Sales Managers – Dying Breed?

Sales Leader Jonathan Farrington cited recently published research that discovered that the average tenure of a Sales Manager is now just 18 months. More organizations are recognizing that top sales professionals need expert coaching support from their managers to improve their performance and to truely excel at their skill. So, we have Sales Managers lastly a little under 2 years and Sales Representatives need Coaching. We have a dilema.

Most Sales Managers rise to their position from being a top performing Sales Representative. Companies may do some Sales Training but most concentrate strictly on Product Training, especially during the recent economic crunch that most companies just experienced. Add a little pressure to produce numbers and the trap the Sales Manager falls into is to do the selling for their Representatives. If the Sales Manager is helping the Representatives close, they are not teaching them/coaching them to be good at what they need to do. It creates a dependent relationship where the Manager eventually burns out with too much to do and they are not effective at what their responsibilities really are. Regular Sales Coaching creates skills that eventually becomes daily and regular behavior. This leads to Representatives that develop a greater level of engagement within the company, sales performance increases, and top sales people stay and contribute to greater profitability. Coach Sales Managers to Coach and give the Sales Represetatives what they want and need to be successful.