Sales Manager Survival Guide: Lessons From Sales’ Front Lines

I’ll let you in on a little secret. While I am a voracious reader and seeker of knowledge, I have always struggled with actually reading books cover-to-cover and that includes the one that I myself wrote. After my book was finally published, and I had copies in my hot little hands, I never actually sat down and read it. I don’t even plan to. Must be undiagnosed A.D.D. and/or … I read it enough when I wrote it. #both

However, the “Sales Manager Survival Guide” by David A. Brock, would be one of the rare exceptions to this rule and the first thing I want to know before I begin my review is … where in the hell was this manuscript when I was spending thirty plus years herding cats!? It sure would have come in handy. Dave hasn’t just created a book. He is providing a sales manager blueprint in handbook form.[Tweet “If you are, or aspire to be, a sales manager, read the Sales Manager Survival Guide by @davidabrock”]

Looking back, while I had companies spend a great deal of time and money training me to be a good salesperson, nobody ever spent a dime teaching me anything about being a sales manager. I learned by osmosis and, when my first B2B sales manager was promoted, I was selected to take his place and then flop around for a time much like, I suspect, he first did. This was my first job as a sales mangler and it left lasting scars that I still bear to this day.

A few quick impressions

These are but a very few of the actionable nuggets that I was able to mine from this book that really struck home with me! We’ll start with some general observations …

No B.S. – Just great, practical, step-by-step, real-world advice. I’ve known Dave for a couple of years now and what he has put in this book is what I have seen every day. Take a clue from the tagline of the book … “Lessons From Sales’ Front Lines”. Dave has practiced what he preaches.

Great for new managers – Or for old managers, aspiring managers, and even “C” level executives and everybody in between.

Universal application – While this book is geared toward sales, much of what you learn here could certainly be applied to any department in your company.

On to the book!

Part One – The New Sales Manager

Dave takes you from your first day on the job and then lays out goals for your first 30, 60, 90 days and beyond. The last thing that you want to do is to try to change the world in your first week. While we all have the urge to immediately mark our territory, a measured and planned pace will win this race!

Part Two – Coaching is your job

There is a difference between coaching and training. Coaching is your highest calling and should be included in, integrated into, all of your management related duties and activities. Call these teachable moments. You do this by challenging your people to fulfill their potential rather than to meet your expectations. You do this because you believe in them probably more than they believe in themselves.

You can use non-directive and directive questioning in coaching and, guess what? You already use, should be using, non-directive questioning with your customers! This is the difference between telling people what to do and providing probing questions that will make them think and then arrive at their own conclusions. Certainly, this is the most powerful form of learning.

The “Observer Effect”, a remnant of Dave’s physicist background before he came to “dark side” which we call “sales”, is applied to behavioral styles. Turns out that Dave is a fan of DISC and how that can be used to increase communication effectiveness. Awesome!

Part Three – Reviews – Accelerate you coaching impact!

There are reviews and then there are … reviews. Lots of different types, for different purposes, and on a variety of different frequencies (cadences). Dave covers every review imaginable and all are opportunities for coaching and development!

Part Four – Recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding

Always be looking! There is nothing worse than finding yourself in the situation where you feel that you must replace your star pitcher now and you have nobody in your bullpen. Or, you are looking to increase the size of your team. This section also addresses involuntary attrition through terminations or reductions in force.

Particularly when hiring new people, how will you choose the right one if you have not properly defined who that looks like? Dave calls this the “Sales Competency Model” and it should also be applied to your existing team. Be sure to polish your interviewing skills and processes!

Part Five – Performance management

We all hate them and, while different than coaching, the principles of coaching and development are still applied. Sometimes this includes accolades, other times it is things to be working on, and then there are times when it means “Good bye and good luck!”.

Poor performance can be traced to a number of factors including you as their manager. Not addressing these performance shortcomings reflects more on you than it does on the employee in question. A “Performance Improvement Plan” (PIP), also known as”The Measured Mile”, may be appropriate. Back in my old copier days we also had “POP” (Produce or Perish).

