Finding Great Sales Managers

Helping you find the right Sales Manager

There are few decisions more critical to a company than the hiring of the leadership of their sales organization. However, many companies do not do this well. The conventional wisdom held by many would suggest promoting your top sales person to the role of sales manager. While this could lead to a successful hire, it quite often ends in failure.

The skills needed to perform the duties of a sales manager are drastically different from those needed to be successful in sales. Companies believe that if the top sales person could just show everyone else what they did to be successful, the organization would exceed all targets. In reality, this is seldom the case.

Success in Sales Does Not Necessarily Equal Success in Sales Management

Similar to our process for identifying top sales people, we run all potential sales management candidates through our Sales Temperament Assessment for Sales Managers. In addition to our structured interview process, the Sales Temperament Assessment helps identify the best management candidate for your company, industry and sales people. The assessment takes into account:

• Average years of experience amongst the sales team
• The amount of administrative work
• Location of sales people who would be reporting to the manager
• Management style of the position the sales manager would report to
• Whether or not they will handle accounts or not
• Morale of the current sales team

The results are compared against the candidates ideal work environment, career objectives and personality to arrive at an ideal match. When we assess an individual's temperament for selling and sales management, we also assess his or her suitability for the particular type of selling environment he or she is expected to work within. A person may be rated high as having the temperament to succeed in sales management but be rated low as being suited for the types of selling environment he or she is expected to work in. This indicates that there may be a mismatch between the person and the position. (You may be putting a square peg into a round hole). Our goal is to help you hire a great candidate who is best suited to your company's culture and selling environment.

At SalesForce Search we partner with companies to build great sales organizations. If you would like more information on our recruiting services or would like to speak with a SalesForce Search Consultant, please complete the form here or contact us at 1-800-461-7355.