I have mentioned this many times. The job of a sales manager is one of the toughest occupations in the world. As with any job, part of success is skill and knowledge and part is the internal components of the individual.

effective sales managers do well for many different reasons; Similarly, unsuccessful sales managers fail for many different reasons. If you’re a sales manager or a vice president, ask yourself if any of these issues have ever caused problems for you or others you know.

Mistake #1: The sales manager is not up to the job. As you will discover, there is a formula for determining a salesperson’s ability to perform.

There is no difference with sales managers. Many ineffective sales managers come from the ranks of the sales team. Often they were excellent salespeople who were promoted based on the assumption that if they were good at sales, they would be good at managing sales. Not so.

The skill sets and internal wiring are completely different for the two professions. When a sales manager doesn’t have the ability to perform in that role, they will fail (and often bring the organization down with them).

Mistake #2: A good candidate for a sales management position rarely gets the opportunity. Poor performance in a sales role becomes a roadblock to advancement.

Unfortunately, many of the best sales managers were mediocre salespeople at best. Consider some of the most successful coaches in the NFL. Many of them were very marginal players or never played the game.

They had a greater ability to coach, communicate their vision and lead the team than to participate on the field as a star player. Any sales organization that hires a manager largely based on past sales performance may be missing out on a great sales leader.

Fault #3: The manager lacks a knowledge base. effective sales training. Put anyone in any position and give them no training, and what do you have? You get an employee who remains in a constant state of frustration.

Some managers don’t instinctively know how to fill the role. They must receive the training and resources to understand and recognize what each individual salesperson needs to help them succeed.

A sales manager who has too little dedicated training will significantly hamper the salespeople’s ability to do their jobs and reduce the organization’s competitive advantage.

Failure #4: Lack of an effective sales system.

Soccer teams don’t take the field without a clearly designed play to execute. Without a sales system that all salespeople know and follow, salespeople will make it up as they try to move through the sales process. There is no repeatable formula for success. Sometimes they get the sale, sometimes they don’t. Unfortunately, there’s no way to determine why they did or didn’t make the sale, and counseling then becomes a difficult task.

When the manager does not provide the sales team with a clearly defined sales system, the players will miss out on the opportunities that their competitors will get.

Pitfall #5: Lack of an effective hiring process. Instincts and speculation in the selection process will limit your ability to make the right decision. Just as it’s important to have a sales system for your sales team to follow, it’s also important to use an effective recruiting system.

We provide in-depth assessment tools and experienced analysis of results to help you acquire the best sales talent possible.

Remember, it is the responsibility of sales managers to make the right judgments about hiring new salespeople. And without a defined process that uses objective measures, hiring decisions can end up unsuccessful.

Failure #6 – Lack of understanding of the concept of coaching. If a sales manager sees himself as strictly a manager, It can easily be driven by the administrative functions of the job: administration, spreadsheets, operational issues, etc.

A sales coach, or sales coach, on the other hand, works with salespeople to develop them in individual areas, strategizes with them on tough deals, holds them accountable for their results, provides feedback on performance issues, as well as correct the course before. the month is over to help prevent sales failure.

I’ll say it again. Sales management is hard work. Invest the time and energy in the right tools for the job—effective sales management training, a proven and trusted vendor engagement process or assessment, and a powerful sales system—and you can reap the rewards of a successful sales team. successful.