When you are looking to boost the performance of your sales team, don’t forget that your sales managers probably need training too…not how to sell but how to motivate and support the sales team in their efforts to better sell solutions. This takes a whole different set of skills.
Go ahead and select a top quality provider to customize and deliver customize and deliver solution selling training for the sales group. The team will learn what they need to succeed at complex sales. They will learn how to build a mutually beneficial relationship with the customer, work together to diagnose and define the problem that needs solving and co-create a plan that is designed to bring real business results. All well and good. But if your sales manager does not know how to create the environment for sales skill adoption and lasting behavior change, little will change.
Managing a sales team is a critical job. Done well, the team will reach their full potential. Each salesperson will have the skills they need, the traits that work in your unique sales culture and the commitment to perform at their best because they care about delivering results for themselves, the team, the company and their clients. Done poorly, the sales team will lack the motivation and commitment required to excel.
Sales managers are a key lever in improving sales performance. Make sure they are equipped to get their job done well. See that they know how to:
- Assess salesperson performance.
The best sales managers know their team members on an individual basis. They know what motivates each salesperson and what each still needs to learn in order to reach their full potential and to help their clients to succeed.
- Coach their team.
Sales coaching has been identified as one of the most critical skill for successful sales managers. Our research shows that consistent sales performance coaching creates a 4-to-1 performance difference. When sales managers can support their team through on-the-spot coaching toward the critical few behaviors that matter most, sales teams perform at an ever higher level.
- Manage the sales pipeline.
The best sales managers keep their eye on future opportunities and know how to prioritize those opportunities for maximum return.
- Forecast with accuracy.
Company leaders rely upon their sales managers for good sales forecasts that help them make sound decisions for the future health of the business. The best sales managers know how to set up a system that incorporates individual sales reports in a way that is realistic and predictive of future revenue.
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