“Ending the Crisis in Sales Management”

by Steve Chriest

There are at least four steps senior managers can take to ease or end the crisis in sales management. First, they must stop the automatic practice of promoting great salespeople to the position of sales managers. Second, they must stop using sales managers to sell to and supervise important customers. Third, senior managers must invest in the education and training of sales managers. Finally, senior managers must allow sales managers to develop themselves and their teams.

The psychological profiling experts have told us for years that when a great salesperson becomes a sales manager, three things usually occur: The company loses a great salesperson, the company gains a mediocre or terrible sales manager, and the company's customers suffer in the transition.

Senior managers can avoid these unfortunate results by first determining whether or not the salesperson under consideration for a promotion to sales manager possesses the aptitude required for management. Once it is determined that the salesperson can perform the duties of a sales manager, the next step is to determine “if” he or she will perform the duties. Ability without desire will result in a bad promotion decision.

The second step senior managers can take to end the crisis in sales management is to stop encouraging or allowing sales managers to play frontline, active roles in selling to and managing key customers. Too many sales managers today are “managers” in name only. Their real function is to act as their company's primary sales point with important customers.

As sales managers continue to perform sales duties, they do not have time to perform the functions of sales managers. Worse, the sales team is robbed of the chance for high-level sales experience and the successes to be gained from interaction with the company's most important customers. The best and brightest sales team members recognize this and plan their exit, seeking employers who are willing to help them gain experience and grow as professionals.

The third step senior managers can take to end the crisis in sales management is to commit time, money and other resources to the education and training of their sales managers. Senior managers must commit to developing comprehensive sales management programs that teach sales managers how to attract, develop and retain top sales performers.

It is baffling that company managers spend so much money training financial managers, various operations managers, production managers, and customer service managers, and spend so little money on training sales managers, who theoretically oversee the company's revenue generating process!

Finally, the crisis in sales management cannot ease or end until senior managers allow their sales managers to do the real work of sales management. The most comprehensive sales management training programs won't work unless sales managers are allowed to execute a sales and sales management process that is designed to support the growth of the sales managers and their team members.

Copyright © 2006 Selling Up TM . All Rights Reserved.

About the author: Steve Chriest is the founder of Selling Up TM (www.selling-up.com), a sales consulting firm specializing in sales improvement for organizations of all types and sizes in a variety of industries. He is also the author of Selling Up , The Proven System for Reaching and Selling Senior Executives. You can reach Steve at schriest@selling-up.com.