The New Sales Manager Success Plan December 03, 2008 A workable success plan for individuals and companies
By Flyn L. Penoyer
Everyone would agree that in order to succeed you need a "plan." After all, this is true of the position of sales manager; it too should have a plan. But strangely enough, the major challenge standing in the way of a new sales manager getting up to speed and succeeding is a common problem for most companies because most haven't done their homework.
Responsibility Rundown
If you are a sales manager, or have this position reporting to you, you should have a very complete document telling you how to execute that job. Each task of the sales manager's job should be listed and described in enough detail so that anyone needing to fill in for the sales manager can run the show.
For a new sales manager to be successful, their first job should include documenting the tasks and execution of the position. The manager should discover the key things that need to be done, learn how to do them and then document how and when they are to be done. This exercise will get the new manager evaluating the duties of the position in full and learning how to do them at the same time. This task will also quickly reveal the things the new sales manager doesn't know, so that he can go to his manager to learn them or request training.
Fine-Tuning Focus
As a new manager, you should not worry about changing anything, unless there are major problems left by your predecessor that simply can't wait. The new manager should maintain a steady focus in the beginning on doing and documenting the principle tasks of his job while developing this new relationship with the team.
The focus with team members should only be on, "How can I help?" or "What can I do that will make you better?" Corrective actions should only be taken at this point for the most serious of problems, those things that simply cannot wait. In the beginning, just hearing everyone out is the best strategy.
It may take a week or two for the new manager to accomplish these tasks. The result will be a complete documentation of the sales manager's job and a manager who now knows all the critical things he needs to be doing and how to do them. The "just help focus" action with the team will have revealed a potential list of projects that may improve team performance.
And, by focusing only on helping the team during the early part of the relationship, there will now be a good working relationship in place between the new manager and the team. The new sales manager will now be in a position to evaluate what is going on (maybe with the help of his manager) so that the critical and most important issues can begin to be resolved.
Flyn L. Penoyer, "The Inside Sales Guru" is an author, trainer, and the Founder of Penoyer Communications a California based sales consulting firm specializing in the development and revenue acceleration of inside sales groups. His company website is: www.penoyer.com. Copyright 2008, Flyn L. Penoyer
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
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