Become a more effective sales manager
Outcomes
This one is for team leads and sales managers rather than individual sellers. The five core steps of the series are about your own selling. This is about the people you are responsible for, so it sits after the skill check. If you do not manage anyone yet, it keeps until you do.
Managing is a different job, not a promotion for selling well
Organizations tend to hand management to whoever sold the most, which quietly assumes the two jobs are the same. They are not. The best rep on the team is measured on their own numbers; a manager is measured on everyone else's.
George has held every rung from team lead to chief revenue officer, and he opens on the part most new managers get wrong: your job is developing the talent already on your team, every day, not out-selling them.
Thirteen tactics follow. Watch them, then work through each one below.
The thirteen tactics
Open each to see what it looks like in practice.
Define pipeline stages you can actually verify
Tactic 7 is the one most worth doing this quarter, because a pipeline built on confidence percentages tells you nothing. A rep can set 60% to keep you happy. Replace the percentage with something you can check.
| Stage | Not this | This |
|---|---|---|
| Qualified | "Feels like a fit" | Budget, authority and timeline confirmed by the buyer |
| Discovery done | "We had a good call" | A written problem statement the buyer has agreed with |
| Proposal | "Sent the deck" | Presentation delivered to the actual decision-maker |
| Committed | "90% sure" | Redlined contract returned, or a start date agreed |
Build these with your top contributors rather than for them, so they own the definitions.
Pick one rep and run a line-by-line: their top ten accounts, no spreadsheet. Ask what they are working on, why it matters, when they last spoke, and where they are stuck. Wherever they go blank is your coaching plan, not theirs. Then look at your own calendar, and move any admin that overlaps the hours your team is on the phone.
Knowledge Check
Four questions on coaching, pipeline definition, and measuring honestly.