Mastering the World of Selling: The Ultimate Training Resource from the Biggest Names in Sales

Chapter 84. Top 10 Reasons Sales Managers Fail and What to Do about It

Jacques Werth

High Probability Selling

Two primary causes of sales managers failing: (1) They don't know how to manage their people and (2) they don't rigorously implement effective selling processes.

Just as an engineering manager needs to be a pretty competent engineer, a sales manager needs to be a pretty competent salesperson. In both cases, their essential responsibility is to manage staff performance for optimum productivity. Understanding basic management principles is crucial.

Most engineering managers know that technology is evolving too quickly for them to keep up at the level of a functioning engineer. However, they do know enough about the latest technology to manage the engineers deploying it.

In contrast to engineers, most sales managers believe that very little has changed in the "Sales Game" since they became a manager. Therefore, they tend to manage their people in the same way that they used to sell. However, the markets for every product and service have changed dramatically in the last 20 years. Information overload, the Internet, increased competition, better informed prospects, brain science, and new sales channels have affected all businesses.

Top salespeople have developed new sales processes to address and exploit these changing market conditions. Here are 10 trends that most sales managers should know about.

1. Most sales managers don't know how to use highly effective tools to recruit and train ...