One of the most common reasons for failure of sales managers lies in nonexistent process of finding, acquiring and retaining customers. Sales managers and their departments then focus only on sales processes and ignore sales support or customer service. Similarly unsuccessful are sales managers without the ability to work with the so-called funnel of clients from the first contact to signing a contract (funnel management).
Other reasons for the failure of sales managers were summed up on eyesonsales.com.
Lack of preventive measures
The reason for this failure is the inability of senior managers to clearly define the scope of sales managers' powers. The sales manager then waits for the approval from above to make decisions. This concerns issues such as releasing low performing salespeople.
Lack of training
Many sales managers do not undergo initial training for the managerial position. They also do not train their team members very often. Sales, however, need strong practical and cognitive skills that cannot be obtained otherwise than by training.
Poor selection criteria
Many excellent sellers fail after being promoted to a managerial position. This is because of the fact that their superiors assumed that they wanted to be promoted and they would be successful as managers. Assuming is not enough.
Too much administration
Sales manager is often an administrative manager in practice. The time and energy he could devote to sales management is dedicated to communicating with the department of finance, operations, transportation etc. This is wrong. Administrative tasks should be delegated to senior staff as much as possible.
-Kk-