“Industry is a better horse to ride than Genius”
Walter Lippman, Journalist

Successful selling earned you the opportunity to become a good sales manager. Continued selling will maximize that management opportunity and let you see if you can meet the other responsibilities of the position.

My training clinic on the importance of our new sales managers continuing to sell had covered all the necessary points. The nods and note taking suggested everyone in the room recognized the importance of this concept. My inner vanity of accomplishing a successful teaching job was stroked. It was just about time for the coffee break. Then, the dreaded question arises. Jane broke my somewhat smug reverie by asking, “At what point can we stop personal selling?”

I had to pause to control my temper. Once, I might have shouted what I really felt like saying, which was, “Where have you been for the last hour? Don’t you get it?” I had learned to smile and be patient, because, through my many years of experience I had come to understand that Jane – and many other new sales managers - truly didn’t “get it. ”She had been selling successfully for five years at that point and had been recently promoted. Throughout my presentation, she (and, as I have discovered over the years, many others) had been focusing on when she could “just manage and leave the selling to the sales people.”

I took a deep breathe, quietly sighed, and tried to make my point a different way. “Jane, at some point between managing a sales force of 50 and 100, you will be too busy to have the time for personal selling. You will have your own subordinate sales managers to fill that role. The problem is, most sales managers never get to the point where they’re managing 50 to 100 sales people, because they stop personal selling too soon.”

Winning sales managers know that continued selling both maintains a high income and sets a positive example for the team. It sends the message that selling is the job. Some sales managers talk about good selling; some sales managers sell. Which type do you think leads most effectively?

Selling sales managers lead by example. If Missouri is the “show-me state,” then the direct to the consumer sales industry is the “show-me business.” Leading by example sets the tone in any business, but reigns supreme in managing a sales person who starts every pay period unemployed until they get that first order, and can quit any time.

In my early days, a plaque on my desk said, “The speed of the boss is the speed of the team.” It reminded me … and let my team know — that what I did mattered more important than what I said. Actions shout louder than words.

Set the pace by your example. You get to the office first and leave last. You need not be your own best sales person, but you continue to sell personal orders until you have sufficient subordinate managers to fulfill this mission. You lead from the front.

My most successful selling years took place after I became a sales manager. I felt compelled to maintain a high sales level. Why? Perhaps I doubted my leadership abilities, but I sure could set a good example. Have your sales people accompany you on sales presentations. Sales people work alone; effective sales managers generally sell with an observer. Either your sales people watch you sell or you watch them sell. Selling sales managers, who work with their sales force on most of their own sales calls, secure success. Sales managers who sell infrequently and/or who do not sell with their sales force face enormous handicaps with both manpower growth and sales force retention.

Much has been said; much has been taught about the sales manager’s coaching role. Books and consultant emphasize the different skills required for managing a sales force compared to being a superstar sales person. The easiest transition from sales rep to manager is to keep selling, but do not sell alone.

The classroom cannot accurately simulate a live sales presentation. Virtual reality cannot replace one sales person observing another in the field delivering a real sales talk. Personal selling fulfills the coaching role of the astute selling manager. A follow-up discussion held after an actual shared selling situation beats asking at the sales meeting, “Then what did you do when the prospect said, “I want to think about it?”

Field training also means sales managers increase their personal selling time and their personal income. Good sales managers take care of their organization by demonstrating sales techniques in the field. Field training trumpets your time management philosophy. You perform two vital sales management functions simultaneously — selling and training. Field training also sends a powerful empathetic message. You care enough to take your sales partners on sales calls. Joint sales calls also send the clear message to your sales professionals that they are important. Your trainees think, “Gee, the boss left the comfort of his office to be with me, to help me learn how to close more orders.” Powerful stuff, that.

Field Training substantiates your belief in the product and your conviction in its salability. Any wannabe sales manager can TALK about selling methods, closing techniques, and market potential; the great sales managers SHOW by DOING.

Field training also establishes and reinforces your leadership bona fides. Sales people and junior sales managers respect a boss who sells, more than a boss who would rather talk about selling. Further, field training maintains the selling habit.

Occasionally, almost all sales managers will experience a sudden sales decline followed by a subsequent loss of personnel. That override or bonus income can dramatically shrink. Because selling sales managers have both personal sales income, and override income, they experience lesser decreases in personal income when others fail to deliver. Those who keep selling can easily increase their selling time when necessary. The sales manager who has not been selling finds it very difficult to “get back in the saddle.” Promising sales management careers have ended in heartbreak and financial distress because a sales manager, who used-to-be a top-flight sales person, cannot overcome the fear of rejection to go back into the field.

Field training by senior sales managers sets the example for subordinate sales managers. If top sales managers stop selling, subordinates decide that a sales management perk, is either no or a lot less personal selling. This both a terrible example and it takes top sales people out of the field. Your job as sales manager is driving sales. Give yourself a huge advantage. Set a strong selling example for your field sales force; the rest of your sales manager responsibilities will then more easily fall into place.

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