3 Skills Sales Managers Must Have To Be Successful

In the past, sales managers were only responsible for one thing; bringing in as much revenue as possible, anyway, they could. Today sales leaders need to refine how they manage everything from people skills to accurately forecasting sales all while generating new revenue.

Without a manager having a clear understanding of what’s driving ROI, C-level executives have no way of knowing how their sales organization is performing.

Here are a three sales management strategies to help sales managers become more accountable and valuable to their organization.

#1 – Refine Your People Skills

Just because you have a reached a leadership position, you still have a lot to learn. Improving yourself only gets more crucial from here on out.

Today’s managers need to take the time to engage with their teams and understand what sales activities are making their reps successful and which ones are not.

Did you know that sales reps that receive ongoing training from their sales managers are 50% more likely to generate new sales than those that don’t?

When it comes to your reps, it’s up to you to learn which coaching styles will get the preferred results.

Some excel when they are thrown to the wolves. Others are the complete opposite. Make refining your people skills your number one priority when it comes to managing your sales team.

#2 – Take A Scientific Approach

The days of estimated forecasts are over. The data analysis tools available have a very important thing in common: an understanding of how past sales activities have generated specific results.

A wise sales manager will implement a methodology based on the types of activities that are most likely to deliver the desired results he/she is looking for.

If your new hires flounder and don’t succeed quickly, they are apt to leave. To build team-wide success, managers need to leverage data-driven insights into the activities that sales reps conduct every day.

Did you know the average company spends $10k -$15k hiring an individual and takes ten months or more to ramp up!

Ultimately, automated, real-time data and calling behaviors paint a much more accurate picture of where your team stands against current goals and lets you know which areas require your focus.

Turning this insight into coachable moments will help to grow your pipeline and moderate the bottom line, which will result in managers being able to provide more accurate sales forecasts to their leadership teams.

#3 – Master Sales Forecasting

Do you want to learn the secret to accurate sales forecasts?

The most efficient way is to use a sales analytics dashboard to dig deeper into your sales reps call activity and look at metrics that are predictive of success like:

• Total number of call
• Total number of contacts
• Total talk time
• & Total number of appointments

These metrics can help you forecast smarter and are more reliable than the data that your reps input into your CRM.

You’ll be able to understand which activities are paying off and which aren’t, enabling you to develop a smarter way to forecast your sales revenue and catch the attention of the C-suite.

Did you know 46% or reps say their sales pipeline is inaccurate? If you are using this information to build your sales forecast how can you expect to grow sales revenue?

By implementing these three sales strategies, you will be able to successfully manage your team more effectively and increase your sales revenue by accurately being able to forecast sales revenue!

If you would like to learn more about increasing your sales team’s performance by 20% or more, click here!