How to Go from Salesperson to Sales Manager?

In real estate there is a golden rule: location, location, and location. In migrating from an individual contributor’s role as a salesperson to a sales management role, there is also a golden rule: process, process, and process.

Sales management is all about selling through others, empowering and motivating your team, and bringing efficiencies and effectiveness to your engagements with your clients/prospects. 

However, it can also be a lonely job at times- for example when you need to make the call to “fire fast and hire slow”.

To find success, and move from merely a salesperson to sales manager, you must find the ability to sustain stress and frustrations, from both higher ups and down below. You must remember that the average tenure of a CSO is 24 months – don’t get used to your desk. You must work hard to remain relevant.

Becoming a sales manager is about ruthless compassion. It is about performance and results. It is also about leading by example, showing the way to best practices, and developing skills  amongst your people to get the best from them.