Dlinius

Enterprise Customer Account Exec

Executive

Opinionated

Fire Starter

Step into Management?

Hi everyone. Long time reader first poster (i think).

i'm looking at stepping into management and got offered two options.

Option 1 - keep some accounts and become team lead managing 1 resource

Option 2 - step up to RD and manage 3 resources.

Option 3 - stay an IC

I'd love any advice or insights or experience around the matter. How did the managers of you enter the Management path and what would your recommendation be?

🧢 Sales Management

🚀 Career Goals

🤝 Interviewing/Offer

17 comments

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poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

Do you want to be a manager? If so, why?

Answer that and then decide if you’re all in (2) or all out (3). Option 1 will not be satisfying.

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Perfect answer

Dlinius

Executive

Enterprise Customer Account Exec

It's currently something I'd like to try. I know i'll lose influence over my sales as they will be indirect, but I think I would be good with growing people and supporting them.

I also know MGMT has a lot of negative pieces that come with it, so right now I can only answer this question with - i want to be one because:
- i would like to try it
- I think i could be good at it
- it is in a way the next step up

Mobi85

Politicker

Regional Sales Manager

From consistently being on both sides of sales and sales management understand there are pros and cons to both.
Understand at the base most rudimentary level a manager is to help their team be able to make more money. Be happy and satisfied with your team making more money and there will be times that people will make more money than you will. Be happy for them about that and do not be bitter about that. That is what your job is.
Also understand that you will at times be babysitting people and as crappy as that sounds that comes with the role. You will hear the worst out of people and hear all their dirty laundry and need to keep a level head around it all. You play a very tough role in the fact that you want your teams back but you also need to make sure it does make sense for the business.
Management can be a tough and rewarding role if you are in it to not necessarily only make money but see your team succeed.
Good luck to you.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

I think I might be a great rodeo clown, but that’s not a good enough reason to jump ship.

You need to be passionate about being a people builder. Want to coach. Want to deal with the human element of sales like motivation, coaxing performance from shitbirds, firing people you really like but you can’t keep.

Management isn’t something you try because you think it’s interesting. You do it because it’s your calling. You can’t be upset by being removed from the day to day sales motion while you run 3-10 1:1s, manage dashboards, stack rank and place people on PIPs, etc.

Build a GOOD and strong business case for your move. Find a mentor in your network and pick their brain and ask them to be objectively honest with your strengths and weaknesses that’ll keep you from being successful. Oh, and be ready to take all the credit for failure and none of the credit for success. Can your ego handle that?

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Have you ever been a manager or will this be the first time?

Dlinius

Executive

Enterprise Customer Account Exec

Will be the first time. I've mentored people but they never reported to me

Mobi85

Politicker

Regional Sales Manager

since we can't see it anymore...I upvoted your post. Guess I will just start doing that now :)

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Do you want to manage people or manage deals? It’s hard to do both and give sufficient attention to both.

Also the matter of compensation is important. Stepping into mngt can affect your income positively or negatively.

Dlinius

Executive

Enterprise Customer Account Exec

It most likely would come with a paycut initially - higher base but less impact on the variable.

regarding your first question, i'm not sure. people management is something I want to try i think and the opportunity is here to do that in a company i know.

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

THIS is the best answer. being a manager means 2 things for me:

1. you manage ppl not deals2. you dont get credit, your reps do.
if your ok with both of those than your good

SalesArmyKnife

Good Citizen

Sales Manager

So advice is go all in if you’re given the opportunity, get the right mentoring in place as everything will be new (it’s so true that the focus is no more on the deals but on the people), and if things don’t work out / you hate it there will always be opportunities to go back to being an IC

Maximas

Tycoon

Senior Sales Executive

It depends on the top skills you're good at as each role requires its own skills I guess, hopefully you have em all.Try to go for what suits you the best the one with the lowest pressure and the highest payout!!!

Dlinius

Executive

Enterprise Customer Account Exec

probably want to check out Management as I think i could be good at it, but wondering if a hybrid role - MGMT & IC is too distracting and would make me average at both, vs. going all in on mgmt.

Maximas

Tycoon

Senior Sales Executive

So go all in on mgmt then👍

SalesArmyKnife

Good Citizen

Sales Manager

I had that experience and it was awful as no matter how much I put in it always felt that I wasn’t doing enough to generate pipeline / progress deals and I wasn’t doing enough either to be the best coach I could be for my team

SalesArmyKnife

Good Citizen

Sales Manager

Same as you MGMT wasn’t a calling it just felt like something very challenging I wanted to try. I very much like to be in control and am very competitive so having my performance fully depend on the performance of others was daunting.

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Dlinius

Step into Management?

17 comments

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