An incompetent Sales Manager will bring trouble to the entire sales team, reduce the department's efficiency, and disrupt the source of potential customers and revenue goals of the business.
So how did they get hired in the first place? That may be because some companies promote their best salespeople to management positions and then realize that being an excellent Sales Manager requires more than just knowing how to sell. On the other hand, many companies want to quickly have someone take on the job without careful consideration, or employers make decisions based on intuition instead of objectivity and wisdom.
If you think: Recruiting a Sales Manager is so difficult! That's right, recruiting a good sales manager requires a lot of effort, meticulousness and can encounter many obstacles. Not to mention top talent will be snapped up before you know it. But don't be discouraged, you will definitely find the person you are looking for if you consider the following factors.
Factors to consider if you want to recruit a top Sales Manager
A good Sales Manager must be someone with outstanding sales ability
To be able to lead a sales team, the candidate must first be an excellent sales person. Most good Sales Managers have sales "blood" flowing through their bodies. Only then can they understand the work of each team member, know how to help employees come up with solutions and close orders, and help employees overcome common challenges and solve sales situations. It's complicated because they've done it all before.
If you have never experienced it and do not have a thorough understanding, you will not be able to manage well in a very complex field like sales. A Sales Manager without a track record will find it difficult to mentor and train junior employees. They will fail as managers and will also cause the team to be "up and down" many times because of ineffective leadership.
More importantly, candidates also need to have skills in coaching and mentoring employees
Having outstanding sales ability is one thing, more importantly, a Sales Manager also needs to be someone with coaching and training skills. Their primary role is to manage the sales team, not be directly responsible for closing deals or performing any sales tasks. So we need to make sure that whoever is hired understands that goal and is interested in helping the team achieve success.
Listen for signs that the candidate is enthusiastic about helping team members, taking the time to onboard, train and coach employees in important sales skills. The candidate we need to aim for is someone who is never too busy to help employees, especially in difficult sales situations or serving difficult customers. They truly enjoy investing their time in the team and work tirelessly to keep the team moving forward. If a candidate “lives and breathes” numbers and targets, they may not be the best person to motivate and lead a team.
Sales Manager should be a master of change
The world is changing at breakneck speed. The way people buy things is also different than before. Sales methods that worked in the past are no longer relevant. And the future is likely to witness major changes in the way sales, interactions and closings are done.
So, Sales Managers need to be ready to abandon everything they know and quickly adapt to the evolving environment while coming up with innovative solutions. Hire a Sales Manager who has handled unexpected challenges and changes in the workplace effectively and can take advantage of new opportunities by asking questions like:
Tell me about a time when you had to change your priorities or shift your focus to meet changing demands? How do you manage? Or
Can you talk about a time when you had to adjust your approach or strategy to accommodate new information?…
If the candidate can provide insight into their thought process, describe the specific changes they made and the results, along with what they learned from the experience and how they will approach a similar situation in the future and you have a candidate who easily adapts to change, can maintain productivity under pressure, and thrives in uncertain situations. They are more likely to lead their sales teams to a successful future by navigating and adapting to uncontrollable and unpredictable economic, technological, and financial changes.
“To hire a good Sales Manager, it is important to clearly understand who you are looking for, as well as have a streamlined recruitment process to accurately and accurately select top performers from the crowd. effective."
They also need to be tech and data savvy
When talking about change in the modern world, it is impossible not to mention technology and data. Today, it is essential to use technology and leverage sales data/analysis to improve sales. So, a candidate aiming for a Sales Manager position must demonstrate that they are tech-savvy and data-driven, using that data to make informed recommendations and decisions.
To help determine whether a candidate is interested in technology and data, you can ask a series of questions in which they need to explain why they made the decision they did and demonstrate their ability to do so. ability to leverage data to make predictions for the future.
If candidates don't understand technology or have difficulty learning how to use a CRM or some other application to streamline the sales process, they won't be able to teach new hires. how to use those technologies effectively. Keep that in mind when you decide on the best candidate for your Sales Manager position.
And the last thing to note is his gentle and charismatic personality
We don't have to be observant to see that sales largely depend on the charisma of the salesperson. However, Sales Managers also need to have this engaging personality, even if they rarely interact with customers.
The "gravity" of a Sales Manager is a combination of confidence, poise, friendliness and pleasantness while still showing a sense of responsibility and being able to do things. People with truly strong attractiveness don't feel the urge to prove their worth because others can easily see it. They know when to express their ideas and when to be an active listener. They are clearly aware that their body language is another form of communication that shows their attitude and level of interest, so they are always careful not to send the wrong message with posture and gestures.
With this appeal, they create a positive influence on everyone around them, especially junior employees. They are trusted by employees and are always listened to when giving feedback or any guidance.
It's not too difficult to tell whether a candidate is attractive or not. A good tip is when interviewing, see if they pique your curiosity and engage you in a deeper discussion. An engaging person will know how to ask questions that make you feel that your opinion is valued and that you want to continue the conversation.
Replies to This Discussion