Why Managing Salespeople is Different - The Challenge of Sales Leadership

Many senior managers lack sales experience, and as a direct result they fail to appreciate the critical importance of sales leadership and the demands placed on it.

Those of us who manage salespeople have different challenges than other managers. Sales management is different and it's different for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the amount of accountability salespeople must deal with - more so than practically any other employee. Sales is results oriented, so the numbers are either there or they're not.

Often a sales representative will be in a territory by themselves, carrying the responsibility of the company's success in that area, and sales managers must have the skills to help them deal with that pressure. More broadly, salespeople operate under the constant scrutiny of the management team and are held accountable for the continued sales success of the business. The output of no other job is so immediately visible, transparent and tangible. There is no place to hide.

In addition to this accountability, sales managers are the only managers who manage people in a commercial environment who are afraid. And salespeople are afraid. Unlike almost any other occupation - be it an engineer, an accountant or a secretary - salespeople come to work afraid. Salespeople face the unknown every day, and are consistently challenged by a different ditch to cross, a different fire to put out, and always, numbers that must be achieved.

You may think this fear is only relevant to new salespeople, who lack experience and confidence. But so often our most senior, most successful salespeople are also afraid. These individuals so often fear they can't maintain the level of productivity they've had, so they also find themselves under pressure. And without exception every member of the team knows that if they say or do the wrong thing they risk losing a major account. So once again managers must have the skills to deal with the fear, the unknown, that our people face on a daily basis.

How can the management team - not just sales managers - help salespeople cope with these fears and not let it derail their success, and that of the company? We'll discuss this critical management issue further in later blogs.