Sales Manager Core Competencies

Sales Manager Core Competencies – Sales management is not easy and most sales managers do not have the necessary skills. Unique sales DNA and talent make it difficult to manage a team of sales people. However, sales managers are critical to the success of a sales department. Sales leaders need to identify sales managers who can increase sales by fulfilling their responsibilities as sales managers. Whether the sales manager decides that psychological assessments will not help, either through individual analysis or through a thorough evaluation of the sales force. They need a sales-specific assessment to determine what their managers’ current skills are and what they need to work on. The Objective Management Group surveyed 43,000 sales managers. Here I will give you an overview of the skills of successful sales managers. Essential Traits Every Sales Manager Needs Sales Manager Skills Sales Manager Skills Ability to Motivate Sales People Ability to Retain Sales People Ability to Recruit New Sales People Pipeline Management Skills Relationship Building Skills Sales Process Skills CRM Skills Social Selling Skills No Application Required Ability to control emotions Possesses supportive beliefs Possesses a supportive buying cycle Ability to talk about money Desire to be a successful sales manager Ability to commit to success in sales management Positive attitude Ability to take responsibility Strong motivation Great sales managers possess the majority — if not all. — from it. I should note that the first 10 skills are usually easier to learn with the help of coaching sales leaders as well as formal training, while the last 10 skills involve a sales manager’s DNA and desire to manage sales people. The last 10 are more difficult. Difficulty finding and learning or learning. 20 Skills of Sales Managers There are 20 basic technical skills of sales managers. Ability to Coach Sales People Coaching sales people has become 50% of a sales manager’s role. Coaching is the key to helping your salespeople improve and generate more revenue. Unfortunately, sales managers don’t spend nearly enough time coaching their salespeople, and when they do, the coaching isn’t good. Unfortunately, only 10% of sales managers are good coaches. Sales management may talk about the days of cheerleading, but the ability to motivate one or several sales people to change a process, work harder, step out of their comfort zone, or rally around a goal is even more important. Only 41 percent of sales managers are good at motivating sales people. Holding Salespeople Accountable The ability to hold salespeople accountable to something measurable, usually some predetermined metric, on a daily or weekly basis, gives managers a forward-looking rather than a backward-looking indicator. Allows you to review indicators. . 49% of sales managers can hold their team members accountable. The ability to recruit new salespeople Having the right salespeople in the right roles, being A and B players instead of B and C players, and getting it right when hiring sales reps is increasingly important. It puts sales managers and their ability to hire effectively under the microscope. 49% of sales managers are able to recruit A and B players. Pipeline Management Skills Sales managers who can manage their pipeline can predict the amount of business their sales force will generate in the future. Their job is to ensure that enough business enters the pipeline in the appropriate month. For example, if a sales manager’s June goal is $200,000, has a 30% closing percentage and a four-month sales cycle, $666,667 in potential new business must enter the pipeline in February to guarantee that $200,000 will be there. Closed in June. Only 20% of sales managers are able to manage their pipeline. Ability to Build Relationships Many sales managers build relationships but fail to build relationships. When relationships are built, salespeople feel more comfortable sharing important or even confidential information and are more receptive to coaching. 47% of sales managers are able to build relationships. Closing Skills A sales manager with strong closing skills should allow their salespeople to close most prospects on their first attempt, provided their first attempt is done correctly in the sales process. Warning: Sales managers with strong closing skills need to always keep it under control and keep it hidden from their prospects so they don’t feel threatened. Only 8% of sales managers have the ability to close. Sales Process Skills A more consistent, milestone-focused sales process produces more consistent results. Attempting to sell without following an effective sales process leads to inconsistent results at best. Sales managers must determine what milestones should occur on each call, in what order those milestones should occur, and then make sure they do. In its simplest form, the sales process consists of steps where you move an opportunity from doubtful to potential, in that order, to qualified to closeable. Milestones should then be incorporated into appropriate phases. 38% of sales managers are able to create and follow a sales process. CRM Skills Without a CRM complete with the necessary information, sales leaders and managers are effectively blind to what the performance of the pipeline and individual sales people looks like. A CRM-savvy sales manager lives in and accepts CRM, updates account information at least daily, tracks milestones in the sales process, records all interactions, is a competent CRM user, and has experience with multiple CRM applications. 56% of sales managers have CRM skills. Social Selling Skills Social selling is essential. A sales manager with the ability to use social selling connects with potential customers or clients, generates leads through social selling, is well connected, posts and shares updates for visibility, uses business LinkedIn and Twitter, and has high LinkedIn has a Social Selling Index score. . Only 23% of sales managers specialize in social selling. Ability to not require approval A sales manager does not need to choose his salespeople to be assertive, demanding, and responsible. While the sales manager doesn’t need approval, it allows him to ask the tough questions. While they need approval, it prevents them from doing anything that they think will upset their prospects, clients, customers and vendors. Ultimately, a sales manager who doesn’t have to choose accepts a shorter term because he’s not worried about asking another question, pushing back, or challenging the salesperson or prospect. 62% of sales managers do not need their salespeople’s approval Ability to control emotions When sales managers are able to control their emotions, it helps to listen and ask questions. If they cannot control their emotions, a prospect or salesperson catches them by surprise or objects, they become emotional. Being emotional can mean thinking, analyzing, strategizing, worrying, being creative, or being excited instead of listening to your prospect or salesperson. When sales managers cannot control their emotions, they actually hear their own voice writing the answer, causing them to lose purpose and then gain control of the conversation. 55% of sales managers can control their emotions. Hold Supportive Beliefs When sales managers hold supportive beliefs, they support positive outcomes. As a weakness, beliefs often sabotage results. When sales managers believe they support ideal sales outcomes (such as making timely purchase decisions), they are more successful. Only 27 percent of sales managers hold supporting beliefs. Having a supportive buying cycle When a sales manager has a supportive buying cycle, it supports strategies and tactics for dealing with comparison buyers, price buyers, and undecided prospects. 36% of sales managers have a supportive buying cycle. The Ability to Talk About Money Being able to talk about money supports a sales manager’s ability to have in-depth financial conversations with their salespeople and prospects. Such discussions help them determine how much money their solutions will cost. He also supports his efforts to help prospects “find money” when they “don’t have enough” in the budget. 84% of sales managers can talk about money. Aspires to be a successful sales manager. Does that mean it will happen soon? Strong will, a very important factor in sales and sales management, will provide motivation to implement strategies and tactics that are offensive to them. 91% of sales managers have strong desire. Ability to Commit to Success in Sales Management Strong commitment is a highly desirable strength to achieve greater success in sales management. When commitment is strong, sales managers are more likely to implement these strategies and tactics.