Making the leap from salesperson to sales manager can be an exciting yet challenging time for any sales professional. The transition from managing your own sales pipeline to managing other sales professionals can be quite a steep learning curve. Here are a few tips to help out.
Get to Know Your Sales Team
Not every sales person on your team is going to be motivated the same way (or in the same way that you are motivated). It’s important to take the time to understand how each of your salespeople operate best. Weekly one-on-one meetings, at least to start, are a great way for sales managers and their teams to get a better understanding of each other. This will help you to get the most out of each and every one of your salespeople and ultimately help you all achieve your individual and collective goals.
Learn to Delegate
One of the biggest challenges new sales managers face is learning how to delegate. When you get into your new role, you’re going to have a lot of new responsibilities to handle. This means that you will have to learn to delegate some tasks and responsibilities – that you typically would have handled yourself – to your team. This will help to ensure that you’re focusing your limited resources on the most high value tasks, while also empowering your team to take on more responsibility.
Find a Mentor
The transition from salesperson to sales manager can be a lonely road to navigate. You may be missing some of the camaraderie that you had with other sales reps, or having difficulty shifting from managing your own sales pipeline to managing people. Luckily, these are all things that every other sales manager has had to encounter. Find a mentor to help you navigate some of the common pitfalls new sales managers face and help you to be as effective as you can in your new role.