Tips For First Time Sales Managers

Author: Ryan Lallier - CEO, RepTivity @RLallier

Did you recently enter into sales management? If so, the transition from everyday sales person to everyday sales manager can give you anxiety. I laid out a few tips to get you started:

Going From Individual Contributor to the Individual Responsible for Multiple Contributors:

This is by far your biggest challenge. If you've been successful as a sales person you'll immediately want to impose your philosophy upon your new team. However, this may not be the best approach. At least not in the beginning. My advice is to survey your new sales team and ask them what they do on a daily basis that contributes to their success. Repeat the same process for identifying their weaknesses and areas they wish to improve. The output is a team scorecard which you can use to properly evaluate the skill set of your team.  The key here is to listen first, analyze and respond to their needs. One thing that always pissed me off about my past sales managers is they never listened to my concerns. It was always a "my way or highway" style of management. Listening is a quality that goes a long way in earning respect from your new sales team.

On Day One Get Out of the Office:

I always recommend getting your sales team out of the office on day one of your new role. Pull out your credit card and spend a little money. First take them to a nice lunch.  Keep the conversation light in the beginning and mid way through lunch go around the table and let each sales rep share their business background with the team. This is also a great time to lay out your expectations and share some of your experiences. On Friday of your first week, take your team to happy hour. They will come back on Monday recharged.


If you would like to connect, you can find me on Twitter: @RLallier.