Managing a sales team is like steering a ship. Every business needs direction, especially when it comes to the engine driving revenue—sales. But how often do you find yourself overwhelmed by everything else on your plate, leaving little time to truly manage your team? It’s not uncommon. As a business owner, wearing multiple hats is part of the job, but when sales aren’t properly managed, it can cost you more than you realize.
What Is Sales Management
Sales management encompasses recruiting, training, coaching, and guiding your sales team to meet and exceed targets. It’s not just about cracking the whip to hit quotas; it’s about understanding your team’s strengths and weaknesses, optimizing your sales processes, and setting clear goals. Great sales management aligns the sales team’s activities with the company’s overall strategic objectives.
Is managing your sales team one more thing to do on a task list that’s always too long? Do you feel like your team is missing deals you could close?
A strong sales manager acts as a liaison between the team and upper management, ensuring that the company’s growth goals are reflected in the day-to-day activities of the salespeople. Sales managers also play a crucial role in motivating their teams, ensuring consistent pipeline activity, and regularly monitoring key performance metrics. Without this level of oversight, it’s easy for deals to fall through the cracks.
The Role Of Proper Sales Management
Bad sales don’t squeak. It’s common for business owners to let the sales team manage themselves, hire a mediocre sales manager they can afford, or have a player-coach handle both roles. And it may seem like that’s working because you never hear about problems or lost deals. But here’s the catch—lost deals don’t squeak like other business problems. They just leak profits.
Proper sales management can tighten your sales process, get more out of your existing team, and make your life more balanced.
The Benefits of Bringing in a Sales Management Professional
You might be thinking, “I’ve got sales covered. Why would I need a dedicated professional to manage it?” The truth is that bringing in a sales management professional can be the game-changer your business needs.
Here’s why:
1. Maximized Efficiency
A skilled sales manager will ensure that your team works smarter, not harder. By optimizing sales processes and identifying inefficiencies, a sales manager can help your team close more deals without necessarily having to increase the number of salespeople on staff.
2. Objective Accountability
When the business owner is responsible for sales management, it’s hard to stay objective. A professional sales manager can hold your team accountable for performance in a way that’s productive, unbiased, and consistent, all while keeping an eye on the big picture.
3. Enhanced Training & Development
Every team needs coaching and skill-building. A professional sales manager can focus on developing the strengths of individual team members and providing them with tailored training. This ensures that your salespeople are continually growing and improving, which can drastically improve overall performance.
4. Clear Sales Metrics
Many businesses run on gut feeling regarding sales, but a sales management pro will track key metrics, helping you make data-driven decisions. Whether it’s understanding conversion rates, pipeline health, or closing ratios, they’ll give you real visibility into your team’s performance.
5. Increased Profitability
With better management comes better results. A professional sales manager ensures that deals don’t get lost in the shuffle and helps tighten your sales process, which translates to higher revenue and more predictable growth.
The Cons of Outsourcing
While bringing in a sales management professional offers undeniable benefits, it’s important to consider potential downsides, such as:
1. Cost
Hiring a skilled sales manager, whether full-time or fractional, requires an investment. Depending on your company’s size and resources, it might feel like a stretch, especially if you’re a smaller business.
2. Cultural Fit
Not every sales manager will align perfectly with your company’s culture or vision. This can lead to friction between leadership and the sales team if expectations aren’t clearly defined upfront.
3. Short-Term Disruption
Bringing in a new sales manager can initially disrupt the flow of your team, as they’ll likely make changes to processes or strategies. However, this is often a short-term issue that leads to long-term gains.
4. Losing Control
As a business owner, relinquishing control can be difficult. Trusting someone else with such a critical part of the business can feel risky, especially if you’re used to handling everything yourself.
The Choice Is Yours
Whether you bring in an external consultant to get organized and functional, hire an internal sales manager who aligns with your team and business values, or continue forging ahead with letting your sales team run themselves, the key is getting your sales division to close deals and drive revenue. While it might feel like a loss of control to relinquish the task to someone else, just remember that an outside perspective can be invaluable when it comes to finding your weaknesses and building your strengths.
