Many moons ago, we blogged about the Six Reasons Not to Promote your Top Reps to Sales Management, and here are the top seven reasons you as the company executive or business owner *would* promote your top sales rep to a sales manager position.
- There is a common understanding between yourself the rep that this is not a promotion at all, but in fact a job change since selling and managing sales are two completely different jobs (managing involves overseeing, training, coaching, reporting, visioning, communicating)
- The rep has thought long and hard about their decision to effectively depart from sales and assume a new job – you don’t want to pay for their life experiment
- You can afford the loss of their sales production since they will no longer be selling at that rate if at all
- You have carefully considered the job requirements and objectively assessed the suitability of your top rep as well as other internal and external candidates who may be qualified (often the best sales people are hardwired to be anything but capable sales managers)
- You are prepared to work with them to help them be successful including coaching and training them, especially if they are a first time manager
- The rep has the respect of their peers on the sales team – they don’t need to be liked, but must be respected
- You have been very clear about the goals and expectations associated with the role – again if this is a first time manager, assume nothing
Image courtesy of Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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Eliot Burdett
CEO at Peak Sales Recruiting
Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
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)
- 20 Of Our Favorite Books About Sales Management and Sales Leadership – October 20, 2023
- How To Make Progress On Your Sales Goal Without A Sales Leader – September 15, 2021
- Augment Your Recruiting Strategy During “The Great Resignation” – July 26, 2021
