Sales Management Coaching Tools | Small Business

It is often difficult for top sales team members to transition into sales management positions, but it still makes sense for companies to try to tap into the pool of natural talent on staff. The American Management Association reports that fewer than 15 percent of high-powered salespeople succeed in management positions. However, the right coaching tools can help your top salesmen discover the benefits of becoming a top-notch sales manager.

The company’s sales manager recruits, hires, trains, coaches and mentors new and veteran sales staff members. The sales manager must be adaptive, meaning that he is willing and able to listen to staff’s problems, concerns and questions, then help sales team members find the answers and solutions. Creating this environment of teamwork, shared goals and encouragement will help drive the team toward its desired sales results.

Mentor, train and coach your sales managers for success. According to a study reported by ASTD, only 11 percent of companies reach out to train their sales staff to any high degree, so many sales managers are left to their own devices when they take on their new job. The same study reports that companies invest far more resources — as much as 66 percent — in training their salespeople. Companies should invest in sales managers by providing coaching tools to help them feel comfortable as a manager.

Sometimes salespeople start their careers in sales with scripts, either generated by their company or something they formulate on their own that manages to catapult them into the land of successful sales. Similarly, a sales manager can create a template to meet their sales management goals, focusing on areas of particular concern. Some goals include monitoring sales performance on a regular basis, gauge the need for new sales talent, and training and coaching new sales staff members.

Sales managers act as the liaison — and sometimes a buffer — between the sales staff and their own supervisors and managers. Sometimes, much of a sales manager’s day involves defusing conflict on one — or both — of the two fronts and must communicate effectively and respectfully with both groups. One of the essential and useful tools that sales managers can apply in such situations is structure. The more structure they create in the course of their day, the more they know how much leeway they have when an unforeseen issue arises that they have to attend to. One way to achieve an overarching structure that is beneficial to everyone is to set quarterly or monthly meetings for the team to touch base.

Sales managers earned a median annual salary of $117,960 in 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. On the low end, sales managers earned a 25th percentile salary of $79,420, meaning 75 percent earned more than this amount. The 75th percentile salary is $168,300, meaning 25 percent earn more. In 2016, 385,500 people were employed in the U.S. as sales managers.