What is the primary role of a sales manager?

The answer to this question may seem quite simple: Drive revenue! but the reality is we carry a heavy burden. We have to plan training, observe our teams in action, coach, mentor, attend meetings, run reports, do projections and forecasts, many of us even take on marketing and PR roles in smaller companies, and even with all of this most of us could add on 10 more things under “other duties as assigned” that have little to nothing to do with being a sales manager.

My opinion though if you want to be successful is you only have one real job, and that is to facilitate an environment that maximizes sales productivity. To do that you have to look at things a little differently. I view my primary role as making sure 14 families get fed. I worry very little about my own goals because I am aware that if 80% of my team can hit plan I will have grossly exceeded my own plan. With that in mind, my entire focus is on the team and making sure everyone on it is in the best possible position to be productive, and removing anything that hinders that.

It sounds simple, but you have to take this to extremes, what if the thing that is hindering 13 people from producing at peak performance is your current very needy, drama filled top producer? In my opinion, you eliminate them. Life as both a sales manager and a member of a team is a lot better when there are no primadonnas that feel they are above the rules and are making others lives miserable in the process. Most people have enough stress at work just performing their own sales duties and do not need the extra stress of another’s personal burdens as well. When I talk about the primadonnas, I am not referring to someone who is simply going through a rough patch, this I can help them work through. A primadonna refers to someone who is a constant problem and drain on my team. This is the type of person who comes in each day with a “woe is me” or “I am the center of the universe” attitude and feels that everyone else should share in their misery or bow down to them.

My goal as a sales manager is to eliminate drama, coach, mentor and lead… everything else I do is secondary to that. Every member of my team knows that they are the most important thing in my day and that I would rather be helping them than anything else I do. Because I take this approach towards them and will do anything for them, they will walk through fire for me. Developing this relationship is not easy, it takes time to build trust and send a clear message that this is not the flavor of the week, but the long term benefits are HUGE.

Finally, this does not mean you stop forecasting and doing the other things you do, it is about shifting priorities not responsibilities.

To implement: What is your relationship like with your current team? How do you spend your day? What can you eliminate from your sales environment or process that will improve productivity for everyone? What can you do now to make sure every member of your team understands they THEIR success is the most important thing to you? Do you have a regularly scheduled one on one coaching session with every team member every week? If not why? Reflect review and implement!

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