We have all seen the different types of sales managers and probably even worked for a few. When we looked back over our own experience, we identified seven different types of sales managers, which we have affectionately named below. Which one are you?
- The Fire Marshall – This type of sales manager can trigger immediate results but they have no long-term sales plan, and focus on different deals and challenges from week to week.
- The Dreamer – This type can create exciting plans that upper management love, but sometimes lack a grasp on realities and risk the support of the reps.
- The Dealmaker – A sales person at heart, this type cherry picks the best incoming leads and drops into of the team’s accounts to personally close big opportunities. Can secure big wins, but usually can’t scale the sales function.
- The Dashboard Director – While they know all the metrics cold and can allocate resources efficiently, this type rarely spends time with customers, so doesn’t appreciate the hard work that goes on in the field and often fails in building true customer loyalty.
- The Dictator – This type doesn’t care for input from the team, but can drive direction and is very decisive (unfortunately they are often wrong).
- The Microprocessor – This type needs to review every detail of the sales team’s work, which prevents the reps from getting sufficient time for selling and, in turn, stifles growth.
- The Prodigy – Reasonable decisions, a good sense of reality, team support and strong sales results are the hallmark of this type, which is why they will likely get promoted to CEO at some point.
To your success!
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Eliot Burdett
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

best phrase a sales person can use to build trust and increase the likelihood of closing a sales is to respond with “I don’t know” when stumped by a question rather than making up an answer. Perhaps this has to do with the perception that sales people will say anything that they think gets the sales so therefore, any sales person who admits they can’t answer a question, must be telling the truth and be demonstrating honesty.
Companies make huge investments in creating value propositions that will attract customers, but reading the typical job ad shows far less effort is put into attracting the top class sales talent that will actually secure those customers. Boring checklists of required credentials and bland mentions of the company’s mission statement will attract lots of candidates in this economy, but few if any of them will be the highly desirable types because these ads don’t speak their language. Forget about “competitive” compensation, benefits and management “that cares about its staff” – these are all important, but every company promises these things. Where is the sizzle??
Interviews are the staple method for most companies when hiring sales staff and often there are multiple interviews conducted by different team members of the hiring company. Some companies will take the screening process a step further and conduct in depth reference checks. All of this is done to ensure the new hire is the right person.
promotions had a huge influence on customer decisions and Herb Tarlek’s character on WKRP in Cincinnati was a funny depiction of the truth, but not totally out of line. Next watch the movie Tin Men to see what selling might have looked like 50 years ago. Each of these eras had their own characters and methods of inducing buyers to buy and today is no different. Pervasive access to information via the Internet and more sophisticated buyers has changed the way buyers buy and the way organizations sell. This in turn has an impact on the people that get hired and traits top performers possess.