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Regardless of how or why you’re learning to manage a sales team, there are several things you need to know about management in general. Let’s explore two basic things about sales management in general.
First, you will find quickly whether or not you’re up for the task. If you own your own business or don’t have a choice, it doesn’t really matter. You simply MUST get the job of management accomplished successfully based on your company’s definition of success. If you find quickly that you really don’t enjoy sales management, then in addition to succeeding, you may wish to have an exit strategy. In my experience, you may never “learn” to like or love management. It’s a whole new game from doing it on your own. I can’t guarantee you’ll never learn to “love” management (sales or any other type,) but in my experience, I’ve NEVER learned to enjoy managing others, and I’ve never successfully put a
non-manager into a management role. So don’t get disgruntled if you don’t like management, just read this site and learn how to replace yourself as soon as possible. But while you’re “in it,” try to do a good job and leave the position better than when you found it.
On a side-note for business owners, sales management (and management in general) is a task you must master in the short-term, and try to stay positive as you find professional sales managers who will improve and enjoy this position.)
Second, if you find you enjoy sales management, you’ll quickly find that psychology is the key. After fathering two great children years after running a successful direct sales team, I have learned that the psychology of fathering children is very closely related to management in general. It TAKES A BEAST of a personality to guide and encourage and reprimand others into taking “best practice” techniques into striving for success.
Let’s face it, very few businesses succeed. There’s a reason for this. And
without getting on a soapbox, as of 3/1/2009, this country is in a major economic decline. People are scared and looking to government to “solve” their problems. But in my opinion, we drifted away from what made this country great in the beginning. And that’s the last political comment I care to make, but to succeed at anything, discipline is necessary. Sure, everyone likes the easy, fun, rewarding stuff, but true entrepreneurs (whether in business or founding a country,) are
self-disciplined to do the things that need to be done. And they care about the results. Unfortunately, most people take short cuts, blame others, and live in
fear. It is the undying job of the manager and entrepreneur to make sure people DO NOT take short cuts, but instead are disciplined to do what is right, so that they my sow the seeds of success.
A quick example. Suppose you are a farmer. And your parents, grand parents, great grand parents, etc, were farmers. And they told you that you needed to prep the farmland when it was very cold and rainy (pre-spring time.) But you decided not to do the prep work. You would not enjoy a harvest. And if you relied on others or the government to bail you out, you would easily make excuses about why you didn’t produce a crop.
But if you had the discipline to ensure the crops were prepped and planted correctly, you could enjoy a bountiful harvest.
If you were a single farmer, no problem. You would plant everything you could and reap the rewards. However, if you needed to rely on others to secure you crop, or if you saw the opportunity in supplying corn to a small or large town, you would need to enlist others to help you accomplish your objective of prepping and farming the land.
So the first question I have for you is:
A) Do you wish or need to secure others in your objective?
B) Are you “sold” on why it is important in enlisting others to help with your
task, whether out of necessity or profitability, or out of a service minded attitude?
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