The Burden of Sales Managers

Some people are born leaders. Others, not so much. Either way, it can be difficult to manage a sales team. Because even if you’re the best at what you do and you have all the answers (Who ARE you?! Come work for us!), the pressure to tell others what to do can be overwhelming.

So instead of telling others the answers or directing their every move, we suggest a different tactic: Ask great questions of your team. Why? Well, successful sales professionals show their skills by asking the right questions of prospects and clients. As a Sales Manager, you can leverage the same practice. Rather than telling salespeople what to do, ask them what they think they should do. This creates engagement, which leads to dialogue that vets out a solution. It also creates collaborative, intelligent sales teams that use their own internal resources to solve issues before bringing them to you.

It’s the difference between building the skills of a salesperson to think more inquisitively versus having to be the go-to answer giver. Because when salespeople become better questioners it follows that they become better qualifiers, and ultimately more efficient closers.