Sales Management: Shaping Future Sales Leaders

Chapter 10
Supervising, Managing,
and Leading Salespeople

10-1
Learning Objectives
 Explain the difference between sales
supervision, management, and leadership
 Identify the skills and abilities a person needs to
become a good sales manager
 Understand the elements of teamwork

10-2
What is Sales Supervising?

 Activities related to working with sales subordinates on a

day-to-day basis.
 Refers to monitoring employees to be certain they are
aware of the responsibilities of their job and how to
perform them correctly
 Observe and offer suggestions for improving
performance if needed

10-3
What is Sales Management ?

 Activities related to the planning, implementing, and controlling the sales function.
 Organize and staff sales force
 Decide how to organize work, divide responsibilities, determine who handles what tasks
 Incent, train, develop, and coach reps

 Measure and analyze

performance of sales force

10-4
What is Sales Leadership ?

10-5
Sources of Power
 Formal power: given on the basis of the position a person holds
in an organization; the authority an individual is given to
accomplish his job
 Informal power: power an individual has as a result of skills,
personality or geniality; can exert more influence than a person
with only formal power

10-6
Sources of Power: Formal Power
 Power given to a particular position
 Power to make decisions regarding issues of
Legitimate employment, budgeting, etc., to accomplish the tasks
under their responsibility

 Ability to distribute rewards

 Provide more desirable territories, different
Reward compensation levels, gifts, benefits, promotions, job
titles, and accoutrements related to work environment

 Ability to withhold rewards

Coercive  Typically builds resentment and resistance on the part
of the recipient(s)

 Derived from ability to access and control information

Informational others don’t have
 More effective organizations share information

10-7
Sources of Power: Informal Power
 Based on a person’s knowledge, skills, and
Expert expertise

 Based on the degree to which a person is liked due

Referent to personality and interpersonal skills

 When an individual is strongly admired based on

Charismatic personality, physical attractiveness, and other
factors

10-8
Becoming the Boss:
Perception vs. Reality
 Skills required to be a good manager are different from
being a star sales performer
Misperception
 Mgmt job will revolve around
implementing their own ideas
 Power comes from position
 Just work with individuals to
keep things going
 Controlling people is important
10-9
Reality
 It’s more about working together
and combining everyone’s ideas
 Power comes from informal
bases of power
 Clearing obstacles is important
to making achievements
 Getting people’s commitment is
more important
Be a Good Sales Manager
1
Be flexible
2
Be a good communicator
3
Work for the good of the team
4
Be considered trustworthy
5
Motivate and lead the team

10-10
Leadership Style
 Transactional leadership: two-factor approach
that focused on an exchange between leaders and
followers (late 20th century)
 Transformational leadership: focuses on needs
and motives of employees, tries to help them reach
their fullest potential
 Emotional intelligence: ability to understand and
manage emotions of other people; includes self-
awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, social
skills

10-11
Emotional Intelligence
Skills or Abilities Hallmarks

Self-Management Skills

Self-Awareness Self-confidence, realistic self-assessment

Trustworthiness, integrity, comfort with

Self-Regulation
ambiguity, open to change

Motivation Drive to succeed, optimism

Ability to Relate to Others

Empathy Expertise in building and retaining talent

Social Skills Persuasiveness

10-12
What Additional Leadership Competencies
Do Sales Managers Need?

Coaching Mentoring

Working
Feedback
in Teams

10-14
Coaching Principles
 Let reps know you’re joining them to observe and offer
Prepare and feedback
observe  Understand objectives of calls, listen carefully

 Focus on improving skills

Give feedback  Be specific when pointing out good selling skills and
those that could be improved
 Demonstrate desired behaviors, explain how and why
Be a Role Model you did the things you did
 Give reps chance to use same tactics

Follow-up  Do what you say you’ll do

 Relationships will be more productive with trust than

Trust without

10-15
Mentoring
 Mentoring: long-term
relationship where senior person
supports personal and
professional development of
junior person
 Person who acts as a teacher or
trustworthy advisor
 Formal or informal relationship

10-16
Working Effectively with Teams
 A team might be comprised of representatives from
several functional areas
 A group of people with complementary skills who are
able to collectively complete a project in a superior way
 Committed to a common goal
 Members interact with each other and the leader and
depend on each other’s input to perform their own work

10-17
Discussion Question
 Management skills are something new sales
managers need to develop
 What are some specific behaviors that they should
engage in?
 What misperceptions
do ‘new’ sales
managers have
about managing
people?

10-18
Caselet 10.1: Friend or Mentor?
Deciding When to Take Action
 Informal mentoring relationship between Carol
and Helen
 Carol’s hearing rumors that Helen’s performance
is slipping
 Helen drinks heavily during dinner, berates
waiter unfairly
 New sales management position opening soon,
Carol reconsiders recommending Helen

10-19
Caselet 10.1 : Questions
1. Where should Carol’s loyalties lie? What do you
think is going on with Helen?
2. As her informal mentor, should Carol take it
upon herself to ask Helen about her
performance and what’s causing it to decline?
Or should she mind her own business?
3. What other actions should Carol consider
taking?

10-20