LocoSales

Jr. Sales Manager

Any tips for a newbie Sales Manager?

Hey all,

4 months ago, I joined a rather large organisation as a BDR and performed exceptionally well compared to my colleagues, and my supervisor was very fond of me.

Long story short, he kept talking about me with General Manager for our region all the time. In the end, the General Manager called me and offered to join the Sales Team as a Junior Sales Manager for the mid-market (handling companies with 100m - 2b. revenue by myself).

I took the offer on the spot as it was what I wanted to do down the road.

I believe it is a bit early for this jump, but at the end of the day, I rather shoot my shot and miss than not shoot at all.

Hence, my question for you sales savages what are your tips and tricks for a youngling like me to kill it as a Sales Manager?

In the next two weeks, I will transition into my new role and use the time to learn as much as possible about our product and how to structure the whole sales cycle....any recommendations are welcome :)

PS: I am in the Finance industry. We help companies to digitalise their financial planning and analysis processes with our SaaS solution - if that matters.

🎈 Mentorship

👑 Sales Strategy

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22 comments

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braintank

Politicker

4

Enterprise Account Executive

You went from BDR to first line sales manager in 4 months?

LocoSales

Politicker

0

Jr. Sales Manager

I was a BDR before at another company for a year and now generated 600k in pipeline in 4 months so that is why they promoted me.

braintank

Politicker

1

Enterprise Account Executive

Are you managing bdrs now or AEs? Rarely see someone skip the AE route and go straight to manager.

LocoSales

Politicker

1

Jr. Sales Manager

No, I do not. Our Head of BDR will do that. This post was not intended to flex but rather to understand what others did in similar situations to become great salesmen.

braintank

Politicker

2

Enterprise Account Executive

Not accusing you of flexing, I'm impressed! You clearly have talent and drive to be in the position you're in!

I asked because depending on the org and culture you may face "haters".

Some people on the team will doubt you, be jealous, or think you're unqualified. They may even try to get you fired or quit.

Speaking from experience, I ended up managing the team I was on and it was challenging.

Best advice is to find mentors who you can have candid discussions with, be humble, and don't doubt yourself. Remember that you're there for a reason and the company wants you to succeed!

LocoSales

Politicker

1

Jr. Sales Manager

Much appreciated, and sorry if my comment came off a bit aggressive. However, as you already indicated, the dynamic within the team changed drastically. My „colleagues“ see me now more as a threat than anything else and already did their best to „steal“ the opportunities I generated as a BDR. Will have to look into getting a mentor and figuring out a way not to become a target here. Really appreciate that you took the time, and your nice comment made my day!

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

2

Sales

There’s a ton of great info on this if you search the community. Good luck!

LocoSales

Politicker

1

Jr. Sales Manager

Thank you - much appreciated! Do you have any concrete topics in mind that would make sense to tackle first?

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

2

Bravado's Resident Asshole

@TennisandSales finance was your world. Let it rip on what you like/wanted to see

TennisandSales

Politicker

1

Head Of Sales

hey thanks for the call out!

@LocoSalesI was in a very similar position when I was IN financial services haha. I was promoted to sales manager and was the youngest sales manager EVER in our region. I say that not to brag but to set the scene for how early this was for me haha. I was FOR SURE promoted too soon. Here is what I would say to you:

1. your goal, should be to help your team hit THEIR goals. If the team can tell you are trying to get them to hit YOUR goals they will not trust your.

2. The best leaders I have worked for, I felt that they cared about my goals, and would do anything to help make my job easier. So I would suggest that you learn as much as you can about the process and then help your team overcome roadblocks (what ever that is in your industry)

3. One thing I struggled with and I think many young managers could struggle with is understanding how to manager different people. For instance, i had to make sure that all my reps were prepared for their appointments for the following week. So i made the mistake of doing 1 on 1 the same for every person. This was a terrible idea because not everyone thought like I did. so you really have to try to understand each rep on your team.

try to understand: how do they like to communicate, how do they like to receive feedback, how do they like to receive compliments. some people love everything to be in public others dont, some people love being direct, some people need you to be a little softer.

there is SO MUCH i could say but i think this is a good start haha. let me know what other questions you have. id be happy to go back and forth.

LocoSales

Politicker

1

Jr. Sales Manager

Great advice thank you so much! Will definitely get in touch once I spent some time here as a Sales Manager ;)

TennisandSales

Politicker

1

Head Of Sales

awesome! good luck. keep us posted on how it goes.

jefe

Arsonist

2

🍁

Lots of great tips here, I'll just add/reiterate - don't micromanage! Hold your team accountable but trust them, and don't get up all in their for the sake of it.

LocoSales

Politicker

1

Jr. Sales Manager

Thank you, I will try my best 👌

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

1

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

Always ask if there is a way to get things in faster. Just to make the team think about it. If things slip, try to understand if it’s the reps fault or just a customer issue. And for the love of god, don’t pester the reps about Salesforce/HubSpot. I’ve found a weekly checkpoint on that hood enough. Like a “hey everyone, I check the CRM on Wednesday nights, so just get everything in by 3:45 that day.” Gives everyone flexibility and it becomes easy to see who is actually doing what they are saying.

LocoSales

Politicker

0

Jr. Sales Manager

Thank you for your input that is already a good input!

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

1

Rolling 20's all day

Is your name Nelson Bighetti?

Vecna

Member

1

Director, Sales

Honestly look at content that the Gong sales leaders put out. As a rep I used gong materials religiously to help me become a better seller. They also have resources for sales leadership. Follow Gong can’t go wrong.

LocoSales

Politicker

0

Jr. Sales Manager

Thank you, will do ☺️

slsldr1986

Fire Starter

0

Regional Sales Manager

Don’t be a micro manager. Listen to your team. At first, they will tell you everything that is wrong and want you to fix it. Don’t let your team out every problem on your back. Listen for consistency and then attack that. Also- do a leadership philosophy of your do’s and don’t. What you expect from your team and what they can expect from you. Lastly, be the bulldozer for them to clear the path for them to do their jobs more efficiently

GreenSide

Politicker

0

Sales manager

Wait I’m confused. Do you work directly with prospects to close business (AE role) or do you manage a team of reps/AEs?

LocoSales

Politicker

0

Jr. Sales Manager

To be honest, I don‘t know what the difference between a Sales Manager and an AE is at the current company. My title is Junior Sales Manager, but I basically do what an AE does (close deals) without managing people (Head of BDM does that), but I have a BD who supports me now.

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