The sales manager role may be the one with the lowest level of accountability within the sales organization, in part due to the fact that many businesses are unsure of how to gauge sales manager success.
For instance, "team sales outcomes" are the main (and occasionally the only) criterion most businesses use to evaluate sales managers. But that's incorrect. Why? Because when a sales team falls short of its quarterly goal, attention usually turns to one or more salespeople who failed to meet their own personal sales projections. As a result, the responsibility for the team's subpar performance moves from the sales manager to a particular underperforming salesperson.
It is believed that the #1 priority of a sales manager is a daily commitment to improving the team so that consistent double-digit sales growth can be achieved. You see, most salespeople these days want a sales manager to be a coach, not a critic. Someone who identifies where the salesperson is now, communicates what the rep needs to do to improve, and then coaches the salesperson to get better faster.
With that in mind, what measurements can you use to see how well a sales manager is doing at their #1 priority? Here are five ideas:
To determine if you have a problem, examine the online calendars last week for selected sales managers at your company.
What you are looking for is how many appointments the sales manager has hard-wired in their calendar each week for coaching their salespeople.
We can save you the effort and tell you the answer: zero!
Most sales managers take a random approach to sales coaching: they will coach a salesperson when the rep asks for it. Or, when month-end is approaching, the manager will “parachute” in to try and close a deal for the rep. In both instances, a lack of consistent and proactive sales coaching is revealed. Your sales manager has no plan for getting his/her salespeople to their next level. As sales managers get more serious about committing to effective coaching, you will see the number of coaching appointments increase.
Measure the number of individual salespeople at or above their sales quota
If a sales manager has eight salespeople on the team and only two of those reps are at quota, that is not a very healthy sales team. It will be just a matter of time before sales reps quit or get fired. And then the manager has to take over the open sales territory, start interviewing for a replacement and then slowly ramp-up the new hire. It’s a vicious, time-consuming cycle that can burn out your sales managers.
By defining a metric of “# of your reps at or above quota,” you send the message that “team health” is important to your company. And that will result in a higher quantity of sales coaching provided by managers to everybody on their sales teams.
Measure each manager’s win rate on the team’s forecasted sales opportunities
The best sales managers have a plan for coaching the biggest sales opportunities, not just at the end of the sales cycle but throughout the sales process. A metric that compares forecasted to closed deals indicates you expect your sales managers to coach the earlier phases of a buying cycle so they can help ensure that their salespeople have the complete set of selling skills needed to achieve breakthrough sales performance.
Measure the average number of months before a new salesperson achieves monthly quota for the first time.
New salespeople need hands-on coaching and teaching from their sales manager. A slow ramp-up period reveals one of two things: either the sales manager made a bad hiring decision or the sales manager provided lousy coaching to the new-hire.
Take a look at the last five new-hires that your company brought on. How many months did it take before each salesperson achieved his/her monthly quota? Establish a goal going forward, and communicate that goal to your sales managers.
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