When a company is ready to hire a new sales manager, the first place they look is usually the best salespeople on their existing sales teams. After all, the senior managers reason, those salespeople already know the products and the sales process and know how to sell them effectively. Why not put one of them in charge of the team?
On the salesperson's side, many view the change to sales management as a logical next step on the sales career path. If nothing else, it's flattering to be offered a promotion and it can be difficult to turn down. But those salespeople often fail to consider the complications that will arise from this change.
Going from a salesperson's role to a sales management role is tricky under any circumstances. The behaviors that form a star salespeople are very different from the ones that make a great manager, and many former salespeople never even realize that fact. Everyone is naturally resistant to change (that's one of the biggest obstacles to selling!) and a salesperson who has always had highly successful results from certain behaviors will have an even stronger inclination not to change something that's worked so well.
When a salesperson is plucked from the team and set up as the new boss, matters become far more complicated. The salesperson in question has probably been on the team for at least a couple of years. She's been working as an equal with people who now report to her. Many sales teams become quite close and their salespeople often socialize after business hours, getting together to brag about big sales and gripe about clueless bosses. On the other end of the spectrum, sales teams can be highly competitive and the individual salespeople might not trust each other – in a worst-case scenario, they may even work to sabotage each other.
If you have a close relationship with the other members of your sales team, then becoming their manager will require you to alter that relationship in a major way. As their boss, it will be inappropriate for you to join them in mocking the company or swapping office gossip. You should meet with each member of the team one-on-one and quietly explain the situation, so that they're not confused by your shift in attitude. But unless you are lucky, most of your friendships with the salespeople will wither into a simple professional relationship. If this bothers you, you should not accept the management position.
Think about it from the point of view of your former teammates. One minute you are acting like a buddy and the next you are changing how you respond and refusing to gossip or share any juicy secrets you've picked up in your new role. Salespeople are just as resistant to change as everyone else, and even if they understand why you're acting differently, they may still resent it. Your salespeople may think something like, “Sally's promotion really went to her head. She doesn't want to hang out with us anymore; she must think she's better than us now that she's a manager.”
If your sales team is very internally competitive, your challenge will be different but no less daunting. Your new reports will be used to thinking of you as a competitor or even an enemy. But in order to function as a good manager, you've got to get them to accept you as an ally. It will take time to build trust between each of your salespeople and yourself, so be patient. The best way to prove yourself to the team is to act like the ally you want to be. Solicit ideas and suggestions and then implement them (assuming they're not entirely wacky). Publicly give credit to the salesperson who gave the idea if it goes well, and take the blame if things fall through. That may sound unfair to you but it's an integral part of your new job as sales manager.
By Wendy Connick
http://sales.about.com/
On the salesperson's side, many view the change to sales management as a logical next step on the sales career path. If nothing else, it's flattering to be offered a promotion and it can be difficult to turn down. But those salespeople often fail to consider the complications that will arise from this change.
Going from a salesperson's role to a sales management role is tricky under any circumstances. The behaviors that form a star salespeople are very different from the ones that make a great manager, and many former salespeople never even realize that fact. Everyone is naturally resistant to change (that's one of the biggest obstacles to selling!) and a salesperson who has always had highly successful results from certain behaviors will have an even stronger inclination not to change something that's worked so well.
When a salesperson is plucked from the team and set up as the new boss, matters become far more complicated. The salesperson in question has probably been on the team for at least a couple of years. She's been working as an equal with people who now report to her. Many sales teams become quite close and their salespeople often socialize after business hours, getting together to brag about big sales and gripe about clueless bosses. On the other end of the spectrum, sales teams can be highly competitive and the individual salespeople might not trust each other – in a worst-case scenario, they may even work to sabotage each other.
If you have a close relationship with the other members of your sales team, then becoming their manager will require you to alter that relationship in a major way. As their boss, it will be inappropriate for you to join them in mocking the company or swapping office gossip. You should meet with each member of the team one-on-one and quietly explain the situation, so that they're not confused by your shift in attitude. But unless you are lucky, most of your friendships with the salespeople will wither into a simple professional relationship. If this bothers you, you should not accept the management position.
Think about it from the point of view of your former teammates. One minute you are acting like a buddy and the next you are changing how you respond and refusing to gossip or share any juicy secrets you've picked up in your new role. Salespeople are just as resistant to change as everyone else, and even if they understand why you're acting differently, they may still resent it. Your salespeople may think something like, “Sally's promotion really went to her head. She doesn't want to hang out with us anymore; she must think she's better than us now that she's a manager.”
If your sales team is very internally competitive, your challenge will be different but no less daunting. Your new reports will be used to thinking of you as a competitor or even an enemy. But in order to function as a good manager, you've got to get them to accept you as an ally. It will take time to build trust between each of your salespeople and yourself, so be patient. The best way to prove yourself to the team is to act like the ally you want to be. Solicit ideas and suggestions and then implement them (assuming they're not entirely wacky). Publicly give credit to the salesperson who gave the idea if it goes well, and take the blame if things fall through. That may sound unfair to you but it's an integral part of your new job as sales manager.
By Wendy Connick
http://sales.about.com/
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου