Team Management Tips for New Sales Managers

It doesn't automatically follow that a great salesperson will make an equally great sales manager, yet a vast number of businesses promote their sales managers from within. Managing a sales team requires a different set of skills and strategies than other staff management roles and it is important for newly-appointed sales managers to adopt and utilise these from the outset.

Sales training specialists at Maguire Training can help both new and existing sales managers to brush up their skills and get the very best from their salespeople, courtesy of our 'Managing the Sales Team' course.

Spanning three days, this comprehensive course invests delegates with the fundamental knowledge and skills needed for sales management success. Among the many topics covered in detail are recruitment, target setting, performance management, and delegation, running productive sales meetings and communicating sales strategies. As a result, sales managers should have everything they need in order to maximise the performance of sales teams whether small or large.

So how should newly-appointed sales managers tackle the task of best managing their team? Here are some helpful team management tips for new sales managers to help them start their new role on the best possible footing.

• Don't 'sell' to your team
  Conventional staff management uses sales-like techniques to encourage employees to accept business changes, adopt preferred strategies and behaviours and work in accordance with policies with which they may not always fully agree. Salespeople know when they are being 'sold' to, so the best approach is to be perfectly straight-talking, honest and upfront as to why things are being done the way they are.

• Involve everyone in decision-making processes
  Keep your sales team onside by ensuring that everyone has a say when business changes or new policies are being implemented rather than simply imposing them without prior consultation. Making it clear that team suggestions and contributions are valued is a good way to establish mutual respect.

• Fully explain the reasons behind actions and changes
  Simply introducing new working practices without fully explaining the reasons behind them can foster resentment between a sales manager and their team. Gain buy-in from the team by showing the thought processes behind changes and emphasising the benefits that they will bring to the team and the overall business.

• Fight your team's corner
  As a sales manager, your loyalties will be divided between fulfilling the requirements of senior management and looking after the best interests of your team to maintain morale and productivity. You must act as an interface, explaining and supporting the decisions of managers above whilst also honestly feeding back to them your team's ideas, opinions and concerns.

• Give equal time and attention to each of your sales team
  As a sales manager, it can be easy to focus your attention on those members of your team who show the greatest promise of developing their sales career and on those who appear to be underperforming whilst leaving the others to their own devices. This can leave anyone who doesn't receive your attention feeling unvalued and neglected so be sure to distribute your time evenly between every member of your team.

• Motivate your team with positive feedback whenever appropriate
  Whilst showering your sales team with unnecessary praise at every opportunity can be counterproductive, celebrating a worthy individual or team successes reinforces the fact that your employees are valued and is good for overall motivation and morale.

Sales training experts Maguire Training have a wide range of outstanding courses aimed at new and existing sales managers and salespeople. These are designed to enhance and improve skills and knowledge in every area of sales, and alongside traditional classroom-based courses, online training is also available. This means that busy salespeople can benefit from courses such as Managing Sales Team Meetings at a time and in a location which fits in with their schedule by accessing training through Maguire Training's online E-learning platform.