You’ve heard the saying “time is money.” Nobody wants to waste their money. However, there are too many moments when your salespeople waste their time on activity that will not generate sales. The most valuable asset for anyone is time. If your salespeople are in the field, day after day, they must be generating revenue day after day. Your job is to be an effective sales manager by helping them drive sales. To be an effective sales manager, you must be intentional with your time.
1. Supervise
Even if you have a team of experienced sales reps, they will still need your supervision. Supervision creates accountability and educates your sales reps about what you’re expecting them to accomplish. One of the best ways to supervise your reps is to have weekly team meetings as well as weekly one on one meetings.
2. Coach
Coaching is a great way to engage and motivate your sales reps. In your coaching process, you must identify areas that need improvement and provide feedback. If your sales reps are not aware of the areas they need to improve on they will never progress. You must be timely and specific as you provide feedback.
3. Mentor
You may be asking what the difference is between coaching and mentoring. Coaching helps reps succeed in their current roles while mentoring prepares reps for future roles in your company. To effectively prepare your reps for future roles you must create a personalized development plan for them.
4. Train
As a sales leader, you’re responsible for providing your reps with the tools they need for success. You must have a sales training program in place to help develop your sales reps’ skills. When there is no training program established, it makes it far more difficult for sales reps to develop the skills needed to generate sales for your company. Sending a sales rep out into the field without training is like letting a teenager drive a car without taking driver’s ed.
How you invest your time will have a big impact on whether sales rise or fall. You must be intentional as a sales manager. Focus your time on being effective in the areas of supervision, coaching, mentoring and training. When you do this, you’ll have a successful sales team that will help you drive sales.
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Jeff Ruby
Founder of RedRock Leadership