During the first few years of my professional career, and as an Engineering Graduate, I wondered whether “Sales” is a science or an art, I was impressed by other professionals and their way of closing deals and wanted to be in their place as soon as possible, not only for the descent money that they are making but for that nice feeling of success and self-esteem that they showed to me.
With the “Fresh Engineer” mindset that I had at that time, I started to look for a methodology that will bring me up to other “Sales Professionals” speed, however, I ended up with a simple conclusion, it really depends on a set of complex and interrelated human factors that is hard to model :), so, I started to monitor the way that the “Sales Manager” used to manage the team with, thinking that “Sales Management” would be the next level of “Sales”, hence, the “Sales Manager” will be my guide to crack the code of being a successful “Sales Professional”, again, I ended up nowhere!.
Now, and after more than 17 years of experience, out of which, I had more than 6 years in Sales Management, I can confidently state that very few can handle the Sales Management role in a proper manner, I don’t mean achieving financial targets, but, managing Sales in a sustainable way while achieving financial targets.
Retaining and improving your sales team, keeping and growing your customers, providing solid feedback to Marketing and other internal functions are some of the important roles that a Sales Manager NEED to play. Are you doing so ?!
