Manage a sales team requires zooming in to help individual reps resolve specific issues while encouraging them to work their best. At the same time, however, you must provide big-picture forecasts and goals.

Regaining a sales manager position can be challenging. You need to show you are up to the responsibility by dedicating both time and energy to demonstrating you can handle them successfully.

Leadership

As a sales manager, it will often fall to you to lead in an increasingly competitive sales environment. Your team members will look up to you for guidance and leadership; while higher-ups may dictate sales strategy for the company, you are charged with overseeing day-to-day management of reaching those goals through your team.

Your role will require being able to switch back and forth between working on rep-level details and seeing the big picture, while leading your team through times of change.

As a way to demonstrate your leadership capabilities, consider mentoring a salesperson on your team who is either new or struggling. Or start an entry-level sales club or organize events that motivate team members.

Relationships

Sales managers are accountable for overseeing the success of their teams. In order to do this effectively, it is crucial that they build relationships with both customers and prospects.

Building relationships and trust with clients means developing an understanding of customer needs and providing appropriate training to your reps in order to better serve them.

Sales managers have the added responsibility of coaching and mentoring their team members. It is imperative that they listen attentively and provide constructive feedback without being judgmental or offensive.

Sales managers must understand their role in setting and meeting sales quotas and goals, such as setting attainable quotas that can be reached by their teams, communicating these goals clearly to motivate employees toward meeting them, and setting attainable quotas that inspire team members.

Accountability

Sales managers play an instrumental role in ensuring the overall success of a company. Their main responsibility lies with developing team members and helping them reach sales goals set forth by their company; also forecasting accurately and setting sales quotas accurately.

A great sales manager knows how to give honest, constructive criticism while mentoring their team on ways they can advance.

A successful sales manager must have the ability to make difficult decisions such as terminating underperforming team members. Furthermore, they should communicate effectively with their superiors regarding their teams’ progress while motivating and inspiring the entire sales force towards one goal. A great sales manager will provide their team with all of the resources and training needed for success – this requires lots of energy.

Teamwork

To be an effective sales manager, one must be capable of successfully building and overseeing a team. This requires creating a results-focused culture in your sales department with powerful tools such as CRM with predictive dialer. These must also be supplemented with state-of-the-art marketing email sequences and customer service to maximize sales productivity.

To show that you possess the necessary attitude for sales manager roles, consider seeking professional certifications offered by leading organizations. Such credentials will bolster your resume and demonstrate that you possess all of the required skills.

An effective way to demonstrate your suitability for promotion is by serving as a mentor for other sales professionals in your current role. This may include listening in on call recordings and helping refine pitches; building cold outreach emails from scratch; providing advice about routines, tactics and habits necessary to increase performance; etc.