Sales Manager Training for the Best of the Best

If you plan on being an accountant, lawyer, or doctor, you’re going to get certified after taking some intense courses. There are few, if any, accredited sales manager certifications. Nope! Being a sales manager is mostly learned on the job. When you have the opportunity to get good sales manager training, pick wisely!

Approach sales manager training as another stepping-stone in your successful sales manager career. Welcome to the well-trodden path for sales leaders who continue to develop their skills using good sales manager training.

First of all, learn to be good resource for your sellers, which means you will earn their respect. Bottom line, add value. A friend of mine, who sells for Toshiba, said her sales manager created a simple spreadsheet to price complex products. He also gave them Internet links to good websites with valuable information on their competition. She said, “He also understands that each rep is different and he tailors his management style accordingly. “I’ve worked for other heavy-handed managers who use a clubbing baby seals approach that he applies to everyone.”

A book called Tribal Leadership inspires the two references below.  Most of all, I had the privilege of learning a lot from one of the authors, John King, when I took his sales manager training.

Consider this when you take sales management training for leadership

John King: “Leadership is granted by permission from those being led.”

• Distinguish how you impact your team’s performance when you are being a leader versus being a manager.
• Learn how to implement a culture of accountability.
• Practice how to coach. See our post that discusses our PLAYBACK coaching method.
• Treat each salesperson as a unique individual.
• Be an ambassador for Sales to the rest of the organization, especially to Marketing. Make sure everyone is playing nicely in the sandbox!
• Develop a culture of collaboration by encouraging sharing of best practices. Leverage top performing salespeople to help you.
• Enable a discovery-based learning approach.  Help people to figure out answers for themselves.
• Help your salespeople to present the company’s values and purpose in the best way possible.
• Track the earliest indicators of future business. See our eBook on DEAL documents.
• Always ask for coaching from the people on your team. Let them be a resource to you as much as you are to them. For example, ask them if they know of any sales manager training they could recommend.

Check this out when you undergo sales management training for management

John King: “Management is granted by authority.“ This means that someone with the proper authority can give someone else the title of sales manager.

• Learn best practices for proper targeting, forecasting, and pipeline management
• Define best practices in each of these areas:
  • Prospecting – Targeting and generating leads
  • Selling – Converting leads to opportunities and closing them
  • Support – Utilizing everyone to support the sales department
  • System – Getting the most from your CRM system
  • Teamwork – Encouraging everyone to share best practices
• Improve your time management
• Follow checklists to keep you on track, day to day
• Follow a hiring and on-boarding process for new hires

General sales management training topics that we cover in our sales manager training:

1. Discovering the philosophy and mechanics of sales leadership and sales management.

• Overcoming self-limiting beliefs that impact performance

2. Attaining a checklist for improved sales management

• Weekly. Monthly & Quarterly activities

3. Recognizing operating states in business and taking actions accordingly

• Knowing what emotional state you, your sales team, and individuals are in at any given moment

4. Improving running an internal business development team meeting

• Making internal team meetings more effective by reviewing results, discussing market updates, removing barriers to accomplishing goals, and improving focus and morale

5. Utilizing an effective model for planning and goal setting

• Implementing a culture of accountability that includes planning and goal setting

6. Using your Sales PlayBook to coach your team

• Keeping notes on coaching and progress made by each of the people that report to you

7. Following a hiring and on-boarding process for new hires

• Developing job descriptions, job postings, interviewing techniques and a 2 week ramp up plan when they start

8. Using an effective model for frequent performance reviews

• Utilizing personality assessments and templates to drive successful processes

9. Utilizing key performance indicators that drive better performance

• Measuring and adjusting performance on an ongoing basis

After sales manager training

The sales manager needs to be held accountable to implementing what was learned, because this will prove that the sales manager training is working. This can be done by the training company (as we do) or in concert with the senior executives of the firm (which we also do).

Provide a format for ongoing reinforcement of the sales management training.

We recommend that sales management training be delivered in a group setting. Split the group into triads. Three people in each group meet on a regular basis. They can help each other practice what they learned.

The triad can consist of employees from the same or different companies. An outside perspective can therefore be very useful. Consequently, ask the training provider if they can connect you with other participants in the same management training program.