All good sales management…

look the same. It creates results and has a certain appearance. To care about other individuals in the sales team, in the department, as well as the company’s overall results are the main traits of a good sales manager.

A big heart approach with high affinity and genuine commitment are the basis of all good sales management.  Let’s have a look at the definition of affinity and commitment. Affinity means – a natural liking for and understanding of someone or something. Commitment means – the interest, or the energy a person shows for a subject or a situation. The more interest and energy you put into something, the greater the commitment.

Energy and interest are contagious. All parents who have ever distracted a crying child know this, without the need to know the science behind it. Incidentally, that’s also a good definition of what is “true”. What works in life with expected result, is easy to understand and practice, must reasonably be true.

Just as parent has a naturally high affinity for their children, a sales manager who shows great interest and energy in his commitment to others in a group, can get them to produce significantly more than they previously thought was possible. A sales manager who with commitment and affinity gets others involved and makes them take big steps in their own personal development and ability, also becomes a much appreciated and well-liked sales manager.

With the “Be” resolved above, what does a manager do?
The foundation of all management looks the same. Regardless of if you are managing yourself or an entire company. It’s the ability to:

1. Observe and differentiate a situation
2. Assess the correct action and
3. Perform or have that action performed.

The sales manager’s ability to make correct observations and to differentiate between right and wrong, is without a doubt, clearly most important. Simply because all decisions and actions that follow, are a direct result of that ability.

What will we “Have” in the end as a product of good sales management?

A good sales manager will realize plans in time and with the expected results. In other words, it is in the nature of the job to:

1. Plan the work, staff, and activities.
2. Make these plans come true on time and with the planned result.

Successfully doing so gives a good sales manager the ability to predict the future, How cool is that?

With a plan to lead the business forward with, the manager and staff can act. The opposite – to react, is an unplanned action. Without a plan where activities are planned, performed, and completed successfully towards a goal set out by management with the ”big picture”, activities take place randomly in response to chance or surprises that arise from the team. In that case, who is leading who?

A plan crafted by a good sales manager lead to three things that all have a direct impact on each other:

1. REACH THE TEAM’S AND DEPARTMENTS RESULTS

2. ENGAGE STAFF

3. CONTINOUSLY IMPROVE THE TEAM AND DEPARTMENT

This is the sales manager’s ultimate task. The magic here is that if you increase one of the three outcomes, you increase all. Plan to succeed, lead with heart and commitment to grow your colleagues and improve the business unit you oversee.

In Sales Management… we coach sales managers to learn to see where they want to go and develop their ability to create a plan that takes them there.