Sales Management Styles | Small Business

Hi, I’m Michael Lee, and today we’re gonna talk about your sales management style. If you’re a manager, you need to know your sales management style. Are you directive? Or are you supportive? Are you bottom-line oriented? Or are you a cheerleader type? This will determine your success as a manager. Hopefully, your combination of all of these different types of styles because being flexible is the key to success as a sales manager. Your flexibility needs to be sales representative specific. You’ve got to be able to adapt to them. Consider the skills, and desire, of your individual sales person. What does this representative lack? Is it will? Is it skill? Or is it both? Then, ask questions of them. Help them to find his or her own answers. Effectively leading a successful sales team requires training and skill. High performing sales people tend to have very strong personalities, as I’m sure you’ve discovered. They’re usually social and verbally aggressive, sometimes. They’re usually optimistic. They’re very good persuaders and they’re people oriented. They’re also, probably, positive in their attitude, powerful, and authoritative, which are very good things as a sales person. However, this also can create problems for the sales manager. They can be impulsive, demanding, and certainly, can have unrealistic expectations. Sales people also tend to lack attention to detail and are often disorganized, but that makes them great sales people. So, as a result, they can clash with sales managers who tend to be more analytical and process oriented. Those who run sales teams must learn how to deal, also, with other departments in your company, because very often, you have to end up fighting them for resources that your department may need. So, how do you manage sales people? Number one, minimize the rules as much as you possibly can. Great sales people like to do things their way; it’s just the way they are. Rules only make them find ways around the rules. Freedom lets them produce sales in the way that’s most creative for them. Don’t tell them what they can’t do. Tell them what they can do. Don’t manage sales people, coach them. Give them goals but don’t tell them specifically how to get there. Give them options and let them solve their own problems. Trust me, if it comes to selling, they’ll find a way. Also, let them do what they do best. Find out what’s important to them. It’s not always money. It could be recognition, it could be helping out other sales people. Find out what’s important to them, and if they aren’t great at details, get them support as quickly as possible because assistants are much cheaper than sales people. So, adapt your management style to your sales people, and, also, you’ve gotta learn the skills needed to do it. Be more of a coach than a manager, as I mentioned, earlier, and that way, you’ll have fewer headaches. Your sales people will be happier, as well, and more productive. Make sure they’re doing what they want to do, and make it easy for them to do it. You just need to focus on the results as a great sales manager. I’m Michael Lee, author of “Cross-Cultural Selling for Dummies” and, “Black Belt Negotiating.” Have a great day managing your sales team!