Regardless of what you call an improvement plan, you must be committed to, and there must be a real chance of, success or why go through the motions in the first place? As Dave points out, if there is no realistic opportunity for a positive outcome, you would be better off to give them a 90-day severance than to spend your time, their time, other people’s’ time (you need their support as well!), and you still will pay them for 90 days. Makes sense.

As you go through the process of layoffs or terminations, always remember that you could be next. As the average lifespan of a sales manager position is only about 14 months, you will likely be shown the door at some point in your career. #sobering

Part Six – Business management – Managing business week to week, quarter to quarter

Paperwork, meetings, analysis, and operations. I once took a position at a larger company and, despite assurances to the contrary, I became a desk-jockey sales administrator. I wanted to slit my wrists. As Dave points out …

“Day to day ‘Business Management’ or ‘Sales Operations’ cannot and should not occupy more than a small amount of your time.”

The risk is ignoring, or being able to focus on, the development of your team and it is through your team that you will meet, and hopefully exceed, your goals. With this in mind, Dave goes into great detail as to what, is and is not, important and how to manage these responsibilities within an acceptable investment of your available time. You will learn what to measure, track, and analyze.

Part Seven – Sales enablement – Equipping your people to sell

Enablement can be defined as “providing tools, systems, processes, training, coaching, and development that enable salespeople to more effective and efficient.” The bad news is that being efficient (faster) and more effective are often in conflict with each other and you can’t do both at the same time. Never enough time to do it right but, always the time to do it over.

Still, all of these functions are important as all will directly impact your ability to engage with your customer, understand their needs, and to sell more product. There are critical skills that you must be training to, processes adhered to, and selling tools that will be properly, and effectively, deployed with consistency. Salespeople need to have arrows in their quivers. Gear up!

Part Eight – Long-Term sales management issues

This section addresses long-term Go-To-Customer strategies vs. day-to-day tactics. As your department will be responsible for executing your company’s sales strategies as the customer-facing element … you will be asked to join in these discussions including:

Enterprise – The company’s overall revenue strategies
Customer Centricity – Who your customer is and how to keep them that way
How sales relates to, and works with, the rest of your company
Your Go-To-Customer Strategy – How best to reach them?
Assessing and addressing changes in market conditions
How to leverage the talent and culture of your people
Continuous learning and improvement or, as I like to say it … evolve or die

Lots of good stuff!

Part Nine – Your future as a sales manager – and beyond

This final section of Dave’s book addresses your survival and it includes: managing and communicating with your manager; problem-solving and identification and how to prevent small problems from becoming large catastrophes; checking your perceptions of your own power; and what it takes to be a great manager and leader.

Free goodies!

Buy Dave’s book and also get some very cool free downloads:

Sales Competency Starter Kit: Clearly defining the expected behaviors, experiences, attitudes, skills, competencies for each role on your team is critical to driving performance. This tool can be used for recruiting, onboarding, and ongoing development. We’ve identified this as a “starter kit.” Adapt this to your own needs and the various roles in your organization.

Roles and Responsibilities Worksheets: Often, particularly in large or fast-growing organizations, roles and responsibilities become an issue. Things start falling through the cracks or several people may be doing the same thing–all because the roles and responsibilities aren’t clearly defined. This provides a tool to help you assess the various roles and responsibilities on your team and with the teams supporting you.

Sales Management Ecosystem: This tool enables executives and leaders to look at each component of the sales function and organization. There are five primary pillars: Leadership Principles, Strategy, Business Management, Coaching, People. As leaders look to driving change in the organization, this framework can be used to help prioritize change initiatives, as well as to understand the interaction between components.

Sales Manager Checklist/Self-Audit: This is a comprehensive checklist covering all aspects of the sales manager’s job. It is a great self-assessment tool that managers can use to see where they are doing well and where they need to improve. In using this tool, the first step is to adapt it to your own role, adding/deleting items based on their importance to the manager.

Buy this book!

This is a very comprehensive document and I can only begin to make minor scratches to its surface here. I can’t say much more about Dave other than to follow his blog, buy this book, and to connect and engage with Dave. They just might change your career and that other thing that sales manager have too little of … a life outside of #hardwork. Get more of it!

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!