Role of the Sales Manager

We half jokingly say that if you laid all the sales managers in the world end-to-end, they'd be more comfortable!

We find that over half rarely travel with their salespeople. They "direct" from behind their desk. Dishing out volume, quota, performance orders, but rarely spending mentoring time with their salespeople. Even when they do it's from the "critical parent" perspective, punitive words or messages, even explicit threats about goals, targets, etc.

Ever consider how your leadership style affects your salespeople? Ever asked or measured its effect? In "First Break All the Rules" authors Buckingham and Coffman point out, "that managers trump companies, and people join companies, but quit managers." No where is this more true than the relationship of salespeople to their sales managers. Have your salespeople "quit" you?

Maybe it's time to re-examine your role and your influence. It's worth the effort.