WTF? I’M the New Sales Manager?

12 Tips for the Accidental Sales Manager

So you’ve been with your company for six years and things have gone very well. You were the top sales dog last year and the year before, and you’ve already met this year’s quota and it’s only April. Your income has increased over 300% since you started with the company. Life is good.

But today, the boss of your boss (who just left the company for another position yesterday) asked to see you. She tells you you’ve been selected to become the new sales manager.

WTF?

“I haven’t managed anyone in my entire career,” you realize.

“Why should I become the sales manager after all this time?” you ask yourself.

“How will this impact my income?” you worry.

“But all these salespeople are (were) my peers?” – you’re sweating now.

Let’s cut to the chase. You’ve been offered a new management position (assigned to it, really), and you’ve decided to accept. Where do you start? What do you say? What do you do? How is this going to work?

THE TIPS

Here are twelve tips for the accidental sales manager who has shoes to fill, people to manage, and fires to put out. Time’s wasting. Let’s get to it.

1. Realize that managing is different than selling.

Oh there’s lots of common ground there, to be sure, but now you’re responsible to get work done through others, not by yourself. That’s a too big a leap for some top sales performers who become a manager. Remember, you’ve been the top seller, which means everybody else ranked below you in the sales race, so now you’ve got to get others to replace the revenue that you’ve been producing, PLUS the additional dollars the boss is expecting out of your group because of your new leadership.

You’re not a salesperson anymore. Achieve results by managing, not selling.

2. Cobble together a management philosophy if you haven’t already done so.

If you’ve had an interest in management, you may have already done this, or perhaps you did it in school or at a previous job. But you need to quickly define for yourself what it means to be a great manager, and use that model as your guide in the early days. Your model will change if you’re brand new to management, but you’ve got to start somewhere, and a great place to start is with the big picture.

3. Get to know your new boss and the expectations.

You may already know your new boss, but now your relationship will be different. Spend as much quality time with your boss in the first weeks that you can. Clarify objectives and expectations. Predict possible stress points in the relationship. Focus on learning about your boss’s personality and how he operates, how he wants employees to work, and how he wants employees to work with him.

4. Don’t change anything. Yet.

A common mistake of new managers, especially those with dominant personality types, is to change everything quickly to their liking. This can add stress and even damage the entire group. Act strategically. Determine what must change now, and then cut that number of change initiatives in half. There will be plenty of time for change down the road.

5. Be decisive.

Okay, I know that it may sound like this contradicts number 4, but being decisive from the start is an excellent way to start a management career. Leaders need to be decisive. Just don’t make any needlessly abrupt decisions. How’s that for a conundrum.

6. Meet with each employee.

Ask questions. Listen to answers. Observe. Learn. This can give you valuable information going forward. Be open to listening to suggestions, but don’t set expectations for action on those suggestions.

7. Don’t play the popularity game.

Being popular might not matter to you (it doesn’t to most managers). But if it does, you’ve got to come to terms with the fact that you now need to be respected and—most of all—effective, not well-liked. Focus instead on the core role of the manager: creating increased revenue and profitability.

8. Get a mentor or coach.

Your boss might be able to act as your mentor or coach. Or she might not. In this case, find someone to coach you through the first months of the new position (I wish I had). Others’ management skill and wisdom is invaluable to a new manager – especially for those who think they don’t need it.

9. Read a management book. Or ten.

Your main skill set in your previous job was selling. Now you need to develop your management skill set. Seek out materials to read, learn, listen, and watch.

10. Create a plan.

Figure out what to do and when, and with whom. Spend the majority of your attention on your high-performers, not the low-performers. Your high-performers are more likely to kick up their sales performance a notch or two than your low performers to kick up their sales performance ten notches.

11. Determine your management strengths and weaknesses.

Delegate tasks within your weakness category to others, and manage them to get the work done. Concentrate on your strengths.

12. Get in the trenches, but not in the way.

Spend time with your people. Engage them. Coach them. Listen. Observe. But don’t take over. You’re the manager now. Be a help, not a hindrance.

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