Integrated Sales Leadership
It is an all-too-common story: A top-flight salesperson is promoted to sales manager. The organisation soon discovers, however, that the skills and perspectives that made this person a top salesperson are not contributing to success as a sales manager, and may in fact be contributing to the lack of success.
Managing the Process, Leading the People
Why do Good Salespeople Fail as Sales Managers?
Many of the perspectives and skills a salesperson acquires in developing an effective sales approach are inconsistent with the perspectives, skills, and environment of a sales manager. The accompanying table shows some of the major differences.
As a result of these differences, some sales managers fall back on old sales behaviours. They become "heroic managers" and start directly managing client relationships at the first sign of trouble. As a result, these sales managers don't add unique value to the organisation and may even undermine their salespeople's feeling of confidence, credibility with customers, job satisfaction, and connection to the organisation.
What is the Cost of Poor Sales Management?
The cost of having an ineffective sales manager goes way beyond just the cost of hiring and training that manager. For example, in one large Pharmaceutical company, senior managers calculated the costs of a single bad district manager as "in the millions!" The costs this company identified included:
- Loss from transitioning the customer base: Bringing in another salesperson to handle the manager's former accounts almost always results in some stalling or revenue reduction from these accounts.
- Salesperson attrition: If a high-performing salesperson sees that a manager will not help him or her in building business, that salesperson will move quickly to either another sales division or another company.
- Reduced salesperson effectiveness: When managers take a Heroic Manager approach, or provide limited guidance, many salespeople will become de-motivated. Some will stop selling, while others will let the manager sell for them.
- Loss of good will in the marketplace: As salespeople leave and customers begin dealing with a string of "temporary salespeople," customers lose faith in the supplier.
- Difficulty in hiring: Replacing salespeople who leave becomes harder and more expensive as the reputation of that manager becomes more widely known.
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