work with you is to create moments where they can pick up on this through experience. Rather than simply trying to tell your workers what to do, try allowing them to join you on a call for example. Let them take the lead with a low-risk client so that if anything goes wrong, you can simply help them to learn from their mistakes so that they can develop their skills. These lessons are likely to be much more beneficial in real-life situations.
3. Give feedback often
As with anything, you can only improve when you know what you are doing wrong. It is easy to slip into bad habits and it is important to have regular reminders and feedback in order to guide you in your role. As a sales manager, you should try to share feedback regularly and often to make sure that your reps know what they can improve on. This is also an important thing to do to ensure that the reps feel valued and will continue to work hard for the company. Feeling appreciated can help them to be more motivated and improve the work your team is producing.
4. Consider individuality
As a sales manager, it is likely that you have previous experience as a sales rep. To have progressed in your role, you must have been successful in it and it can be tempting to try to advise your team to take a similar approach to improve. However, it is important to remember that every individual is unique and is likely to have different skills and strengths. It is these that your staff need to play to in order to succeed as sales reps. To improve your team, try to understand and embellish their unique skills rather than forcing them into the route that you took.
5. Keep building relationships
It is just as likely that you have built up a network and a range of contacts while you were a sales rep. As a sales manager, it is important to continue growing this network and building on your contacts. Keep in contact with those you have established relationships with too. The skills that you use to build these relationships are also useful when it comes to maintaining a happy workforce and encouraging your team to continue to devote time and effort to their work.
In order to be a good sales manager, there are a lot of skills that you need. The best way to help your staff is to develop your own skills and one of the most efficient ways to do this is through a sales director service. At Sales Geek, we provide a wide range of services to not only develop and grow your own skills, but also your team’s skills and your business. Get in touch today to see how we can help you.
