Qualities of a Good Sales Manager
Great sales managers do not just aspire to achieve sales goals, they achieve. A sales manager possesses blends of qualities that he/she utilizes for the best management of sales performance.
They are the critical success factors for the selling firm. A qualified sales manager is a must need to effectively handle sales teams, set clear goals, and strive for achieving desired sales goals.
Previously, the task of a sales manager is just limited to paper management and assigning tasks, but now, they have must manage sales teams, teach them the basics of selling, and optimum utilization of resources is in their hand.
The sales manager has inherent and acquired knowledge, skills, and qualities. Different sales managers may possess different qualities, some of the qualities are mentioned here.
Selling Skill
The first quality a good sales manager possesses is having great selling skills. He should possess the quality of persuading, influencing, and convincing prospects in the course of selling products.
He should have the ability to find potential clients, understand their needs, persuade them rightly, and make them accept his offers. In addition, he should successfully impart his skills to his sales force.
It is quite argued that, if a sales manager does not have the skill on how to sell a prodcut he can’t achieve the firm’s sales goals since every selling firm’s goal is sales maximization and revenue. They need to have the right selling skills, the ability to enforce them, and impart salespeople such skills adequately.
Hire Quality Talent
As they are responsible for the proper functioning of the sales firm, they are also responsible to identify, hiring, training, and retaining quality sales personnel. They need to have talents that best align with the firm’s sales goals,
For hiring quality talent, the manager itself needs to have a professionality in choosing the right salespeople. Meeting the firm’s outlined criteria and recruiting based on upcoming trends may bring the best results in the firm. Having competitive nature and result in oriented salespeople are most important to hire and retain.
Leadership Quality
Today, the sales manager’s job is not in the room and the paperwork they need comes out and leads salespeople by the example. He should be able to lead the organization and people in it in the right way.
He should just not tell how to do rather show by doing it. Positively influence salespeople to achieve common sales goals. Gives clear a map of targets, directs and motivates in the right way in order to get the right goal smoothly and efficiently.
Team Spirit
It is obvious that sales managers manage sales teams in the organization. Sales management (Sales Team ) is the primary task they do.
Just recruiting salespeople can not be achieved a dream, they need to team in the right team. The sales manager should possess the quality of building an efficient team and leading the team in the right way.
A Good Trainer
Sales teams need proper training to make them work best. They should be trained on the latest selling skills, new insights of handling customers’ objections, customer persuasion, and closing sales.
Most importantly, the sales manager should train them about practical utilization of the selling process, how the selling process works, and how to make its parts work better which are prospecting, making an approach, presenting the products, sales closing, and retaining the customers (follow-up).
A Good Communicator
Being a good communicator is also one of the important qualities of a great sales manager. The sales manager’s ability to communicate well with the sales teams helps his sales teams understand the message he wants to convey.
He has to communicate with sales teams regularly, tell them how they are going, and let them express their concerns. In addition to being a good communicator, he also needs to create a good communication environment. Two-way communication: Salespeople should have access to different communication channels to be in a contact with sales managers when they need to.
Active Listener
Great sales managers are also active listeners to what their team members say. Active listening is a fact that determines the effectiveness of the sales manager and builds trust in salespeople.
It is quite clear that nobody wants to repeat what they said already, and when they have to they understood themselves the listener is not active or not interested. Remembering the previous words of the salespeople and appreciating motivates them to give their best.
In addition, active listening helps sales managers to get the actual meaning of the matter and further address issues, and find new solutions.
Motivational Skill
The sales manager should motivate his sales teams to give their best by giving them an attractive reward, giving SMART targets, meeting their expectations, working on their expectations, and so forth.
He should arouse the great desire to work in salespeople. They may get motivated intrinsically and extrinsically. In intrinsic, salespeople are motivated by themselves, and in extrinsic, the sales manager has to apply different financial and non-financial incentives to make them motivated to work.
Technical Know-How
In this 21st century, one of the must-have qualities of a sales manager is to have technical know-how knowledge. He should have know-how knowledge on how technology works, how different sales tools can be utilized optimally.
Since the pace of technological advancement has greatly impacted marketing and selling it needs to be considered very carefully. In fact, 87% of great sales leaders believe that letting sales teams use sales tools and available resources aids to maximize the sales revenue.
Empathy
The sales manager should show human behavior to his sales teams. He must be understood that salespeople are not income streams they are human too. They should be cared for, valued, and understood.
Understanding their life situations, being them for a while, and motivating them to achieve more can bring productivity to the teams.
A Good Researcher
The sales manager should be a good researcher. He should have knowledge on how was the previous selling tradition and how is now. Should be able to differentiate between traditional selling practices and modern selling practices. He should possess the quality to forecast future practices and create a clear road map to realize them.
A Good Planner
Effective planning is all about deciding future actions at the present how, when, where, what, and by whom it is to be done that ensures the achievement of planned goals. The manager should plan clear sales goals that can be achieved within the resources of the firm.
Moreover, he should make a sales plan which is SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.
Embrace Change
Change is an inevitable part of the business. Sooner or later the practices, people’s expectations, technology, and so on have changed and will also change in the future. Great sales managers understand the change, take it as an opportunity, embrace it and step in to achieve more.
The sales manager should see the change as an opportunity, not a threat.
Cofidence
Self-confidence is what makes people believe in you. The sales manager should have confidence in him and the activities he is doing.
He should present sales plans confidently, lead salespeople confidently, the confidence level in his actions let salespeople whether they believe in him or not. To be confident he should be well prepared in his duties and responsibilities, learn new insights regularly since confidence comes from preparation.
Right Personality
Personality is the basic pattern of how people think, feel, and behave, and it is unique to everyone. He should have the right personality, should not discriminate against someone just by his moods, attitudes, and feelings.
He should understand why people think, behave, and feel the way they do. Treat salespeople with a good attitude, good intuition, and lead them by fair judgment.
A Coach
A coach is someone who regularly teaches and guides his/her followers by his knowledge & expertise to better achieve their personal and professional goals. At present, sales teams not just want a sales manager to direct them, they also want a coach who can impart exceptional knowledge to them. Thus, a good sales manager is also a coach.
Resource Utilization
Sales managers are responsible for the utilization of the selling firm’s resources whether it is people, capital, equipment, and machines to achieve sales goals. Good sales managers do not just allocate resources they rather utilize and allocate in a professional way.
Use Social Media
It is quite familiar to all of us how social media has impacted every aspect of our life. It has impacted the selling and marketing practices also. It is seen that 71% of the sales managers set social media as a priority guideline to get more customers, close more sales, and become successful professionally and socially professionally.
Oversee Sales Team
The sales managers should oversee the performance of the sales teams. Just assigning duties to them might not best work. The results need to be watched, evaluated, and improved.
In that course, the sales manager should oversee salespeople’s performance, tell them how they are doing, appreciates their performance, show them how they can bring better results, and so forth.
The Sales Manager has to regularly monitor the performance of his sales teams, show them their results, and find new strategies to implement.
Accountability
One of the important qualities of a good sales manager is also accountability. Accountability is the acceptance of the consequences of actions someone does by themselves. The sales manager should be accountable for his every action and keep also sales teams accountable, motivated, and directed to achieve sales goals.