I have encountered this a few times. The head of sales has been promoted through the ranks and now manages the sales team and takes responsibility for all sales related issues within the business. They rarely sell.
Often they have been a top performer with a great track record and are therefore the natural choice to head the team when the time comes. Natural choice? For who?
Taking your top performing salesperson away from sales duties and into a management role can defy all business logic and whilst they may be delighted with the pay rise, better car and the prestige there has been little done to be any benefit to your business. If you have a salesperson who performs consistently why on earth would you change anything that may affect that performance?
I have learned over the years that for most sales teams of ten or less people there is no need for a Manager or Director. Motivated salespeople need very little management. There is certainly a need if there is training required by then this is best organised in the field with the sales staff and certainly does not need a dedicated person with a title. As the owner of the business you are best placed to manage the needs of your sales staff and adjust things accordingly - a sales manager in a business of ten of less salespeople is an expensive and unnecessary luxury.
I have been in the position of Sales Manager with sales teams of between seven and nineteen people. My life with the team of seven was hardly a challenge, I did not ask for the job, salary, bonus or the Range Rover that came with the title but all was laid on regardless. I had my seat at the monthly "Management Meeting" and I was able to hire and fire but other than to intervene in the odd issue between sales and operations there was little to my job and I found myself missing the buzz of the win.
I met with my MD and we collectively agreed that the position was part-time at best and really required little more than a few hours each month and as such I returned to a predominantly sales-based role where my skills were best utilised whilst I "managed" the sales team on a part-time basis and remained as part of the management team.
As a salesman I didn't want or need management. I was able to manage myself and worked to a simple principle that Monday to Friday was for selling and weekends off. I would happily work 20 hours a day in the week but would never work on the weekends and this discipline worked well. I knew that without time away from work I would perform badly so I allowed no compromise in this regard.
With a team of nearly twenty there was certainly more of a demand for me to wear my Manager hat but this was only really to support salespeople with prospects that I would have handled alone had I remained as a salesperson.
I am not suggesting that there is no need for any management with a sales team but I do question whether any sales team of less than twenty needs a full time manager. It is really the case that with experienced and performing salespeople there will be very little need for daily management. Actually, it is often the case that a manager can negatively affect performance as they can find it necessary to instil their own methods on people that have no problem performing.
In my opinion, it is essential in any business that management within a sales team (if they are necessary) must be actively selling and maintain their own customer relationships. A Sales Manager who does not produce sales will quickly lose the respect of their team. Whereas a performing "manager" who is also part of the team will have plenty of respect.
If you have a Sales Manager in your business ask yourself what value is created by their position? In my experience the vast majority of the duties in this role, such as reporting and monitoring, can be performed by an Admin Assistant with the support of the part-time Sales Manager to handle the few management responsibilities that are required.
By their very nature Sales Managers are well equipped to justify their positions and benefits but the reality will often remain that they are best for you when they are in front of customers.
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