Best Practices and Lessons Learned

While sales managers may feel trapped in the middle of the high-performing sales organization, they are not alone. Other parts of the organization, such as training and development, marketing, and senior executives, will have great influence over whether the sales manager will be able to succeed in each of these roles.

It is important to remember that not all competencies, or even a high level of proficiency in each, are required for all situations. In fact, there are many instances when a sales manager only needs to draw on one or two of the roles. Ultimately, however, all three roles are required to optimize the performance of the sales team. Even a team of “superstars” needs a manager who can successfully navigate all three. Our research found that while sales managers typically excel in one of these roles and demonstrate strengths and weaknesses in others, very few managers have mastered all three.

Therefore, an integrated curriculum should be created that helps sales managers bridge from selling skills into these competencies. One organization, well on its way in such development work, began by evaluating their managers using a competency assessment. As a direct result, they initiated a 30 percent turnover in their management team. They simply felt like they had too many of the wrong people in the wrong positions. Sometimes this kind of aggressive restructuring can be beneficial. Other times, it will distract and derail an organization. The key is to have a clear set of standards established such that you can make an accurate assessment of sales manager talent.