Revenue Journal®

The perfect sales manager is rare. One person seldom has all of the right traits, and seldom behaves consistently in the most effective manner. My goal here is to describe the ideal. If you are recruiting, you'll want to get as close to this ideal as you can, then work with the individual to improve their deficiencies. If you are still managing your own sales force yourself, you will be well-served if you develop and exercise these characteristics.

Before we get into the details, we should note that most salespeople make terrible managers, unless they are so mature that they have overcome their tendencies toward attention-deficit disorder and shifting loyalties. Most salespeople skim through life, from one conversation to the next, and have no patience for the deep thinking that is required of a perfect sales manager.

The most common mistake made by company owners and managers is to promote a salesperson to management - and expect them to shine. In most cases, over-promoted salespeople do a great job of selling their bosses on their success - even as the sales force they are managing starts to falter, then fail. They are usually fired or leave before the situation is irreparable - in most industries, this happens in a little less than two years. Then another salesperson is promoted to the sales management position, and the cycle starts all over again.

Here are the characteristics and behaviors of a perfect sales manager.

• Loyal - first to the customers, second to the company, third to the salespeople.

  It is important that salespeople feel that their sales manager is their best friend in the world, someone who can help them resolve any issue and who can provide the tools and knowledge they need to continually improve their results.

  The perfect sales manager, however, is never loyal to salespeople at the expense of his loyalty to the company - or the customer.

  In other words, he never complains about management to his salespeople. He should listen to their complaints (and they will always have complaints, because selling is tough), and then say, "Yes, I can see where that would be a problem. Let me talk to the boss and see what we can do." After his discussion with his boss, he will take the resulting decision back to the salespeople, explain why that decision was made, and then help them to embrace the decision.

  He should always be the first and best advocate for what the customer really wants. He can only do that if he spends enough time interviewing customers that he understands what their needs and perceptions are, and can then communicate those needs and perceptions to the sales force. His familiarity with the customer will also help him represent that customer to management, to make sure that managers are making customer-pleasing decisions.

  One of the reasons salespeople typically make such bad sales managers is because most salespeople have a "me against the world" attitude. It's actually more than an attitude; it's the force that gets them up in the morning, and sustains them when the going gets tough. This attitude runs deep. It's one of those major behavioral characteristics that is difficult to change. When a "me against the world" person is made into a manager, he will compete with and complain about everyone to everyone. He will foster an environment of conflict instead of an environment of cooperation. And that is the last thing you want, because resolution is the key ingredient of success in selling and in management.

• Consistent

  Salespeople work in an environment that changes by the minute. Because the consumer is actually controlling the selling process (by virtue of being in charge of the buying process), the salesperson's challenges can shift, and their anticipated successes can disappear, in the blink of an eye. In addition, they are held accountable for every sale they lose. This is a highly unstable environment.

  To help them navigate this environment, and to help them handle the highs and lows wisely, the perfect sales manager provides a consistent and predictable environment for his sales force. They know what management expects. They know what the rules are. They know how they are performing, every day. They know what they should be focusing on. They know which behaviors are completely unacceptable and grounds for dismissal.

  The perfect sales manager may be working for an inconsistent boss. This presents problems for the sales manager, who will attack this problem on two fronts. He will help his boss be more consistent, and then he will present management preferences and decisions in a way that makes it easy for his sales force to accept them. He will resolve each issue with his boss, and then convey the resolution to the sales force.