Sales Leaders: What Kind of Manager Do your Sales Teams Dream of?

According to Mark Roberge, VP of Sales at Hubspot (an American company that develops software for internet marketing), “there’s a huge difference between the skills a salesperson needs and those a manager needs”. But what are salespeople’s expectations of their manager? And how, as a sales director, can you meet them daily?

Here are the 3 Main Qualities a Salesperson Expects from Their Manager.

1. Trust and empower

The manager’s role is to enable their salesperson to track concrete results and clear, measurable objectives in their professional life. This first involves explaining the organization’s challenges: for example, give them the means to refer to current quarter priorities at any time so they never operate in uncertainty and always know their current objectives.

Also provide your salesperson with performance tracking tools they can access anywhere, anytime. This will allow the employee to focus their attention on what is important and to reinforce or maintain their efforts on specific points.

For the relationship between manager and salesperson to work, it is essential to create a climate of trust and respect between both parties. By giving your employee the means to be autonomous, you prove that you trust them, their skills, and therefore their ability to succeed, which will maintain their motivation.

2. Be attentive

According to a study by Michael Page, sales directors seem out of sync with their teams’ expectations. Indeed, while you generally consider yourselves empowering (68%) and communicative (58%), a large majority of your employees (60%) feel unheard. To reverse this trend, take into account requests, ideas, and communicate daily with your teams.

Your salespeople need to know that in case of a problem or question, for example, about the sales pitch or their current results, you will be available and ready to offer your advice and solutions. Being attentive also means paying attention to unspoken cues: expressions, postures, omissions, etc. To do this, remember to analyze body language, be attentive, and you will detect each person’s problems. This will prove your competence while showing that you care about your teams.

However, communication must be bidirectional: so you must be attentive if your salesperson wishes to communicate with you, but you must also, on your own initiative, not hesitate to share your feelings with them, especially positive ones.

3. Show appreciation

Appreciation is one of the keys to the relationship you will build with your salespeople. This involves recognizing, congratulating, and rewarding the good results of your entire team, at the right time and at all levels (small and large successes). The classic pitfall is to only congratulate top performers and neglect average performers, or even point fingers at those who are struggling. The ideal sales manager is also one who will find the words to motivate or re-motivate salespeople who perform less or less well. And as soon as a member of this category, sometimes called “laggards,” signs a contract or validates an objective, it will be up to you to show them that you are also there to congratulate them. To ensure you intervene at the right time, it may be relevant to opt for a real-time results tracking tool for your team.

To show your appreciation, you can also implement incentives that will motivate your troops. Don’t forget that money isn’t the only option, and it’s important to set up a controlled recognition system that will allow you to celebrate every success.

As you will have understood, more than a hierarchical superior, a good sales manager must position themselves as a coach, capable of involving all their salespeople.

To learn more about the role of a sales leader, download our white paper: The Coach Manager

Other articles that might interest you:

• How to Encourage your Sales Team to Adopt Digital Learning
• How to Motivate your Sales Team with Gamification?
• Career Development: Foster the Ambition of your Sales Team