Sales Management

Sales Management Training

Sales management has some very real differences. First, unlike support roles, operations or other roles within a company, every sales person is on the front lines and must produce solid revenue consistently–or all the other positions go away. They are the “dad’s” that fight the daily battle in the work force, and many others are equally valuable, but they are the support teams that make sure sales has something to sell, gets fed and reved up to fight each day.

One of the most difficult challenges for a sales person is staying motivated to push against constant rejection. Most roles in a company do not get beat up every single day (ok, tech support–or if they have a bad manager), nor do they live and die on what they have to “kill” each day–but this is also why sales pays so well, since most folks can’t handle the rejection or even the thought that they are unemployed at the end of every day.

Because of these differences, salespeople must be managed very differently. There job can be tedious (call after call after call) so they need to make it fun (the Game of Work), they need to set hard goals, but also need soft goals to keep themselves on target (baseline goal setting).

They also need lots of help with model and coaching calls from others who have discovered the roadmap to success, and most especially–they need to stay positive and motivated (or they would die a horrible sales persons death) and know that the company appreciates their efforts (emotional bank accounts). These are not skills often found in the normal manager, which is why sales management is different, more concentrated and dynamic (when was the last time anyone in the non-sales office had a “pie in the eye” contest), but can also be much more rewarding.

Following are categories that will help you with your sales management:

Sales Management Topics (click link to jump to section)

• Introduction & Policies
• Situational Leadership
• The Game of Work – Sales by the Numbers
• One Minute Manager Concepts
• Field Coaching – The Coaching Call & Model Call
• Baseline Goal Setting
• Emotional Bank Accounts
• Sales Team Motivation
• Sales Management Resources

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Recommended Sales Management Books

• Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The all-time classic for working with people–get it, learn it, live by it.
• The One Minute Manager. Entertaining, classic and timeless.
• Putting The One Minute Manager To Work. Shows how to implement the principles.
• Leadership and The One Minute Manager. Introduces the PAR, PIP, etc. Classic.
• One Page Management. Wow – I wrote a white paper about this same concept. The defacto for managerial reports.
• The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey. If it says One Minute Manager… just get it.
• Gung Ho. How to make your teams buy in on your vision–so everyone is pulling.
• One Minute for Myself.  It’s all about balance.
• The One Minute Manager Gets Fit. Yep, FAT doesn’t help you succeed.
• Raving Fans. Same author as OMM – classic.
• Situational Leader. The original book that started the One Minute Manager series (classic)
• The Game of Work. This book changed my entire career in sales and applies else ware (all about the numbers)
• Dress For Success. Ultimate classic. Think “class” and you do well every time.