I recently encountered a small business owner that kept insisting he wasn’t a sales manager. Here, via the classic Jeff Foxworthy bit is a checklist of things that might show you you’re the sales manager.
If you hired the salesperson your speaking to, you might be a sales manager
If you are sitting in a meeting that you scheduled, you might be a sales manager
You might be a sales manager if you’re the one reviewing the other sales peoples prospects in a regular meeting.
You might be a sales manager if you have the ability to fire the sales person you are having coffee with.
If you assign others on your sales team leads, you might be a sales manager
You might be the sales manger if you’re the one that the sales team directly reports to.
I’m making fun here, but there is an underlying sales problem here. If you meet any of the qualifications above, and don’t feel comfortable calling yourself a sales manager, you need to take some simple steps to correct this. For starters, you should need to realize that you ARE a sales manager, you just aren’t as skilled at it as you’d like to be. Next, read up on the topic. There are some great books on sales out there from the classic SPIN Selling, to any of the great books by Jeffrey Gitomer. If you still feel uncomfortable calling yourself a sales manager, you need to reach out to others for help. You may even find some management training helpful.
Rothstein Consulting provides comprehensive management training that can give you the knowledge and skills that you need to successfully manage your sales team. From hiring the right people to figuring out which levers to flip to gain the most sales, we can help your business and your managers.