Are you a new sales leader? Then you know the transition from sales professional to sales manager can be tough. Overnight, you’ve gone from someone who was responsible for your own performance to running an entire sales team. There are a lot of new sales manager skills to learn.
You’ve got to shift your priorities when you move into a leadership position. Some sales managers struggle at the management level and must return to a sales role—or, worse, get burned out and leave the company. Others overcome common mistakes early and become inspiring leaders of high-performing sales teams.
The difference often lies in correcting the five biggest mistakes new sales managers make.
Mistake #1: You Keep Selling
The adrenaline rush of a big sale is often what keeps sales professionals in the business. When you move into the role of sales manager, it can be tempting to keep closing deals to get that feeling and the compensation that often comes with it.
This is a mistake because, as the sales manager, you are the critical multiplier for your team. Your goal is now to lead the sales team through the sales process to achieve their sales targets and contribute to the company’s overall revenue and growth.
You’re the coach with the strategic view of how the team is working together and all the deals in progress. If you’re focused on making your own sales, you aren’t helping your sales professionals close theirs.
The Fix: If you’re still prospecting or managing accounts, stop. If your organization requires you to have your own clients, make extra efforts to prioritize sales coaching and building trust with your team. Use the time you would have spent servicing your own accounts to instead empower your sales professionals to reach their goals.
Mistake #2: You Treat Your Reports Like Friends
One of the toughest challenges of the transition into management is its impact on relationships. Your former friends, colleagues, and friendly competitors suddenly become your direct reports.
Many new sales managers avoid rethinking these relationships and continue to treat their employees as friends. This is a mistake because the sales manager’s job is not only to cheer people on when they succeed, but also to hold them accountable and challenge them to grow.
The Fix: Now that you’re the boss, be open about the effect your promotion will have on your relationships. Communicate to your team early on that your primary goal is to see them succeed—and that means making hard decisions. Let them know you’ll support them, but also challenge and correct them. Sometimes this will make them unhappy with you. Be okay with that.
Mistake #3: You Fix Problems Instead of Coaching
As a sales professional, you are highly skilled at the art and science of selling. That’s why you got promoted. You cringe when you see someone making mistakes that could jeopardize a sale. It’s easy to yield to the temptation to step in and “rescue” every situation.
This helicopter management approach is a mistake because, when you “fix” the problem, you rob your sales professionals of the opportunity to learn to do it themselves. Sales coaching is just one of the critical skills of your new role.
Just as you would never see a football coach step onto the field to make a play when their team screws up, so you should never step in and make the play on behalf of your team.
The Fix: When you feel the temptation to step in, look at the bigger picture. You may be able to resolve this one situation, but what happens when you’re not there? Instead, focus on helping your sales professionals understand the mistake and learn the skills they need to do better in the future.
Make it a point to track the high-gain activities your reps should be engaging in throughout the sales process, so there’s time to intervene with sales coaching before it’s too late.
Mistake #4: You Talk Too Much
Most successful sales professionals know that talking too much in a sales meeting can spell death to the deal. Yet, once promoted to sales management, these same people often talk at their sales professionals when they should be asking questions and listening harder.
The Fix: Great managers know how to ask questions that draw sales professionals out and lead them to greater understanding and ownership of the process. Develop a list of effective open-ended questions to use, then spend less time talking and more time listening.
Bonus: when your reps know what questions you’ll be asking them, they’ll learn to come prepared with the answers.
Mistake #5: You Spend All Your Time at a Desk
While some sales managers spend all their time swooping in on their direct reports’ accounts, others make the opposite mistake. They seclude themselves in an office and bury themselves in data. Pipeline reports, win rates, and forecasts become the focus.
Just as a football coach wouldn’t get on the field and make the play, neither does a football coach sit in an office and manage by emails. Sales coaches shouldn’t either.
The Fix: Get out and spend face-to-face time with your sales professionals. Prioritize your one-to-one sales coaching sessions. Get to know your team’s goals, their strengths, and their weaknesses.
Take the time to coach them on sales strategy, planning, and specific skills they could improve on. You can have an open-door policy and still manage your time effectively—you just need to communicate clearly and set boundaries.
Overcoming Common Mistakes New Sales Managers Make
The role of the sales leader is one of the toughest in the business, and there are many pitfalls and distractions. You know you need to focus on building a more productive team. But that job can feel like an uphill battle, even if you avoid the biggest mistakes.
Find out more about how The Brooks Group Sales Leadership Accelerator can help you build, maintain, and motivate a top-producing sales team.
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The 10 Most Common Sales Management Mistakes
Just like in sales, sales management requires training. In this white paper, we’ve outlined the 10 mistakes we see sales managers (veterans and rookies alike) making.
