Sales management isn’t easy and most sales managers don’t have the necessary skills.

Managing a team of salespeople with a unique sales DNA and competencies makes it difficult to handle. Yet, sales managers are critical for the success of a sales department.

Sales leaders need to identify sales managers who can increase sales by executing their responsibilities as sales managers.

To improve the team’s sales development, a sales manager must first understand the crucial importance of team meetings and coaching and then, dedicate more than 50% of their time to these activities. Depending on the objective of the meeting, coaching can be practiced through various approaches: pre-meeting strategy, post-meeting briefing, funnel review, or even group coaching.

Though co-development is practiced as a group, it differentiates itself from coaching insofar as the knowledge doesn’t pass from the master to the pupil, but rather between each member of the group.

Getting promoted to sales manager is an ambition for many sales representatives, but the functions are very different.

While the main roles and responsibilities of sales managers are often well known, some implications are less well known, if at all. Of course, you need to have as clear a vision as possible about your future role to get off to a good start.

What do you need to know before getting promoted to sales manager?

As President, CEO or VP of sales, you must hold regular meetings with your sales managers, regardless of their level of competence.

These conversations and the questions you ask will keep you informed of the current state of your sales force, while at the same time provide an opportunity to supervise and coach your sales managers.

However, to get the right answers, you must know what the right questions are, and at what moment to ask them. Here are the questions every business leader should ask their sales manager, on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis.

First of all, what is a Sales Manager?

It’s someone who has representatives report back to them. In other words, a Sales Manager who has no reps reporting back to them is not a manager. Some organizations will want to give someone the title of Sales Manager to add more weight to a person’s role when in reality they are a salesperson.

Other titles for this position are:

• Sales Manager
• Sales Director
• Sales Executive
• Sales and Marketing Director
• Sales Manager (B2C)