In many companies it is commonplace to promote successful reps into sales management roles. To be fair, it is instinctive to reward your most successful and reliable reps with a promotion – who better to take on more responsibility in the sales organization than someone who understands how to sell a lot? Research shows, however, that more than 75% of reps promoted to sales manager will not last 2 years in the role and will return to a sales position.
Given the high failure rates of sales managers promoted from reps, does it really make sense?
Here are six reasons not to do it:
1. They are vastly different roles
A sales role involves hunting for opportunities, qualifying and/or developing relationships, listening, negotiating, and closing. Sales management involves activities such as interviewing, hiring, developing, training, cheerleading, managing, firing, tracking, forecasting, analyzing, and planning. An understanding of both makes someone more successful in either role, but a day spent in each seat means a day doing very different things.
2. Many aspects of managing people are more complex than selling
Great sales people have a system for dealing with the finite number of sales situations they will see. Managing a team means using an infinite number of mechanisms to hold each individual accountable, all of which can change from day to day, depending on the person.
3. Managing is not for everyone and requires specific ‘Sales DNA’
Drive, competitiveness, perseverance, optimism and flexibility are all traits one might expect to see in top reps and sales managers. The focus required by sales managers, however, is completely different and often cannot be fixed through training. Management requires patience, flexibility, tolerance and communication skills. “A-type” drivers, may be great at telling a team what to do, but may not be suited to helping them get there. Top reps who love the thrill of the kill will miss that aspect of their job if they are focused more on helping others close business. They will miss the time they spent in the field if they now spend more of their time inside overseeing the team and in meetings with their own management.
4. The best sales reps are used to flying at their own top speed
They are action oriented and used to driving results through their own direct efforts. Assuming leadership means overseeing a team where (on average) 50% of the reps are below targets, managers need to be able to gear up or down to the lowest common denominator, as the case may be. There will be a huge temptation to step in, takeover opportunities and close business for reps on the team, rather than help the reps become better closers through coaching.
5. Sales reps innately resist the things that sales managers absolutely need
In order to effectively run a team, great sales managers implement training programs, conduct in-depth sales meetings and pipeline reviews, and scrupulously document opportunities. Sales reps, on the other hand, are far more interested in going out to hunt new business opportunities, close deals, and ensure clients are happy and ready to buy again.
6. The cost of incorrectly promoting a top sales rep is massive
Poor leadership and loss of a great rep costs severely in terms of lost present and future customers, a damaged market reputation, and a drop in sales team morale.
To be a great manager you have to be an expert at management, not an exceptional sales person.
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Eliot Burdett
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
Latest posts by Eliot Burdett (see all)
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- Augment Your Recruiting Strategy During “The Great Resignation” – July 26, 2021
