A good portion of salespeople wonder at some point during their tenure with a company as to whether or not they should trust their sales manager’s advice. I wanted to tackle this issue head-on this month as this is an important subject which impacts all salespeople.Generally speaking, you should trust your sales manager’s advice. However, this doesn’t mean you should stick your head in the sand when he or she gives you advice, either. It is always important to weigh their advice and mix in your own experience & knowledge before taking action. It is also a good idea to engage your sales manager with your own thoughts after you have been given his or her advice. After all, two heads are certainly better than one. Issues and problems which come up when working in a sales capacity can be complicated, so never be afraid to seek out your sales manager’s opinion before moving forward.
If you know for a fact that your sales manager’s advice cannot be trusted, I would think very seriously about continuing with your present employer. At the very least, you might want to consider making a lateral move within the company. Poor sales managers who give bad advice will ultimately not only impact your moral in a negative way, but will also impact your sales numbers and income at some point in the future, too.
While the majority of sales managers do a good job, there are still far too many sales managers who fall into the “poor” category. This can even sometimes happen at companies where the company is great but the sales manager seems to sabotage sales at every stage of the game because he or she is a poor manager in general. Whatever the case may be, it is always a bad idea to continue working for a manager who doesn’t know what it really takes to sell or is simply incompetent.
The bottom line is that you ultimately need to trust your sales manager to sustain long-term success. Don’t be afraid to seek out their advice when you need it. And if you can’t trust your sales manager, you need to move on to another company or make a position change within the same company.
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5 comments:
Good article, reminds me of the old advice "remember... you only ever work for yourself".
you should post a little more. I don't quite understand what you mean poor sales managers, you're very contradictory in your article. Always take advice from others good or bad its what helps mold you into a force. Its the it's what to do and what not to do. If you don't like your manager get over it, if they can't sell they wouldn't be in that position if somehow they got lucky, out produce by using resources around you and take his or her position.
In many ways I agree with your article. Way to often sales managers don't know what they are doing.
But, usually they are managers for a reason.
If you as a salesman don't listen to your manager, more often than not, it will hurt your sales in the future.
//Daniel M. Wood
Looking To Business
Trusting a sales manager means that you allow thier input into your decison making.
It stills goes back to " two sets of eyes" and the sales managers experienced eyes are usually a good source of help especially for the novice sales rep.
For the sales rep the utilization of outside advice is as necessary to thier closing average as a batting coaches advice is to Alex Rodriguez increasing his batting average.
The problem is that most sales managers still think they are "in the trenches". Just because someone is the top sales person doesn't necessarily mean they will be a top sales manager.
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Cheers
Mark
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