Figuring out how to be a good sales manager helps those in management as well as all the staff who report to the sales managers. Before looking at some principles to create improvements, let’s talk about some of the common practices.

 

Common Sales Manager Practices

A sales manager plays the role of leader and educator which is one of their most important roles. The reps who report to a sales manager rely on that person to help guide them as well as lead them toward success.

Unfortunately, a salesperson goes through some initial or new hire training when they start working for a sales manager which is one of the most common educational processes. It’s common for the focus to be mostly on the company the rep works for and the products they’ll be selling in this sales training.

This is pretty basic information which is important, but when a salesperson is only trained on the company and products, that is all they’ll go out and talk about in their sales messaging. A salesperson primarily talks about their company and products when it comes to phone calls, emails, and face-to-face discussions.

This is an “all about me” sales messaging approach, which is the challenge with this and how this impacts how to be a good sales manager. Talking about yourself may not be the best way to grab a prospect’s attention when you’re in the early stages of the sales cycle.

 

An Alternative Approach

What if there is a different route to take and if that helps with how to be a good sales manager? What should we talk about if it may not be best to speak primarily about us and our products?

The answer is, especially in our first conversations, we should focus more on our prospects with our sales messaging. The focus needs to be on the challenges the prospects are experiencing, their goals, the improvements that they would like to see, etc.

If you train your salespeople on the company and products, their natural responses won’t be on the prospect which is the challenge with getting them talking about those areas. Training the salesperson that they need to have that focus and what they need to be saying and asking to maintain that direction is what needs to be done to make sure that there is a shift to focusing more on the prospect.

 

The Impact of Current Processes

That doesn’t come naturally. It is believed by many sales managers that if they hire someone with a good personality as well as good experience, and they train them on their products and company information, and next provide them with a quota and territory, that they’ll naturally put it all together and know what to say and ask.

It can be difficult to determine how to be a good sales manager because this doesn’t naturally happen. Sales resources that improvise when speaking with prospects can be the end result. This might lead to opportunities missed, lower sales performance as well as increased sales staff turnover.

SalesScripter provides sales training, helping with how to be a good sales manager.