All veteran sales managers have one thing in common, according to new research.
A study by the Sales Benchmark Index shows that at some point, every supervisor has regretted promoting a great salesperson into management.
While there are a lot of sales pros who are also great leaders, in some cases, managers find promoting superstars into management:
- leaves a major void in the company’s ability to maintain high closing rates, and/or
- winds up killing morale and retention rates, because the salesperson lacks crucial leadership skills.
As a result, a lot of companies have adjusted their approaches, making a conscious effort to promote managers based on relevant experience, rather than putting up great numbers.
In order to keep retention high, some successful sales organizations have adopted this new four-step system to maintain high retention rates, while promoting new managers from outside the company:
- Launch reps. These are relatively new reps who are still learning the system. They generally handle sales or new products, a task that allows them to learn the system while veterans handle proven product lines.
- Win-back reps. These are reps who excel at building strong rapport. Their primary charge is to win back customers whom the company has lost to competitors.
- Strike-force reps. These are your home-run hitters. Assign them top leads, and let them close as much new business as possible.
- Senior reps. These are seasoned veterans who are settled in their ways, but earn more money by mentoring inexperienced reps.
Source: Sales Benchmark Index
